The Archives

This archive provides links to over 250 photo essays created as part of an ongoing series exploring New York City's waterfront, abandoned edges and post-industrial neighborhoods. This series began in 2007 on this website, with a new photo essay published every two weeks, and continued from 2012 to 2020 at the website Curbed, as the Camera Obscura Column.  

Photo essays from this website are highlighted in Blue, while photo essays from my Curbed column Camera Obscura are highlighted in Green.  Newer photo essays from WNYC/Gothamist are included in White at the top of the list. Photo essays from this website can also be viewed by borough, year and subject in the right hand side bar. 

Complete List of Photo Essays
Storied Gowanus squatter haven the Batcave reborn as community arts facility (May 2023)
Redesigned Starlight Park in Bronx is ‘a win for nature and a win for people’ (May 2023)
‘A layer cake of environmental pollution’: Greenpoint struggles with rezoning 18 years on (April 2023)
Major environmental groups oppose $52B plan to build storm surge gates in NY-NJ waterways (February 2023)
Giant offshore wind turbines take shape as NJ turns on major manufacturing plant (January 2023)
EPA delays cleanup of Brooklyn’s toxic Newtown Creek Superfund site until 2032 (December 2022)
Coastal barriers finally begin to rise around NYC — but can they stop the next Hurricane Sandy? (October 2022)
Now and then: A photographic look at how Hurricane Sandy transformed New York City (October 2022)
12 storm surge gates: Army Corps proposes $52 billion barriers for New York-New Jersey waterways (September 2022)
Giant wind turbine ports prepare to transform NYC's coastal woodlands (June 2022)
Meeker Avenue Plume becomes NYC’s fourth Superfund site (March 2022)
Climate resiliency and equity: What NYC is planning for the next decade of its waterfront (February 2022)
NYC Says Goodbye To East River Park (December 2021)
Grading De Blasio: How He Weathered Being The Climate Disaster Mayor (December 2021)
NY Begins Construction On $107 Million ‘Living’ Barriers To Fight The City’s Rising Seas (November 2021)
This Brooklyn Chemical Spill Is Constantly Spewing Fumes. The EPA Wants It To Be A Superfund Site. (November 2021)
Parks Department, Conservationists Release 30-Year Plan To Protect NYC Wetlands (May 2021)
23 Years After Being Proposed, Greenpoint Nature Walk Is Finished (May 2021)
Here’s How NYC Transit System Is Prepping For Sea Level Rise—And Why It May Not Be Enough (April 2021)
NYC’s Giant Water Tunnel Begins Work On Final Shafts, Following 50 Years Of Construction (April 2021)
10,000-Year-Old Legacy Of Biodiversity Endangered By Queens Development Project (April 2021)
Long-Overdue Dredging Of Gowanus Canal Turns Up 'Black Mayonnaise,' Sunken Cars, Evil Stench (December 2020)
Where I find outdoor calm and solitude in New York City (April 2020)
NYC has a plan to clean its sewage-filled waterways. Does it go far enough? (February 2020)
A decade of destruction in New York City (December 2019)
Exploring Staten Island’s hidden North Shore Branch, eyed for a new bus line (November 2019)
Brooklyn gained a Wegmans, but lost the 19th-century mansions of Admiral’s Row (October 2019)
NYC will remake the East River waterfront to fight climate change. It may not be enough (October 2019)
The Brooklyn Navy Yard gets ready for its close-up (September 2019)
Encroaching development threatens a crucial Staten Island wetlands (September 2019)
In Greenpoint, new waterfront parks will transform the Newtown Creek (August 2019)
Exploring Shirley Chisholm State Park, NYC’s nicest park built on a toxic dump (July 2019)
As Red Hook’s industrial history is demolished, what comes next for the neighborhood? (June 2019)
Surveying the ‘existential threat’ posed by New York’s massive storm surge barrier (June 2019)
