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    Almost all of the following architectural and urban history publications are peer-reviewed.
    They are republished in full on my website, so as to guarantee public access by people outside academia. Contact me.

Category: Prison

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Interactive time-lapse map about construction of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp

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This project utilizes georeferenced historical maps and time sliders to document the transformation of the region around the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp from 1945 to today. The interactive map highlights the selective preservation, demolition, decay, or adaptive reuse of significant camp structures linked to the Holocaust. The project uses interactive time-lapse cartography to inform public understanding of the Holocaust and the landscape of tragedy it produced. VIEW PROJECT >

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Civil Rights Rebellion in the Essex County Jail

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Season 13, Episode 6 of the Abandoned Engineering series for Discovery Channel, explores the old Essex County Jail in Newark, New Jersey. After seeing my research and reading my Master’s thesis project, Discovery Channel approached me about co-creating a documentary about this jail, which was streamed in July 2024, both in the U.S. and internationally in 20 languages. Based on featured interviews with me, this documentary commemorates those incarcerated here by highlighting the building’s historical significance and broader themes of injustice. VIEW PROJECT >

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Eastern State Penitentiary Construction Sequence

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This time-lapse animation with audio narration uses the tools of virtual reality to reconstruct the appearance of Eastern State Penitentiary during each year of its 148 years of operation from 1823 to 1971. This reconstruction is based on original plans and primary sources about the jail’s architecture. It uses film to reveal how the building’s envelope was expanded and modified each decade in response to evolving design philosophies, public attitudes towards incarceration, and the ever-expanding size of today’s carceral state. VIEW PROJECT >

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“Where Evil Dwells” at Newark’s Old Essex County Jail

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This article in the winter 2021 issue The Newarker (a literary and history magazine) traces the history of the old Essex County Jail and what this carceral institution reveals about the city’s broader history. The essay chronicles the evolution of Newark, highlighting the construction of the Essex County Jail and its implications on the community. Initially built for a small population, the jail’s purpose shifted amid immigration and changing social norms. Today, its abandoned state raises enduring questions about history, crime, and incarceration’s impact on marginalized communities.

Read essay in literary magazine. VIEW PROJECT >

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Architecture of Redemption?

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My master’s of architecture thesis at the University of Cambridge. This research explores the contradictions of solitary confinement at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. This prison experimented with prolonged solitary confinement in the 1830s to inspire the redemption of inmates. By analyzing Jeremy Bentham’s plans for the ideal panopticon prison, architect John Haviland’s designs for this specific prison, and visitor accounts of prison’s daily operations, my thesis examines the builders’ philosophical assumptions about utopia, architecture, and human nature. VIEW PROJECT >

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A Medieval Mask on a Modern Prison

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This research presented at the University of Cambridge examines Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, designed by John Haviland in 1829. The study explores the strategic use of the Gothic revival style, whether to inspire fear in visitors or redemption in inmates. This essay analyzes the symbolic and cultural reasons behind the penitentiary’s fortress-like and medieval appearance. 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.

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What’s wrong with Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon?

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This lecture given at the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge discusses Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon as a symbol of surveillance. I interpret this structure through Michel Foucault’s postmodernist theories. As visual evidence, I use a virtual reality computer model of the panopticon to reveal the structure’s flaws and misinterpretations. The panopticon remains relevant today as continuing inspiration for hundreds of prisons around the world, foremost among them the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia.
Listen to recording of presentation at the University of Cambridge in England. VIEW PROJECT >

Virtual Reality Computer Model of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon

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My master’s thesis project at the University of Cambridge explores the architecture and power dynamics of Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon. Based on exceptionally detailed and accurate-to-the-inch measurements given in Bentham’s 18th-century letters and drawings, this project reconstructs his panopticon in virtual reality. Despite his claims of total oversight, design flaws undermine effective surveillance. The project highlights how Bentham’s vision anticipates future technologies that only now – three centuries later – fully realize his original ambitions of total control.

As featured by literary magazine Aeon: A World of Ideas VIEW PROJECT >

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Exhibition Design for the Old Essex County Jail

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Developed in collaboration with Newark Landmarks and the master’s program in historic preservation at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. The abandoned old Essex County Jail in Newark was built in 1837 and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This project transformed revitalization proposals by Columbia University’s historic preservation students into an exhibit and website. The exhibit highlight this jail’s social history and aimed to foster discussion on incarceration and urban regeneration.

Visit: OldEssexCountyJail.org VIEW PROJECT >

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The Old Essex County Jail

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Seeing the old Essex County Jail as a middle school student was one of my first exposures to architecture. In this series of drawings and visual essay, I reflect on the building whose history and power later went on to shape my studies of architectural history. VIEW PROJECT >