MylesZhang.org +1 201-852-9795 Newark, NJ
As a native of Newark, New Jersey, Myles grew up in an urban environment with vacant lots, empty skyscrapers, hundreds of acres of surface parking, and the mixed legacy of urban renewal. In an environment shaped by race, politics, and the memory of the 1960s civil rights movement, Myles gravitated toward history as a lens through which to examine today’s spatially divided landscape.
His research examines the history of the New York metropolitan region, in addition to studies of how politics, race, and culture are imprinted on the urban form. Through writing, art, digital humanities, and community engagement, he aims to introduce new audiences to history. In some form or another, all of his work reflects the observation that: We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.
Myles’s PhD research examined 20th-century American urban history. His dissertation project now examines how capital eroded the social infrastructure of mid-size American cities. Institutional forces and new technologies, like the television and automobile, eroded the social infrastructure of neighborhood civic groups and corner grocery stories. Using the historical tools of archives, architecture, and cartography, this work questions if capitalism is compatible with social justice.
University of Michigan
PhD Candidate in Architecture and Urban History – 2021
Robert Fishman and Ana Morcillo Pallarés (co-chairs)
Matthew Lassiter (cognate) and Dan O’Flaherty (external, Columbia University)
Title: Plundering the City: How Capital Eroded an American Community’s Social Infrastructure
University of Cambridge
History MPhil in Architecture & Urban Studies – 2019-20
Thesis: Architecture of Redemption? Contradictions of Solitary Confinement, thesis ⇛
Columbia University
BA – 2015-19
History & Theory of Architecture major, offered at Department of Art History
Honors history thesis: In Search of the Just City: Newark’s Old Essex County Jail, thesis ⇛
University of Oxford
BA – 2017-18
Exchange student in the Department of History of Art
The Hudson School
Valedictorian – 2009-15
Languages: French, fluent non-native speaker
1. College Writing, English 125 – Undergraduate
Sole instructor of 18 students, fall 2025, syllabus ⇛
First year writing seminar, themed as Writing about the City in History
University of Michigan: Department of English / Sweetland Center for Writing
2. History of Architecture: Industry, Construction, Modernity, Domesticity – Undergraduate
Teaching assistant (TA) for Oksana Chabanyuk, winter 2025
3. History of the Urban Form – Master’s of Urban Planning students
Sole instructor of 30 students, fall 2024
University of Michigan: College of Architecture and Urban Planning,
4. Architectural History: Imperialism, Revolution, Colonialism, Nationalism – Undergraduate
Teaching assistant (TA) for Anna Mascorella, winter 2024, student evals ⇛
5. Theories and Methods: Introduction to Architectural Thinking – Undergraduate
TA for Ana Morcillo Pallarés and Joy Knoblauch, winter 2023, student evals ⇛
6. City as Thesis: Urban Research Methods – Master’s students in urban design
TA for John McMorrough, fall 2022, student evals ⇛
7. A People’s History of Architecture – Undergraduate
TA for Andrew Herscher, winter 2022, student evals ⇛
8. Medieval Modernisms – Master’s students
TA for Max Sternberg, winter 2020
University of Cambridge: Department of Architecture
9. Gothic Architecture – Master’s students in art history
TA for Stephen Murray, spring/summer 2017
Columbia University: Department of Art History and Archaeology
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Columbia University GSAPP
University of Michigan
Rutgers University
Hampton University
Morgan State University
University of Virginia
Publications about Urban History * peer reviewed
1. *Lost Newark Street View: A Visual Encyclopedia of Urban Renewal – 2022-25
Newark Changing is a first-of-its-kind visual encyclopedia of 2,400 photo comparisons of almost every street corner, home, and building demolished by urban renewal in redlined neighborhoods. Through an interactive and text-searchable historic map, thousands of old street photos of historic Newark homes are brought to life with contemporary 360-degree panoramic photos of the same street scenes today.
