For more than a century, The New York Public Library (NYPL) has made neighborhoods stronger, serving more than 18 million patrons who come through its doors annually. With more than 90 locations spanning across the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, The NYPL is continually striving to create library spaces that meet the communities’ ever-changing needs.

The NYPL recently invested more than $250 million in capital improvements systemwide, including the full renovation of five historic Carnegie branches: 125th Street, Melrose, Hunts Point, Fort Washington and Port Richmond. Each library received $20 million to modernize and provide the much-needed improvements to these facilities.

Signature Solution: As the acoustics, AV, IT, and security consultant, Cerami conducted conditions assessments for each location to evaluate and determine the needs of each building. We developed the design standards for modernizing and updating the branches to best serve the patrons of today and tomorrow, while preserving details of the historic buildings. The standards focused on:

– Simple and easy-to-use audiovisual systems for presentations in community rooms and divisible presentation spaces along with mobile AV carts to support multimedia in reading rooms and other open areas. Digital signage displays were provided at the main entrance to each branch.

– Updating the IT infrastructure to effectively and efficiently support current and emerging technologies to meet the NYPL’s present and future needs. As the IT infrastructure will sustain several generations of active IT systems equipment, extensive care was taken to ensure that it will be capable of supporting the migration to future technology.

– Integrated security systems, including access control, intrusion detection and video surveillance to provide a reasonable and effective level of security while maintaining a level of openness that would allow freedom of movement by staff and patrons. The systems installed at each branch tie into NYPL campus-wide security systems and can be monitored from a central location.

– The renovated libraries will offer new children’s and teen spaces, upgraded restrooms, new heating and cooling systems for patron comfort, technology upgrades, and addition of elevators.

Cerami designed the centerpiece of the new Ronald Reagan Institute (RRI) – a 19-feet-high x 14-feet-wide, 1.8 pixel pitch LED video wall, created to be seen from its prime location on Black Lives Matter Plaza, steps away from The White House. The impactful and engaging content drove the technology and is constantly changing to draw visitors in and make them feel welcome, while tapping into the Reagan legacy. We were motivated by President Reagan’s inspirational quotes throughout, including, “The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.”

As the AV consultant, Cerami also designed various AV systems throughout the space, including and event center, media production space, board room and several conference spaces. RRI has been built by LSM to accommodate any type of event and we were entrusted to make sure the technology will be the best in class, whether attending in person, or remotely.

Signature Solution: The design of the lobby video wall was challenging because most of the Reagan era footage that is displayed throughout the RRI was shot in the 1980’s and wasn’t the quality/resolution that we are used to today. Cerami had to balance the size and resolution of the display, while making sure that the content would look great on it. DI was very instrumental in working with the available footage to produce content that looks great on the display. As RRI Institute Director, Roger Zakheim, said, “We’re not trying to bring you back to the 80’s, but bring you into the future.”

With 200,000+ people a year coming through the doors at The Joan Weill Center for Dance, it is by far the larges and most active destination for dance in New York City. And Cerami was there at conception, bringing to life Ailey’s growth and vision for the future with the acoustical, audiovisual, and IT consulting services. Part of the expansion is the Elaine Wynn & Family Education Wing, which added three floors to the west side of Ailey’s building to provide four additional dance studios, two new flexible classrooms, and added administrative office space. The project has also enabled Ailey to renovate existing dressing rooms, lounges, restrooms, and the company’s costume shop.

Signature Solution: The addition of four new dance studios above the existing dance studio spaces revealed the necessity for thoughtful acoustic considerations. With the project team, we coordinated the design of isolated floors for all dance studios and assisted in the coordination between the isolated floor and the Harlequin Dance Floor. Additionally, we provided audio visual design throughout the studios and designed a unique Wi-Fi solution for dancers and students. We aided in the design of the curtainwall to provide sufficient acoustic separation between the exterior noise sources and the dance studios to provide an optional studio experience for all occupants.

When you run up the stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and step into the restored Beaux-Arts building to post about your Rocky move, you can be sure that your WiFi connection will work thanks to a complete network redesign by Cerami. Cerami designed the IT and Acoustics for the first major renovation of the museum since the 1920’s.  Working alongside the infamous Gehry team on The Core Project, Cerami implemented and validated the network experience.

Maintaining historical finishes while designing for intelligibility was also challenging when it came to creating the acoustic recommendation throughout the museum.

As part of the renovation, The Philadelphia Museum of Art was building a brand new underground auditorium. This led us to design a room within a room isolation strategy to assure that sound from the transportation hub won’t interfere with the user experience.

Signature Solution: Hand and glove coordination with Gehry Partners to create an aesthetically charged and invisible network within the 100,000 square foot museum.  Imagine trying to hide miles of wire inside marble and limestone that was sourced from Minnesota quarries a hundred years ago.

Cerami was and still are entrusted to protect objects d’art during their annual Made In America Festival at the museum. Monitoring noise vibration thresholds, defining limits on sound and insulating particular figurines is unusual work for Cerami’s acousticians, yet we’re proud to be part of this historical project.