At Carnegie Hall, the New York music venue, Siemens fire safety, electronic security and building automation products are in use.
The multi-national product company also supports emerging talent worldwide via the Siemens Arts Programme. İlkin Alpay, pictured, came to prominence last year as the winner of the Siemens Opera Contest in Turkey and now the young soprano has appeared at Carnegie Hall.
New systems were installed as part of an infrastructure upgrade to Carnegie Hall’s Studio Towers, originally added to the concert hall at the end of the 19th century. A new 60,000 square foot Resnick Education Wing is on the Hall’s upper floors, and backstage areas saw refurbishment. The project created an opportunity to highlight the importance of sustainable design as an example of the adaptive reuse of a historic building.
Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall’s Executive and Artistic Director, said: “With the Studio Towers Renovation Project and creation of our new Resnick Education Wing, we aimed to build on Carnegie Hall’s amazing history, ensuring that our building continues to revitalise itself for the 21st century as a place as important to the future of music as it has been to the past. An important component of the project has been the opportunity to upgrade our building’s infrastructure, and Carnegie Hall is more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly for staff and visitors than ever before.”
As part of the Studio Towers renovations, Siemens supplied life safety systems and building automation. The Siemens SiPass access control system addresses Carnegie Hall’s complex needs by ensuring that only the right people have access to the right places at the right time. This is crucial, as Carnegie Hall has various access points and levels of clearance for building staff, students and performers, among others.
If a fire is detected, the command and control station is alerted and emergency control operations are engaged, including fire door closure, lift management and air handler turn-on/shut-off, among other critical functions. And a Siemens building automation system integrates heating, ventilation, and air conditioning controls onto one platform that can be controlled locally by end-users and from one central location by building engineers, or remotely, if desired. It also continually analyses electricity demand and usage to manage overall building energy performance.
The historic building had no original blueprints; it’s now one of the oldest buildings to receive a LEED Silver Leadership certification. A new 10,000 square foot roof terrace has reflective pavers and plantings that reduce the heat island effect and the building’s overall carbon footprint. Thanks to the Hall’s 450 original windows on its upper floors, natural light has been maximised in the building’s renovation and design, which also saw use of LED bulbs and occupancy sensors.