This is the most extensive collection of photo comparisons past and present ever assembled for any American city, website and interactive map ⇛
2. Time-Lapse Evolution Animation of Istanbul – 2025
Overlays historical cartographies from 330AD to present, to reveal Constantinople’s evolution into Istanbul during periods of Greek, Byzantine, Ottoman and now Turkish rule, map ⇛
3. *Jersey City: Urban Planning in Historical Perspective – 2023-24
Digital exhibit, interactive map, and public facing booklet for digital exhibit about the evolution of Jersey City’s urban form and city planning. Created with 2K funding from the archives branch of the Jersey City Free Public Library, publication and interactive historical map ⇛
4. *Ph.D. Student's Essay Explores the History of the Lorch Column – 2022
The monumental column at the entrance to the University of Michigan’s architecture school symbolizes architecture’s own fraught relationship with capital and historic preservation, essay ⇛
5. “The State is Responsible” A History of Racial Segregation in Detroit – 2021
Case study of school segregation in Royal Oak Township. This Black suburb just north of Detroit’s city limits reveals the strategies used to enforce racial segregation and class inequality, article ⇛
6. Historical Reconstruction of Ford Model T Assembly Line – 2021
Digital models and film show the entire Model T production process as it appeared when Ford’s moving assembly line was first documented in 1913, film ⇛
7. *The Detroit Evolution Animation – 2021
Old maps from over time were layered and animated to reveal the scale and speed of Detroit’s transformation from 19th century boom to 20th century decline, film ⇛
Worked with urban historian Robert Fishman on an exhibit and lecture series about the spatial history of racial segregation in Detroit. Funded by Mellon Foundation grant for the Egalitarian Metropolis.
8. The Berlin Evolution Animation – 2020
German language film overlays historic maps to reveal Berlin’s urban growth from 1415 to today, film ⇛
9. *St. Paul’s Cathedral Dome: A Synthesis of Engineering and Art – 2020
Construction sequence and essay analyzes how architect Christopher Wren synthesized engineering and art to create the cathedral. film and essay ⇛
10. *In Search of the Just City: Rethinking the Old Essex County Jail – 2018-19
Six-month exhibit with 22K funding documented Newark’s abandoned jail
Exhibit photos and curator interview ⇛
In response to the public pressure generated from this exhibit and its thousands of visitors, the New Jersey Institute of Technology requested a $6.5 million grant from the Essex County government to stabilize and reuse the site, ideally as a memorial park to those who suffered there.
11. *Newark Metamorphosis: A Pictorial History – 2016-17
Interactive map of photo comparisons of the urban form in 1916 vs. 2016. Photos taken at the same camera angles a century apart reveal the destruction and evolution of the urban form.
Exhibited by the Newark Public Library and accessible as interactive map and exhibit ⇛
1. *Envisioning Seneca Village: An Interactive 3D Visualization – 2024
Project with Gergely Baics, Meredith Linn, and Leah Meisterlin
Visualizes Seneca Village, a majority-black neighborhood of some 100 buildings demolished to create what is now Central Park. Using the methods of archives, archaeology, architectural reconstruction, and informed historical speculation, this project presents a street-level snapshot of a vanished 19th-century community, website and interactive model ⇛
As featured by:
2. Time-lapse Animation of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire – 2023
Animation reconstructs the exact conditions of the workplace, the locations of each fallen body, and the progress of the 1911 fire minute by minute. It is in an accurate-to-the-inch virtual reality model based on trial records and primary sources, film ⇛
3. *Pedestrian Observations – 2021-23
A project with architect and urbanist Stephen Fan to map public and private space in Manhattan Chinatown. Co-created with Stephen Fan at City as Living Lab for an exhibit and 16-foot public installation mural in Manhattan Chinatown’s Columbus Park
Funded with 8K grant from the University of Michigan’s Program in Public Scholarship
4. *Columbia Built an Artificial Moon in Low Library – 2022
Article in the Columbia College Today alumni magazine
Written in celebration of the 125th anniversary of the completion of the university’s Low Library
5. *Architecture of Endurance in Manhattan’s Chinatown – 2021
Walking tour with observations of Chinatown’s history and streetscape.