‘Don’t ever leave’: A native New Yorker reflects on four decades in NYC (May 2019)
On Staten Island, a massive barrier will rise to protect against climate change (April 2019)
Brooklyn’s most endangered buildings (March 2019)
One of NYC’s underground rivers may soon be brought back to life (December 2018)
A walk around Anable Basin, Amazon’s future home in Queens (November 2018)
As Industry City gears up for rezoning, locals question who will benefit (November 2018)
Exploring the wilds of the Bronx’s Hutchinson River (October 2018)
A remote corner of Staten Island braces for major changes (October 2018)
Would an enormous storm surge barrier save NYC’s coast—or destroy it? (September 2018)
Exploring Governors Island’s evolving landscape (September 2018)
Exploring Inwood’s wild shoreline, now threatened by rezoning (August 2018)
As NYC gains new waterfront parks, its industrial past is erased (August 2018)
At Storm King, artists contemplate the threat of climate change
(June 2018)
Saying goodbye to the old Essex Street Market (June 2018)
Can the Gowanus Canal’s industrial past be saved? (May 2018)
In Staten Island, a remote wilderness is threatened by encroaching development (May 2018)
Exploring Brooklyn’s last remaining dry docks (May 2018)
Exploring the last vestiges of Greenpoint’s post-industrial waterfront (April 2018)
What happens to Jerome Avenue after its rezoning? (March 2018)
As Columbia University moves into Manhattanville, its industrial past is erased (March 2018)
The life and death of Willets Point (February 2018)
A survey of Canal Street’s changing landscape (February 2018)
Visiting 10 historic NYC buildings slated for demolition (January 2018)
Exploring Staten Island’s Brookfield Park, a toxic dump turned wetlands habitat (December 2017)
In Staten Island, hiking the wild path of Richmond Creek (December 2017)
What will it take to bring Spring Creek back to life? (November 2017)
Hurricane Sandy five years later: Brooklyn’s Sea Gate is stuck in a middle ground (October 2017)
Hurricane Sandy five years later: Rebuilding in Breezy Point (October 2017)
Hurricane Sandy five years later: A Staten Island neighborhood transformed by ‘managed retreat’ (October 2017)
Five years after Hurricane Sandy, NYC's coastal communities remain vulnerable (October 2017)
In Queens, chronic flooding and sea-level rise go hand in hand (October 2017)
Visiting New York City's last horse stables (September 2017)
Frederick Wiseman’s ‘Ex Libris’ is a vivid portrait of NYC’s libraries (September 2017)
Searching for New York City’s lost soul (August 2017)
Kayaking through Staten Island’s former Fresh Kills landfill (June 2017)
In Queens and Staten Island, two competing visions for New York's waterfront (June 2017)
Imagining a New York City ravaged by climate change (May 2017)
On Staten Island, community activists push for a High Line-style park (May 2017)
A long-neglected Queens neighborhood grapples with the effects of climate change in NYC (April 2017)
Bush Terminal tenants decry possible displacement under Made In NY (March 2017)
In Gowanus, one last vestige of Brooklyn’s industrial waterfront (March 2017)
Surveying the EPA’s role in a changing New York City (February 2017)
Surveying the NYC toxic sites owned by the Trump family (February 2017)
Climate change in Trump’s NYC: How at-risk neighborhoods are combating rising sea levels (January 2017)
Daylighting the Saw Mill River (December 2016)
On Staten Island, a centuries-old waterway helps shape new wetlands (December 2016)
In the Bronx, finding nature along a hidden, polluted waterway (November 2016)
Four years after Sandy, Staten Island's shoreline is transformed (October 2016)
Infinite upon infinite: New York City in maps (October 2016)
A small Queens community confronts climate change along Hawtree Creek (September 2016)
Inside the fight to save Gabler's Creek, a hidden Queens waterway (September 2016)
