Tag: Essex County Jail

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Empathy in Historic Preservation | Interview with Historian Madeline Feierstein

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In this interview, Myles Zhang discusses with Madeline Feierstein his research project on the history (and possible future) of the old Essex County Jail in Newark. Madeline Feierstein is a historian of American history based in Alexandria, Virginia. She is particularly focused on psychiatric institutions, military hospitals, and prisons. Madeline has developed popular guided tours in Alexandria and Washington, D.C. Her meticulous research has been showcased at prestigious institutions, including the Alexandria Historical Society, DC Preservation League, and National Museum of Civil War Medicine. She leads significant projects documenting the soldiers who were treated and fell in Alexandria’s wartime hospitals.  Madeline’s… VIEW PUBLICATION

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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 PUBLICATION

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The City as Carceral State

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Context: The following personal essay accompanied my application for the Gupta Values Scholarship from the University of Michigan. I am sharing it here because it speaks more broadly to my background, education, activism, and research interests. Entrance gate to the Old Essex County Jail One out of every one hundred black men in my neighborhood of Newark, NJ is currently in prison. At least half have a permanent criminal record as formerly incarcerated people. Most charges are for drug use and possession, often marijuana records from when marijuana was illegal. My earliest memories of Newark are of the homeless walking… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Bulldozer Urbanism

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As featured in: James Street Commons demolitions completed and proposed as of April 2021 Note: Visiting NJIT’s architecture school at age six and seeing students working there was what initially inspired my desire to study architecture. NJIT is an asset to Newark, and the school deserves the quality of campus architecture to match. I wrote and circulated this essay about NJIT’s under-performing campus design to members of NJIT and the Newark community. I am sharing it online, too, in the hope that future leaders of NJIT will collaborate with the community to create campus architecture that is culturally and historically… VIEW PUBLICATION

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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 PUBLICATION

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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 PUBLICATION