Created for the Jane’s Walks tour series, and hosted by the Municipal Art Society of NY.
Illustrated with original watercolors for City as Living Laboratory, walking tour ⇛
6. A Drop of Water – 2021
A brief history and analysis of Newark’s water supply system, based on the experience of walking along the aqueduct from forest origins to urban destination, essay ⇛
7. *New York Penn Station: Past and Present – 2020
Essay and analysis of old vs. new Penn Station as urban palimpsest, published in film and essay ⇛
8. *NYC Subway Ridership – 2018
GIS analysis of subway ridership patterns over time, created with info from the MTA, essay and film ⇛
As featured in Columbia College Alumni Magazine and Gothamist in 2019
9. *Here Grows New York – 2018-19
Advised by Gergely Baics and Kenneth Jackson
Here Grows New York animates the development of the city’s street grid and environment from 1609 to today using geo-referenced road network data, historic maps, and geological surveys. The short film presents a series of “cartographic snapshots” of the built-up environment at intervals of every 20 to 30 years in history. This process highlights the organic spurts of growth and movement that typify New York’s and most cities’ development through time. The result is an abstract image of urbanism.
Animation had five million YouTube views, earned recognition from the Library of Congress and Columbia Data Science Institute, and was used as teaching aid in urban studies courses at Harvard, Columbia, The New School, Indiana University, Washington University in St. Louis, and others.
Explore as an interactive map on ArcGIS ⇛
Search for any address at any year in urban history.
Published in:
1. *Setting Up Sex Offenders for Failure – 2024
How the intersection of law and city planning increases the recidivism of sex offenders. Analysis of how overly punitive restrictions on sex offenders increases, instead of decreases, public safety, legal brief ⇛
Published spring 2024 in Agora: The Urban Planning and Design Journal at the University of Michigan
2. *The Slave Trader Turned Banker: Slavery and the Origins of a Modern Bank – 2023
Selling slaves equipped Liverpool merchant Thomas Leyland with the money to create what is now the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank of China (HSBC). Based on primary sources and archival records of the slave trade. Written for a legal history seminar at University of Michigan Law School, essay ⇛
3. * “Where Evil Dwells”: The Old Essex County Jail – 2021
Article in the winter 2021 issue of The Newarker traces the history of the old Essex County Jail and what this carceral institution says about the larger history of the city, essay ⇛
4. *Architecture of Redemption? Contradictions of Solitary Confinement – 2019-20
Master’s thesis at University of Cambridge about Eastern State Penitentiary, abstract and video ⇛
Jeremy Bentham’s philosophy of Utilitarianism influenced the design and operations of Eastern State in the 1820s. This prison, in turn, informed Michel Foucault’s later ideas about the surveillance state. Beyond architectural analysis, the thesis incorporates nineteenth-century newspaper accounts and visitor descriptions to reveal what this prison design reflects about the historical moment of its creation.
5. *Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon – 2019
Digital reconstruction of Bentham’s famous (though unbuilt) proposal for an ideal prison. Accurate to the inch model is based Bentham’s original drawings and precise descriptions, animation and paper ⇛
1. *Beauvais Cathedral Construction Sequence – 2021-22
Time-lapse visualization with Stephen Murray illustrates the building process from 1225 to present. Visual analysis of the mechanisms behind the largest structural collapse of a medieval cathedral, film ⇛
As featured by the Association Beauvais Cathédrale, website ⇛
2. *Notre-Dame of Paris Construction Sequence – 2020-21
Time-lapse visualization created with Stephen Murray reconstructs the phases of cathedral construction from c.1160 to present. Film with several million views is featured in architectural history, studio courses, and media outlets like LeMonde’s video analysis, released in 2024 to coincide with the cathedral’s reopening, research project and film ⇛
Featured in:
3. *Amiens Cathedral – 2015-18
Supervised by Stephen Murray (2K grant from Work Exemption Program)
Amiens Cathedral is introduced each semester to Columbia undergraduates as representative of Gothic architecture, and as a lens through which to teach skills of visual analysis. This digital humanities project and history film instructs over 1,300 students per year. In the model, awkward walls, later additions, and anachronistic features are all removed in order to reveal how masons envisioned their ideal cathedral in the thirteenth century.
