May is Historic Preservation Month. It has us thinking about the older buildings we’ve outfitted with wireless these past 20+ years: The New York Stock Exchange Building, Broadway theaters, MLB stadiums, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Princeton University, the National Academy of Sciences, and Villa La Pietra in Florence, to name a few.
From wowing us architecturally to making us feel cooler than we are (here’s looking at you, Beacon Theater elevator covered in celebrity autographs), older buildings have been some of Velaspan’s most memorable engagements – though never our easiest. The prevalence of signal-destroying plaster and lath walls alone is a perennial hurdle. There’s the added matter of preserving and augmenting a historic structure’s purpose. Whether it exists to showcase art or deliver world-class performances, the functionality of historic buildings is often at odds with the reality of designing, installing, and deploying wireless.
Creativity is therefore the name of the game. Velaspan typically refuses to compromise on network performance, however, some careful compromise is often necessary to preserve historic structures as we connect them in novel ways. We are, after all, stewards of historic spaces, and trusted partners to those responsible for preserving them. This means maintaining a healthy perspective: Someday, when today’s wireless technology is in the rearview mirror, we hope these buildings will still be standing strong.
So what are the most common sensitivities we encounter in older structures, and how do Velaspan engineers deliver wireless solutions in spite of them, with minimal disruption?
Read on.
Material considerations
Does wireless justify drilling irreversible holes into historic marble walls? Of course not. When our go-to techniques are out of the question, we get creative.
Take our engagement in a flagship retail store inside of a historically designated Manhattan building. The challenge: Getting wireless into a room made entirely of 19th century marble. Providing coverage from the outside or drilling into walls or floors was unthinkable, so we sought and received permission to place an access point inside of a potted plant. Discreetly connected to an existing wall jack, this concealed access point keeps the business and its guests connected without altering the culturally significant landmark.
Aesthetics
Appearance is often inherent to a space’s historical and cultural value. Sometimes it even contributes to designation on the State or National Register of Historic Places.
To preserve aesthetics at one of the Harvard Art Museums, Velaspan arranged access point antennas in a symmetrical manner consistent with the interior’s architectural detail. Unless you know what you’re looking for, you’d never know that what you see are antennas, and not structural features.
At the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), we took another unorthodox step to address aesthetics and allow for a flexible exhibit space: we placed access points inside of the museum’s concrete floor.
And perhaps our favorite anecdote on honoring aesthetics in a time-honored space: The American Museum of Natural History in New York City let us put a wireless access point inside of its iconic 94-foot long fiberglass blue whale model – preferable to seeing it among prehistoric artifacts!
Acoustic sensitivity
Last but not least, Velaspan has designed and installed wireless in spaces where sound is the leading consideration.
Take Carnegie Hall.
To give a sense of Carnegie Hall’s acoustic delicacy: The walls of its performance venue are filled with a special mix of plaster and horse hair that’s instrumental to its pristine sound. Clearly this is not to be tampered with, which made wireless design challenging.
Our team weighed our options:
Wireless signals can emit from the ceiling down or from the bottom up. Top-down is often preferable for large public venues, in part because downward-facing antennas can usually be installed above the audience without issue. However, installation involves affixing and integrating antennas and other hardware onto a ceiling and overhead surfaces – a process entailing cutting and drilling than cannot be entirely reversed. In the case of Carnegie Hall, this would not only mar the ceiling’s ornate aesthetic; it would likely impact sound.
Velaspan contracted an acoustician who contributed to conversations and helped ensure a plan with minimal acoustic impact. He signed off on our proposed approach:
The flooring of Carnegie Hall’s main performance hall doubles as the ceiling of the concourse beneath it – a space used for concessions, seating, and bathrooms, with few acoustic sensitivities. Our Velaspan team was already planning to open and wire the concourse ceiling when installing access points for the concourse’s wireless. Now, while in there, we’d lay cable to power the access points beneath seats in the concert hall directly above, too. There was some compromise. This approach made cabling a greater challenge than if we’d cabled wireless above the concert hall. However, it spared Carnegie Hall’s renowned performance venue from any acoustic impact. Music to our ears, and hopefully the audience’s, too!
Are you planning a wireless network with preservation considerations?
Velaspan brings two decades of experience balancing cutting-edge connectivity with the care historic spaces deserve. Let’s talk about how to keep your building connected—without compromising its character.
