[4] Working his way up, he eventually stayed at the company for seven years, and then in 2001 he left his job at Appelbaum and started graduate school at New York University, for a M.P.S.

[9] Barton's work touches on the overlap of physical and digital, creating a range of applications for museums, education, architecture, and memorials.

For the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Local Projects created a next-generation application around experiencing physics on the playground,[10] and has worked with Frank Gehry on the Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, D.C.[11] As the head of Media Design for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum,[12][13] Local Projects led a team of designers to create multi-media experiences that focus on using visitor's own stories[14] as well as the use of algorithms to curate up-to-the moment journalism around the post 9/11 world.

[15] [16] [17] During his time working with the 9/11 Memorial, he also led a team, in partnership with Jer Thorp,[18] to create an algorithm that solved the names arrangement on the panels.

[24][25] Local Projects has partnered with architects such as Frank Gehry,[11] Diller Scofidio + Renfro[26][27] and Bjarke Ingels[28][29] to create new approaches in media and physical spaces.