The Rochester Subway is a unique monument to our city’s transit history and an iconic canvas for local graffiti culture. But for years, its story was fragmented across plain, surface-level websites, buried physical archives, and decaying ruins at risk of being wiped out by modern development projects. To fix this, our five-person Humanities, Computing, and Design (HCD) team spent a year researching, designing, and building an interactive digital experience to bring that history back into the light. Working alongside Dr. Jessica Lieberman and pulling from historical archives like the Tom Kirn Collection, we brought together decades of urban planning history, preservation debates, and artistic culture into a single, accessible space.
Inspired by scrollytelling experiences like Deadly Spiral and Longest Road Out, we built the site as a long-form, single-page narrative that walks users through the evolution of Rochester’s transportation infrastructure—from the Erie Canal and aqueducts to the Subway and Inner Loop. By pairing historical photos and newspaper clippings with stylized visual art, we broke down dense urbanism concepts into a narrative that resonates with everyone, whether they're city officials rethinking modern transit or local history buffs curious about what lies beneath the streets.
My Role & Contributions
As the Project Manager, Urbanism Consultant, Graphic Designer, and Web Developer, I guided the project from high-level planning all the way through our final presentation at Imagine RIT. My contributions hit every stage of the pipeline:
Project Management: Oversaw project scope, team workflows, and cross-functional deadlines across research, writing, design, and code for our full year-long run.
Urbanism Strategy: Acted as the team’s urbanism consultant, translating complex transportation policy, and historical context into clear, engaging narrative arcs.
Visual Direction & Branding: Helped design the overall look and feel of the site, styling historical artifacts and creating visual components that gave the narrative a polished, cohesive identity.
Front-End Development & GSAP Animations: Built out the single-page experience using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I heavily integrated the GSAP (GreenSock Animation Platform) library to power custom scroll-triggered animations and seamless visual transitions, bringing the historical timeline to life while keeping the site fully responsive and accessible.
Impact & Deliverables
We turned scattered physical documents into a living digital archive that preserves a vulnerable piece of Rochester's local heritage. Beyond just cataloging history, the site acts as an educational platform and advocacy tool—helping visitors understand how past decisions shaped our current infrastructure so they feel empowered to engage with the city’s future.