Construction sequence, animated glossary, and film ⇛
Published in:
4. *Burford Church Construction Sequence – 2018
Reconstruction of an English parish church’s construction from 1175 to 1475 , film ⇛
1. Center for Spatial Research at Columbia University, Department of History – 2018-19
Geocoded census records to map NYC’s demographic shifts from 1850 to 1920
Mapping Historical New York with Wright Kennedy, Mae Ngai, and Gergely Baics, website ⇛
2. Archival Assistant at Newark Public Library – 2017-19
Restored and digitized 600 historic maps spanning 250 years for library’s digital collections ⇛
$20,000 spent toward map digitization grant
3. Intern at International WELL Building Institute – 2016
4. Research Assistant at Columbia University: Dep’t of Art History & Archaeology – 2016-19
Construction sequence, animated glossary, and computer model created with Stephen Murray
4K grant from Columbia Work Exemption Program
5. Media Center for Art History – 2018
Worked at the Media Center for Art History on public humanities initiatives that used emerging technologies to introduce new audiences to art history, work sample ⇛
3K grant from Columbia Work Exemption Program
6. Intern at Studio for Urban Architecture & Design – 2016
Surveyed historic varnish factory in Newark for adaptive reuse, reflection ⇛
3K grant from Columbia Work Exemption Program
1. Graduate Student – 2021-present
University of Michigan: College of Architecture and Urban Planning
Full tuition (~250K over 6 years) + stipend (~180K over 5 years)
2. Sweetland Writing Fellow – 2025
Sweetland Center for Writing at the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Winter 2025 seminar on teaching methods and syllabus development
Covers tuition and stipend for one semester to teach English 125: Writing about City in History
3. Conference Travel Grant – 2024-2025
Presentation on Seneca Village: An Interactive 3D Visualization ⇛
$1,200 to present at Social Science History Association conference in 2024
$900 to present at Urban History Association conference in 2025
4. Professional Development Grant – 2024
$900 grant to support participation in the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) at the University of Victoria in British Columbia
Awarded by the Rackham Graduate School and Institute for the Humanities
5. Public Scholarship Grant Recipient – 2022-2023
$8,000 grant to research the intersection of public and private spaces in Manhattan Chinatown
Funded by Rackham Program in Public Scholarship at University of Michigan, press release ⇛
6. Graduate Representative on Faculty Board – 2019-20 (elected)
University of Cambridge: Department of Art History & Architecture
Relayed graduate student concerns to faculty
7. Dr. James C. Egbert Memorial Scholarship Fund – 2016-19
Named scholarships awarded to top 15% of undergraduates at Columbia University
8. Meyer Schapiro Book Prize for Excellence in Art History – 2019
Columbia University: Department of Art History & Archaeology
Awarded by Stephen Murray and Barry Bergdoll
9. Data Art Contest Winner – 2019
Data Science Institute at Columbia University
Best data visualization in computer science department for 2018-19 year
10. Oxbridge Scholarship – 2017-18
One of 15 students per year Columbia sends to Oxford or Cambridge University
Financial aid and $4,000 travel grant
11. High school valedictorian at the Hudson School – 2015
12. New Jersey Scholars Program – 2014
One of 39 selected from 300 applicants (declined due to a scheduling conflict with below)
13. Telluride Association Summer Program – 2014
One of 64 selected from 1,200 applicants worldwide
All-expenses-paid six-week humanities program at the University of Michigan
1. Plundering the City – 2025
Presentation about dissertation project, abstract ⇛
Full Title: Plundering the City: How Capital Eroded an American Community’s Social Infrastructure
2. Envisioning Seneca Village – 2023-26
Gergely Baics, Meredith Linn, Leah Meisterlin, Myles Zhang, project homepage ⇛