The last days of Admiral's Row's stately, neglected mansions (September 2016)
Development threatens the future of a Far Rockaway waterway (August 2016)
Visiting 20 of New York City’s Hidden Beaches (July 2016)
Exploring Staten Island's Changing Mill Creek (June 2016)
In a Queens Park, Reclaiming an Urban Wetland (June 2016)
Canoeing Along the Restored Bronx River (May 2016)
Revamped Brooklyn Navy Yard Begins Its Slow Unfurling (May 2016)
Can Auction Transform a Storm-Damaged Corner of Staten Island? (April 2016)
Port Morris Waterfront Emerges From Years of Neglect (April 2016)
How Criminals Use the Urban Landscape (March 2016)
Forecasting the Future on NYC's Climate Change Frontlines (March 2016)
Developers Compete to Shape the Future of Brooklyn's Sunset Park (February 2016)
What's Next for This Abandoned South Bronx Rail Line? (February 2016)
Red Hook's Long, Inevitable Gentrification Divides Community (January 2016)
A Dispatch From the Last Wild Days of Hunter's Point South (December 2015)
In Long Island City, a Community Seeks to Reclaim an Urban Wilderness (December 2015)
After Sale, What Comes Next for the Bronx General Post Office? (November 2015)
Notable Filmmaker Turns His Lens on Life in Jackson Heights (November 2015)
Three Years After Sandy, Returning Staten Island to Nature (October 2015)
The Fascinating, Murky History of Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal (October 2015)
Inside the Casitas of the South Bronx's Community Gardens (October 2015)
The Slow Resurgence of the Rockaway Bungalow (September 2015)
Is This The End of the Brooklyn Bungalow? (August 2015)
Rockaway Boardwalk Re-emerges With a New Identity (August 2015)
What Comes Next for the Changing Coney Island Boardwalk? (July 2015)
As High Bridge Reopens, a Neglected Park Remains in Its Shadow (June 2015)
Revisiting Brooklyn's Abandoned Admiral's Row Before It's Gone (June 2015)
What's Next for New York City's Many Abandoned Landmarks? (May 2015)
In the Bronx, Art Fills an Abandoned Neighborhood Landmark (April 2015)
In the Footsteps of NYC's Best Chronicler, Joseph Mitchell (May 2015)
Bringing Community, and Nature, Back to the Banks of Newtown Creek (April 2015)
After a Fire, Campaigning for a Long-Awaited Greenpoint Park (April 2015)
Exploring One of the East River's Disappearing Untamed Spaces (March 2015)
Finally, A Park Grows in Brooklyn's Last Industrial Pocket (March 2015)
Inside Sunnyside Yards, New York City's Next Megaproject (February 2015)
What Can NYC Learn from San Francisco's Last Wild Creeks? (February 2015)
Tracing Post-Storm Recovery in New York and New Orleans (January 2015)
Little-Known Lemon Creek Winds Through Staten Island History (December 2014)
Following Hook Creek Through Ghost Towns and Wetlands (December 2014)
Coney Island's Untamed Creek, Caught Between Past & Future (November 2014)
Residents Retreat From Staten Island's Hard-Hit Waterfront (October 2014)
Two Years On, Coney Island Enclave Still Awaits Recovery (October 2014)
Breezy Point Residents Choose to Remain and Rebuild (October 2014)
Queens Forgotten River Looks Ahead to Cleanup and Change (October 2014)
New York's Once-Neglected Harlem River Experiences a Rebirth (September 2014)
Exploring an Abandoned Long Island City Chemical Complex (September 2014)
A Survey of the Bowery's Changing Landscape in 20 Photos (August 2014)
Recovering City Island Looks to Artists and Developers (August 2014)
Fort Tilden Beach Reopens to a Changing Neighborhood (July 2014)
A 24-Hour Stay on the Rapidly Changing Governors Island (July 2014)
Ridgewood's Radioactive Superfund Site Worries Neighbors (July 2014)
Inside a To-Be-Converted Long Island City Warehouse (June 2014)
Change Comes Once Again for Coney Island's Thunderbolt (June 2014)
Artist Kara Walker Says Farewell to the Domino Sugar Refinery (May 2014)
In Photos, Christopher Payne Uncovers Disappearing Places (May 2014)
