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Strolling in New York City is a world tour. The street fairs of Spanish Harlem mesh into college town Columbia. Columbia gives way to the shabby chic of Harlem. A few blocks farther and I am drowned by the tourists of Times Square. Further still and I reach the bustle of Wall Street brokers. I stroll and try to identify the passing languages. Spanish in the outer boroughs. Polish in Greenpoint. Russian in Brighton Beach. Cantonese in Chinatown. French and German shoppers in SoHo. There could be no more fitting a place for the United Nations.
Reading Here is New York by E.B. White, I realize some aspects of New York have changed little in the past seventy years. The streets, cars, and tenements are different, but the essential spirit of dynamic and diverse urbanism remains. Here is New York.
Learn more about my New York walks in this mini lecture. Or browse the collections below of photos and drawings. They are organized into ten urban walks, with each day in a different Manhattan neighborhood.
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Day One: Chinatown and Lower Manhattan
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City Hall Park and the Financial District
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The image above is one of a series of six, each measuring 26 by 40 inches. Each drawing is of a single neighborhood in New York City, based on Google Earth satellite imagery. The drawing took between 60 and 100 hours of work.
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This ink and watercolor drawing of NYC Chinatown expresses my lifelong connection with this neighborhood. The Chinese moved here by necessity in the nineteenth century and were condemned by poverty to these narrow alleys and cramped rooms. Over time, they made the space their own through interventions in the cityscape. The large corporate skyscrapers and government offices in the distance tower over the immigrant tenement blocks.
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Henry and Market Street
Overfilled trash can
Mulberry Street
Mulberry Street fortune teller (center)
Mosco Alley and Mulberry Street
Bayard and Mulberry Street grocery
Flâneur picks his teeth in window reflection
Forsyth and Delancey street grocery
Laundromat
Delancy Street tenements
Catcaller on Broome Street
Broome Street Buddhist temple
Doyers Street – Barbershop Row
Storefronts near Eldridge Street Synagogue
Eldridge Street Synagogue
View from Columbus Park
Edward Mooney House (top) and Church of the Transfiguration (bottom)
Bowery Savings Bank
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Day Two: SoHo
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Mercer Street in SoHo
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Water tower on Lafayette Street
Houston Street
Bodega ads on Houston Street
Water Tower
Canal Street back alley
Street performers
Cast iron building on Broadway
Broadway and Broome Streets
Rooftop garden view
Subway entrance
Prince and Mott Street
View up Lafayette Street
The Puck Building
Taxis on Houston Street
View towards Manhattan Bridge
Locked Alley
Man nnconsciously modeling
View toward Bowery Street
Glass sidewalk in SoHo
Broadway and Broome Street
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Myles working on a watercolor
Myles adding his signature
Finished watercolor of Broadway in SoHo
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Lower Broadway
Greene and Prince Street
Greene and Prince Street
Crosby and Broome Street
Mulberry and Jersey Street
Mulberry Street German School
Prince and Mulberry Street
Panorama of SoHo and Houston Street
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Day Three: The East and West Village
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By the Bowery
Fantasy parties sells erotic paraphernalia.
The Modern Family
Washington Square Park Arch
Justin the Statue says: “I get used to this. I do this to supplement my income for most of the year.”
Man watches people as the sun sets
New York’s first public library is in foreground.
Wise man
Jefferson Market
Wayne the Bird Dude says: “I’ve been spotting birds in this park for over twenty years. You should look my name up on Instagram.”
Colonnade Row on Lafayette Street
Love and luck
Street performer
Snoozing woman
First Avenue sunset
First Avenue streetscape
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Day Four: The High Line
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9th Avenue and West 14th Street
Washington and Little West 12th Street
9th Avenue and West 14th Street
High Line and Gansevoort Street
Latino family traverses West 14th Street.
High Line and 19th Street
Homeless man naps as tourists pass.
Performance “Art”
New and Old New York
High Line and 25th Street
Tagging?
High Line and 24th Street
Pedestrian passes gentrification in action.
High Line and 26th Street
Gentrification at West 28th Street
Rooftop grafitti
The High Line at 17th Street
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Day Five: Madison Square
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View toward Midtown from 23rd Stree
Grace Church steeple
23rd Street
Flatiron Building
23rd Street and 5th Avenue
Domino Sugar Factory (view from Williamsburg Bridge)
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Day Six: Midtown
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Preaching Armageddon in the capital of consumerism: Times Square
The Polish Embassy
Grand Central Terminal
Jihadist proclaims that: “America will soon be destroyed by fire!”
