Tag: architecture of fear

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Empathy in Historic Preservation | Interview with Historian Madeline Feierstein

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Historian Madeline Feierstein interviews Myles Zhang about his research on the old Essex County Jail in Newark, NJ. They discuss the history of psychiatric institutions and prisons, and then advocate for preserving buildings with darker histories. The preservation of dark sites empowers us to tell a more complete story about how we became a divided and polarized nation today. Myles’s research emphasizes the importance of these sites as vital pieces of American history. VIEW PROJECT >

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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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Setting Up Sex Offenders for Failure

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This blind peer reviewed article discusses how stringent laws for sex offenders, like Megan’s Law and residency restrictions on where sex offenders may live, inadvertently lead to higher rates of re-arrest and re-conviction. These web of laws ironically increase the crime rate and cause thousands of low-income sex offenders to be re-arrested for crimes unrelated to the abuse of minors. Focusing on New York City, this research highlights issues with the home address requirement and suggests reforms to enhance public safety more effectively than current regulations.
Read in: Agora Journal of Urban Planning and Design 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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The City as Carceral State

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This personal essay reflects on my experiences growing up in Newark, NJ, and witnessing the city’s stark socioeconomic divides. These experiences inspired my current studies of architecture and urban planning, with a particular focus on systemic inequality in the built environment. I hope to make scholarship accessible, to address historical injustices through genuine community engagement and historical research. 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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Newark Changing: Mapping neighborhood demolition, 1950s to today

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Newark Changing is an interactive visual encyclopedia featuring 2,400 photo comparisons from 1959-68 vs. today. The project illustrates the combined impacts of urban renewal, slum clearance, highway construction, and decades of demolition by neglect. Through a historic map, users can explore dozens of neighborhoods and thousands of demolished homes. This research highlights the devastation faced by communities due to decades of anti-urban policy decisions by the government and anti-black investment decisions by corporations.

Visit: NewarkChanging.org/map VIEW PROJECT >

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A Different Kind of Radiant City: Bucharest

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This research compares architect Le Corbusier’s 1920s imaginary Plan Voisin to demolish most of Paris and communist dictator Ceaușescu’s 1980s plans to demolish most of Bucharest, Romania. The unexpected comparison reveals a complex relationship between French utopian and Communist totalitarian visions. Both urban forms reflect deep ideological ambitions, showing how arrogant dreams of modernity displace existing cultures. Ultimately, the comparison illustrates how the urban form reflects the beliefs and prejudices of those tasked with designing the city. VIEW PROJECT >

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Democracy’s Prison Problem

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The existence of democracy and equal rights for all paradoxically depends on denying some individuals of their equal rights, as punishment for violating the democratic society’s social contract. Democracy often perpetuates structures of punishment, raising critical questions about crime, justice, and the ongoing struggle for true democratic ideals. The humane treatment of inmates remains particularly elusive in the U.S. legal system because it is shaped by a 400-year history of slavery, rape, racism, and mass incarceration. VIEW PROJECT >

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Bulldozer Urbanism

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The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) faces criticism for demolishing historic buildings in Newark’s James Street Commons Historic District. While NJIT invested significantly in architecture for its students, the parts of campus that face toward the city and commmunity lack community engagement and negatively impact urban aesthetics. I advocate for campus planning that enhances neighborhood life and preserves historical assets. VIEW PROJECT >

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The Privatization of Public Space in Lower Manhattan

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The decline of public spaces in Lower Manhattan is a pressing issue, threatening democracy and the sense of civic identity. While approximately 60% of Lower Manhattan’s ground area is technically dedicated to public use, only 25% remains truly accessible to pedestrians. Factors like cars, corporations, and surveillance have restricted urban life. Continued privatization erodes the quality and frequency of community interactions that are essential for democratic engagement and tolerance. 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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The Panopticon: a problem of definition

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The panopticon is a conceptual proposal for a building developed by philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the 1790s. The panopticon claims to be an architectural model of surveillance for institutions that include prisons, hospitals, workhouses, factories, and schools. While Bentham envisioned it as an all-seeing design, practical implementations, such as the Eastern State Penitentiary, reveal significant design flaws that hinder its efficacy. Modern interpretations, in turn, link the panopticon to contemporary surveillance and the operations of the internet. 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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Architecture of Exclusion in Manhattan Chinatown

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This essay discusses the historical and contemporary challenges faced by the Chinese community in Manhattan’s Chinatown, highlighting the impact of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and ongoing discrimination against immigrants and working-class communities. Despite systemic barriers, the community shows resilience and maintains cultural identity amidst gentrification and urban development. VIEW PROJECT >

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The Panopticon and Trouble in Utopia

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Despite the seeming differences between them, many utopias and dystopias often resemble the panopticon, a model of the ideal surveillance state. In fact, panopticon, dystopic police state, and utopian society share common goals: total observation, total power, and unquestioned control. 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 >