Visiting the Gowanus Canal's Under-Transformation 'Wild West' (April 2014)
Staten Island's Farm Colony Faces Development After Decay (April 2014)
Exploring The Bronx Waterfront As Redevelopment Looms (March 2014)
Watching Condos Rise as Williamsburg's Desertification Ends (March 2014)
As Neighborhood Transforms, No Room for Red Hook Trolleys (February 2014)
Touring Williamsburg's Old Pfizer Building, Mid-Makeover (February 2014)
Once-Neglected Pier 57 Prepares for Its SuperPier Moment (January 2014)
Sunset Park Industrial Stronghold Spurs Neighborhood Change (December 2013)
Abandoned Rockaway Rail Line Waits for High Line Moment (December 2013)
Rockaway's Forgotten Arverne East Awaits New Development (November 2013)
Coney Island's Residents, Forgotten, Struggle to Recover (October 2013)
Abandoned Buildings, Red Tape Mark a Year on Staten Island (October 2013)
Tracing A Post-Storm Year of Change in the Rockaways (October 2013)
Change is Bittersweet for Lower East Side's SPURA Locals (October 2013)
Hudson Yards Tenants Await the Area's Redevelopment (September 2013)
Chronicling The South Street Seaport's Post-Sandy Decline (September 2013)
Staten Island Awaits Giant Ferris Wheel, Transformation (August 2013)
Saying Farewell to Long Island City Graffiti Mecca 5 Pointz (August 2013)
Long Island City's Court Square Changes as Towers Rise (July 2013)
Northwest Greenpoint's Quiet Waterfront Awaits New Towers (July 2013)
Willets Point Business Owners Await City's $3B Redevelopment (June 2013)
Astoria Waterfront Braces for Influx of Luxury Apartments (June 2013)
Coney Island's Boardwalks and Beaches Prep for Memorial Day (May 2013)
Demolition and Recovery in the Post-Sandy Rockaways (May 2013)
Tracing The Scars of Hurricane Sandy on Staten Island (April 2013)
Manhattan Pay Phones Now Doubling as Time Machines to 1993 (April 2013)
The Edges of Barcelona (March 2013)
Exploring an Active Amtrak Tunnel Under the Upper West Side (March 2013)
Looking At Brooklyn's Gentrification Through Two New Films (March 2013)
How the Newtown Creek Area is Faring After the Storm (February 2013)
How Dumbo's Arts Spaces Have Recovered From the Storm (February 2013)
The Andrew Freedman Home (January 2013)
Wondering What Hurricane Sandy Means for Red Hook's Future (January 2013)
After The Storm (December 2012)
Exploring the Still-Developing 85-Acre Brooklyn Bridge Park (December 2012)
Exploring Roosevelt Island's New Four Freedoms Park (December 2012)
A Look at the Post-Sandy Cleanup in the Rockaways (November 2012)
Surveying Sandy's Damage to Staten Island One Week Later (November 2012)
Surveying Queens' Rockaway Peninsula After the Storm (Novermber 2012)
Surveying Sandy's Damage in Red Hook, Dumbo, and Gowanus (October 2012)
Exploring the Second Stage of Queens' Gantry Plaza State Park (October 2012)
Exploring Elmhurst Park, Six Acres And a $2.3 Million Bathroom (October 2012)
Exploring the Under-the-Radar Pier 44 Waterfront Garden (September 2012)
Exploring the Upper West Side's Riverside Park South (September 2012)
Exploring Red Hook's Ikea-Owned Erie Basin Park (August 2012)
Exploring the Nature Walk at the Polluted Newtown Creek (August 2012)
Camping at Floyd Bennett Field (July 2012)
Exploring the Bronx's Post-Industrial Concrete Plant Park (July 2012)
Exploring Barretto Point Park, Home of the Floating Pool Lady (July 2012)
Exploring Manhattanville's West Harlem Piers Park (June 2012)
Exploring the Harlem River's Little-Known Swindler Cove Park (June 2012)
Exploring Queens Plaza's New Dutch Kills Green Park (May 2012)
Jose Gaytan: Love Letter to Brooklyn (March 2012)
The Newtown Creek Armada Update (February 2012)
Chemical Lane, Staten Island (January 2012)
Samuel R. Smith Infirmary (January 2012)
Bloomfield, Staten Island (December 2011)
Gowanus Canal: Toxic Playground (October 2011)
Governors Island: Manhattan's Ghost Town (September 2011)