View of Empire State from Greeley Square
Chrysler Building
Queensboro Bridge
Chrysler Building
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Jurgen from Germany
A musician named Jurgen approaches and observes my painting of Grand Central Terminal.
Jurgen: You are an artist.
Me: No, that is a title I have yet to earn. Are you from Germany? You sound like the director Werner Herzog.
Jurgen: Herzog? Him? His films put me to sleep. [Jurgen shows me his noteboook.] If I lived in Nazi Germany, the Nazis would burn my work, maybe even me. My grandfather, he used to go to rallies to give the Nazi salute. I still don’t know why he did that. I don’t think he even knew.
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A Latin American man driving a pickup truck rolls down his window and asks:
Him: How far is the Statue of Liberty from here?
Me: Oh… About seven miles.
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Convert proclaims: “America will soon be destroyed by fire!”
Elderly African-American man approaches and extracts a crumpled and blurry image of a dollar sign from his bag.
Him: Hey, can you draw me some money bags.
Me: Sure.
Him: You know, it’s for my product. I’ll pay you well. What’s your name?
Me: Myles Zhang
Him: You Chinese? You parents from China?
Me: No, America.
Him: No, China…!
He walks off.
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Convert preaches the impending doom of America on Sixth Avenue and 34th Streets:
“The US government, they invented this virus that will kill off all the Black people.”
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Day Seven: Central Park
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Bethesda Fountain
The Lake in Central Park
Lovers Lane
Two lovers. One rock.
The Lake in Central Park
Lovers Lane
Lovers Lane
Wollman Rink toward Midtown
Wollman Rink toward Midtown
Heckscher Playground toward 59th Street
The Ramble
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Lake in Central Park
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Day Eight: Riverside Drive
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Riverside Church
Riverside Church
125th Street Viaduct
72nd Street Viaduct
Grant Memorial
George Washington Bridge from Riverside State Park
George Washington Bridge from Riverside State Park
69th Street Transfer Bridge
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Day Nine: Morningside Heights
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Apse of Saint John the Divine
Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University
Nave of Saint John the Divine
Ambulatory of the Nave
Choir of Saint John the Divine
Crossing of Saint John the Divine
Van Am Quad at Columbia University
Low Library at Columbia University
Low Library at Columbia University
Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
Saint Paul’s Church at Columbia University
Saint Paul’s Church at Columbia University
Philosophy Hall at Columbia University
Van Am Quad at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University
Fayerweather Hall (History Dep’t)
College Walk
College Walk and Broadway
Van Am Quad
Low Library
Faculty House
Cathedrals of Industry: Saint John the Divine and the 125th Street Viaduct
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Day Ten: Harlem and Washington Heights
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125th Street Viaduct in Harlem
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This composition visualizes movement through circling spirals that align to the Golden Rectangle.
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Dyckman Street strip mall
Sherman Street apartments
Boudega sells ice cream, cigarettes, and chewing gum at 190th Street and Broadway.
Couple on 159th Street
Entrance to George Washington Bridge
Theater repurposed as United Palace Church at 175th Street
Aidan (left) plays with friends on 159th Street
Play Street at 159th Street
Townhomes on 159th Street
Squatter’s entrance to vacant brownstone at 159th Street
Jeo (in blue) plays checkers on a garbage can at 159th Street
Strip Mall at 192nd Street
Play Street at 159th Street
Aubudon Terrace at 156th Street
The pants in center are by Josefina and cost $198.
C-Town Grocery at150th Street
Sign reads: “Please put trash in can and do not leave out.”
125th Streeet subway viaduct
Newspaper clipping at lower right celebrates Obama’s inauguration
A curbside shrine to murder victims at 152nd Street and Broadway. A $2,000 reward is promised for tips leading to perpetrator’s arrest.
Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University
The Cloisters
The Cloisters
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“The island of Manhattan is without any doubt the greatest human concentrate on earth, the poem whose magic is comprehensible to millions of permanent residents but whose full meaning will always remain elusive.”
– E.B. White, Here is New York
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