During the next several months, we will be moving 140,000 cubic feet of historical records in the Municipal Archives to our new space in Industry City. The move date is fast approaching, but there is still so much more to do. Construction delays and the pandemic pushed the project back, but this Spring we will complete the big move. The new facility is in the final stages of construction and extensive move prep is underway. Any move is fraught and tedious but one on this scale is unbelievably complex. Items must be reboxed and barcoded and transferred to the designated locations so they can be located, on demand.
Bush Terminal (now renamed Industry City) was built at the turn of the last century and certainly has its own history, which we have covered in a past blog. Building 20, the location of our new space, had not been seriously renovated in 100 years, and replacing all the old windows with new double-pane windows was a “must” to stop water intrusion and heat loss. The new windows also have film to block UV and Infrared light, which will help protect our collections and reduce cooling costs in the summer.
Removing layers and layers of paint revealed these beautiful pressed-tin freight elevator doors.
New flat files will certainly be a welcome change for some of our maps and architectural drawings.
The new office layout is an upgrade from the current plywood-paneled office, which looks like it could be a set from a gritty 1970s Scorsese film.
Compact movable shelving is almost completely installed and programmed.
Our new digital lab is also nearly complete, and is just waiting for equipment to be installed.
The public research room awaits the day when we can reopen our doors to the public. Providing research facilities in the Industry City space is an environmentally-friendly move because we won’t be trucking boxes of archival records into our 31 Chambers site.
As the actual move gets underway, we will post more updates.