The Demolition of Manhattanville (August 2011)
Richmond Parkway Interchange (August 2011)
Sleeping in the Sommerville Basin (July 2011)
Drawbridge, California (July 2011)
Urban Camping in Staten Island (June 2011)
Pouch Camp (April 2011)
New York City Farm Colony (April 2011)
New Dorp Bungalows (February 2011)
Newtown Creek: Brooklyn Shores (February 2011)
Coney Island: Abandoned Playland (January 2011)
Sunset Park: 68th Police Precinct (January 2011)
The Bloomberg Era: Part Two (December 2010)
Hammels Wye (December 2010)
The Greenpoint Terminal Market Revisited (November 2010)
The Edgemere Landfill (November 2010)
Greenpoint Hospital: Nurses Residence (October 2010)
The North Edgemere Shore (October 2010)
The South Edgemere Wasteland (September 2010)
The Desertification of Williamsburg (September 2010)
Sunset Park: S&S Machinery (August 2010)
The San Francisco Police Athletic Club (July 2010)
Brooklyn Navy Yard: The Paymaster Building (July 2010)
Life in the Navy Yard (June 2010)
This Building Has A Story (May 2010)
Exploring Grand Central (April 2010)
Brighton Beach Bungalows (March 2010)
Gowanus: The Batcave Revisited (February 2010)
Gowanus: The Whole Foods Lot (February 2010)
The Bloomberg Era, Part One (December 2009)
Sunset Park: Empire Electric (December 2009)
South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (November 2009)
Fresh Kills (November 2009)
Kingsbridge: Substation No. 3 (October 2009)
Secret Parties (September 2009)
The Bronx Swamp (August 2009)
The Hole (August 2009)
Gowanus: Hamilton Avenue Marine Transfer Station (July 2009)
The Harlem River (July 2009)
Inwood: Substation No. 10 (June 2009)
Far Rockaway: Abandoned Bungalows (June 2009)
Williamsburgh Savings Bank - Part Two (May 2009)
Machpelah Cemetery: Houdini's Grave (April 2009)
Williamsburgh Savings Bank - Part One (April 2009)
Harlem - P.S. 186 (March 2009)
Coney Island - Under the Boardwalk (March 2009)
The Harlem Renaissance Ballroom and Casino (February 2009)
Port Morris - Iron, Steel and Rust (February 2009)
The San Francisco Naval Shipyard (January 2009)
Manhattanville: Phase 1 (December 2008)
The Iron Triangle (December 2008)
Coney Island: The Freak's Domain (November 2008)
Inside the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument (November 2008)
Victim Services - Stapleton, Staten Island (October 2008)
Newtown Creek: The Dutch Kills (October 2008)
Wrigley Building - Rosebank, Staten Island (September 2008)
Brooklyn North District 1 Sanitation Garage (August 2008)
G. Siegle Color Works - Rosebank, Staten Island (August 2008)
Colonna Marble - Astoria Queens (July 2008)
Kent Avenue Powerhouse (June 2008)
Floyd Bennett Airfield (May 2008)
Brooklyn Army Terminal (April 2008)
Bushwick Inlet (April 2008)
Long Island City: Hunter's Point South (March 2008)
Brooklyn Navy Yard: Admiral's Row (March 2008)
Bronx Kill (February 2008)
Dead Horse Bay (February 2008)
Staten Island: North Shore (January 2008)
Brooklyn Navy Yard: Building 128 (January 2008)
Brooklyn Navy Yard: Building 1 (December 2007)
The Freedom Tunnel: Covered Tracks (December 2007)
Brooklyn Navy Yard: GMD Shipyard (November 2007)
Bush Terminal Park: Industrial Apple Orchard (November 2007)
Ellis Island: South Side (October 2007)
The Encampment on Roosevelt Island (October 2007)
Coney Island Creek (September 2007)
Newtown Creek: Linden Hill Tracks (September 2007)
Underneath East New York (August 2007)
Worlds Oldest Subway Tunnel - Part Two (August 2007)
Worlds Oldest Subway Tunnel - Part One (July 2007)
Underneath Flatbush (July 2007)
Underneath Bay Ridge (June 2007)
The Domino Sugar Refinery (June 2007)
Atlantic Yards Part Three: The Electric Car Shop (May 2007)
Red Hook Container Terminal (May 2007)
The Atlantic Yards Part Two (April 2007)
The Atlantic Yards (April 2007)
Ikea Rising (March 2007)
Brooklyn's Industrial Waterfront (March 2007)