3. Introduction to Urban History – March 2024
At Barnard College
Half-hour talk in Gergely Baics’ urban studies and NYC history class
4. Homeownership and the Racial Wealth Gap – March 2024
At Newark Public Library
Two-hour presentation for the Newark History Society examined redlining in Newark, from its 1920s origins to its ongoing effects on the homes and health of Newark residents, recording ⇛
5. Housing and the American Dream in a Divided Detroit – March 2023 / 2024
At University of Michigan
Two-hour presentation on redlining to students in Anna Mascorella and Vince Carducci’s classes
6. Mapping Displacement in Historical Detroit: Black Bottom & Paradise Valley – March 2023
At University of Michigan
Hour-long presentation with Daniel Jin and Maya Sudarkasa for historian Rita Chin, recording ⇛
7. Our Planet Crisis: Organizing & Hacking for Survival – October 2022
At Rutgers University
Two-hour presentation on Newark water supply in Jack Tchen’s grad-level seminar
8. Jane Jacobs and the City – October 2022
At University of Michigan
Two-hour presentation on Jane Jacobs’ philosophy for John McMorrough’s class, City as Thesis
9. Ethics of Sustainable Development – April 2022
At Columbia University
75-minute presentation on the history of New York’s urban form in Adela Gondek’s seminar
10. Racializing Space – March 2022
At University of Michigan
Why does the American city remain so spatially and racially divided?
Three panelists Robert Fishman (history), Karyn Lacy (sociology), and LaDale Winling (history and planning) reflect on America’s divided urban landscape, recording ⇛
11. Suburban and Urban Forms in Detroit – March 2022
At University of Houston: College of Architecture and Design
Detroit vs. Houston vs. New York’s urban form in Deepa Ramaswamy’s class “Three Urbanisms,”
12. Historic Preservation and Cultural Assets – February 2022
At City of Newark: Office of Planning and Zoning
Invited panelist and technical advisor for Newark360 Master Plan, recording ⇛
13. Notre-Dame de Paris: Restoring a Gothic Masterpiece – May 2021
Los Angeles World Affairs Council and Town Hall
Presented with Stephen Murray, recording ⇛
14. Notre-Dame de Paris : Rebuilding a Legacy – April 2021
French Embassy in the US, Washington D.C.
Presented with Stephen Murray, recording ⇛
15. Old Essex County Jail – May 2019
Newark, New Jersey
Exhibition opening event and lecture series with Newark Landmarks and NJ Appleseed
1. Newark Landmarks & Historic Preservation Commission – 2023-present
Appointed by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka as one of nine city commissioners
Reviews and votes to approve or deny all construction and demolition applications
Affecting several thousand landmarked buildings across Newark’s six historic districts and some 75 landmarked buildings, parks, cemeteries, and statues citywide
2. Graduate Employees Organization – 2022-24
Organize and collaborate with graduate students on strike for a living wage, department steward
3. James Street Commons Historic District – 2009-present
Nominated neighborhood to list of 10 most endangered in the state, nomination ⇛
4. New Jersey Appleseed Public Interest Law Center – 2014-present
Website admin, design, and newsletter communications at pro bono law firm in Newark
5. Coordinator of Planning and Architecture Research Group – 2021-24
Organizes events and programs for PhD students in architecture and urban planning
$17,500 budget over four years
6. Advisory Board Member – 2021-2024 (appointed term)
Essex County Arts and History Advisory Board meeting
Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs
7. Digitization Committee at Branch Brook Park Alliance – 2020-23
Designed official digital map of Newark’s Branch Brook Park, interactive web map ⇛
Collaborated with park ambassadors to produce historical walking tours, videos, and photo documentation of park landscapes over a century of urban change
1. Seneca Village, Envisioned
Architectural League of New York, 12 June 2025
