Poets House looks forward to facility in Battery Park

Poets House is a literary center and poetry library. Dedicated to bringing poetry to a wide and diverse audience, the non-profit organization offers a broad range of public programs including poetry readings, panel discussions, writing workshops, and children's events. At the heart of the organization is its mission to make a place for poetry in American culture. The organization may be best known for its 50,000-volume poetry library, its literary programs, and its annual Poets House Showcase, a free exhibition of all the poetry books published in the preceding year. To allow for growth and to establish a sustainable home for poetry for future generations, Poets House is scheduled to move to a new location at Ten River Terrace in Battery Park City in the spring of 2009. Currently, it occupies an administrative office in Soho while awaiting completion of its new space. To ensure that its new facility would feature the best in class of audio and visual technology to support its mission, Poets House called in Syska Hennessy Group's Technology team to help them develop a technology solution for the space. The new 11, 000 s/f space will occupy the first two floors of the high-rise. It will include a programming hall dedicated to poetry-related performance; an expansive reading room with sweeping views of the Hudson River and the Statue of Liberty; a spacious children's room allowing for significantly expanded programming for children, schools, and families; an open-access multi-media archive; a multidisciplinary exhibition space; and a poetry-enriched lobby designed to spark the curiosity of visitors of all ages. Poets House's current audio-visual facilities are not robust enough to meet the needs of their expanding audience. A sophisticated digital audio workstation, purchased through a grant from the Manhattan Borough president's office, supports a comprehensive digitization program, but display and access facilities are not yet in place.   Originally designed with a primary screen location in mind, the projector will now be installed on a rotating mount, allowing it to revolve to the other useable walls and be used in conjunction with a portable screen. The design of the projection system for the space had to take into account the multi-leveled ceiling for the main auditorium that was specified by architect Louise Braverman. To accommodate this design aspect the mounting height of the projector was adjusted to closely coordinate with ceiling height and avoid sightline and projection line obstructions. The client had indicated the need to send a feed from the auditorium to other locations within the facility to accommodate overflow seating for high-attendance events. The Syska Hennessy team thought it best to provide flexibility to enable A/V support regardless of what space would be selected as the overflow location. To achieve that, the team proposed a solution that converts A/V signals for distribution over the same unshielded twisted pair (UTP) CAT6 cabling used to support the telecommunications infrastructure. By using the telecom room as the central hub for the distribution of overflow A/V, potential endpoints can be at any location within the facility that offers a telecom drop. Construction for the Poets House fit-out is scheduled to begin by November 2008 and is slated for completion in the spring of 2009. The new space and sophisticated systems will result in a modern facility that can truly employ technology as part of the overall cultural experience. Val Loh is associate partner for Syska Hennessy Group, New York, N.Y.