2. French newspaper uses Taubman College scholar’s work to reconstruct Notre Dame Cathedral fire
University of Michigan: College of Architecture + Urban Planning Magazine, 28 January 2025
3. A Collaborative Reenvisioning of Seneca Village
Columbia University: Barnard College Magazine, 11 November 2024
4. TV Documentary: “Mysteries of the Abandoned at Newark’s Old Essex County Jail”
Discovery Channel, summer 2024
Season 13, episode 6, “Jailhouse Rebellion”
Translated in some 20 languages and internationally broadcast, film ⇛
5. Jeremy Bentham was consumed by creating a perfect prison. Here’s the result
Aeon: A World of Ideas, 6 March 2023
6. A 3D Computer Animation of the Panopticon, Jeremy Bentham’s 18th Century Prison Design
Open Culture, 16 February 2023
7. Detroit’s Path to Inclusive Recovery: a fairer future requires untangling legacies of segregation
Portico: Taubman College Magazine, 9 November 2022
8. New Jersey Young Preservationists Awards
Preservation New Jersey, 19 January 2022
9. Myles Zhang Found His Calling in Architectural History
Columbia University Alumni Magazine, 19 November 2021
10. After Warren Street School Demolished, James Street Named ‘Most Endangered’
Jersey Digs, 19 May 2021
11. Old Jail Could Inspire Youth to Stay Out of Prison — but Only If It Survives
Jersey Digs, 24 July 2020
12. Profile Article of Myles Zhang
Jerseyology, 2 October 2019
13. “You can't recreate history”: the preservation of the old Essex County Jail with Myles Zhang
Pod & Market, 13 September 2019
14. Architectural models: engaging with space
Central Auction News, 23 August 2019
Ratrock Magazine, 5 March 2019
16. When a Student Blogger Enters the World
The Edublogger, 18 August 2018
17. Architect and Artist Myles Zhang Imagines the Buildings Around him in Watercolor
Study Breaks, 5 April 2017
18. Sketching the Streets: Columbia’s Own Flâneur
The Columbia Daily Spectator, 20 September 2016
19. Myles Zhang Puts Columbia University in a Box
Bwog, 10 April 2016
_. Homesteads to Homelots – 2020
The history of New Jersey suburbs as told through five data visualizations. Analysis of US census data reveals the historical origins and trends of NJ’s suburban sprawl, analysis ⇛
_. California Waterscape – 2019
Geo-referenced aqueduct routes, land use maps, and statistics reveal the evolution of California’s water supply system from 1913 to today, film ⇛
_. Eiffel Tower Construction Sequence – 2018
Illustrates the tower’s construction from 1887 to 1889, film ⇛
_. *NYC Water Supply History – 2020
Spatial history of NYC water supply and engineering from 1609 to present, film ⇛
_. *Architecture of Exclusion in Manhattan Chinatown – 2019
Essay on how Manhattan Chinatown’s geography reflects the historic exclusion of the Chinese, essay ⇛
9. Manufacturing the Picturesque at Central Park – 2019
Essay analyzes ways city planning produced a contrived image of natural beauty, essay ⇛
_. A History of Historic Preservation in New York City – 2018
Data analysis of NYC landmarks since 1965 reveals trends and biases in the landmarks preservation movement. Developed with Kenneth Jackson, essay ⇛
_. *A Medieval Mask on a Modern Prison: Eastern State Penitentiary – 2020
Analyzes the fortress-like and medieval appearance of Eastern State Penitentiary in 19th-century Philadelphia. More than a purely random choice, the aesthetic qualities of Gothic reflect the beliefs and prejudices of the people who managed this prison of solitary confinement, essay ⇛
_. *Senior Thesis on Gothic Architecture – 2018-19
Supervised by Stephen Murray in the art history department, thesis and presentation ⇛
The story surrounding the twelfth-century construction of Saint-Denis near Paris reveals a tendency to tell history – particularly architectural history – in terms of individual structures when, in fact, the origins of the Gothic style are more complex. Abandoning a Paris and Saint-Denis centric origins story reveals the range of local sources from which medieval masons drew inspiration.