{"id":10797,"date":"2014-06-24T13:51:05","date_gmt":"2014-06-24T18:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservators-converse.org\/?p=10797"},"modified":"2014-06-24T13:51:05","modified_gmt":"2014-06-24T18:51:05","slug":"42nd-annual-meeting-objects-session-may-30-managing-construction-induced-vibration-in-the-museum-environment-by-anna-serotta-and-andrew-smyth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/2014\/06\/24\/42nd-annual-meeting-objects-session-may-30-managing-construction-induced-vibration-in-the-museum-environment-by-anna-serotta-and-andrew-smyth\/","title":{"rendered":"42nd Annual Meeting, Objects Session, May 30, "Managing Construction-Induced Vibration in the Museum Environment," by Anna Serotta and Andrew Smyth"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this presentation\u00a0Anna Serotta and Andrew Smyth presented their efforts to assess and mitigate vibrations in the Metropolitan Museum’s Egyptian galleries during a large-scale renovation of the spaces directly below. Having worked in museums that remained open during renovations, and now at one that is about to expand, I was particularly interested in the subject of construction-induced vibration, and appreciated the experiences and tips shared in this case study.
\nAt the end of the summer of 2011, staff at the Met began preparing for the renovation of their Costume Institute to commence in April 2012. Forming a project team of curators, conservators and collection managers, and partnering with a group from the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University, the museum aimed to safeguard 20,000 objects spread over 27 galleries. The project team would first assess risk posed by the construction and then implement preventive conservation to protect objects in adjacent galleries\u2014while allowing as many objects as possible to remain on view. It didn\u2019t help that many of these works were fragile, consisting of friable wood, brittle basketry, ancient restoration materials, etc.\u00a0 Many had not been moved for 40 years.
\nAs the title of the presentation makes clear, the main risk of construction in a museum is posed by its vibrations. A concise review in slides titled \u201cVibrations 101\u201d explained that vibrations may cause stresses, fatigue and extant crack-growth in objects. Vibration affects any object with mass and flexibility\u2014pretty much anything. Published vibration threshold standards were designed to assess risk to buildings and therefore could not be applied to fragile museum objects. \u00a0The Met decided to take an empirical approach: piggybacking on the tests performed by the construction contractors, the project team placed accelerometers on pedestals and shelves while various demolition tools were tested below. The tests showed that machinery that was less user-dependent caused less vibration, i.e. high speed coring drill was preferred over sledgehammers. Testing also confirmed that certain mounting systems, such as cantilevered shelves, magnified vibration.
\nSeveral preventive conservation approaches to mitigate the vibrations \u2013 within the extant display strategies \u2013 were shared. Sorbethane <\/a>\u2013 \u201ca highly damped, visco-elastic polymeric solid that flows like a liquid under load\u201d \u2013 was placed under pedestals and other mounting systems to absorb vibrations. Cantilevered shelves were stiffened by putting Sorbethane-capped posts below the shelves. Large masses placed on isolation springs were added (discreetly under benches) to the floor so that they would both absorb and dampen the floor\u2019s vibration. Lighter objects were placed on trays with ethafoam tri-rod to keep them from shifting off the shelves. \u00a0To keep track of changes in condition, fragile objects were photodocumented in raking light, and white paper was placed under objects to make any flakes or particles that detached more visible. Lastly, some objects that could not be adequately protected under these circumstances were deinstalled and placed in closed galleries that were not affected by the construction. All in all, some 14,000 objects were isolated, padded or relocated.
\nSensors were placed on pedestals and shelves and connected to a wireless network on a central server. Emails and texts would be sent to involved parties when vibrations exceeded established thresholds. Hands-on monitoring by conservators was necessary to monitor objects beyond the sensors\u2019 range.
\nI was grateful to learn of the unforeseen challenges and minor damages that occurred during construction. When it came to museum objects, some friable wood and gesso powdered; an old join in a wooden figure failed, causing a piece to detach; and small objects migrated on their trays (but didn\u2019t fall off due to preventive foam linings). Sorbethane also posed challenges: it would shift out of place if there wasn\u2019t sufficient pressure holding it in place. Likewise, it could be crushed and lose its absorbent properties if the pressure was too great. In one alarming case, a liquid \u2013 likely plasticizer \u2013 oozed out of a piece of Sorbethane. All in all, vibrations were greater than expected and hard to predict. Sometimes they were localized and evaded the sensors, which made the additional hands-on monitoring so crucial.
\nAt the conclusion of the talk, the presenters stressed the value of communication and ingratiation with contractors and project team members. Collection tours were arranged and chocolate chip cookies were baked for the contractors. When the vulnerability of the collections was made clear, they agreed to work in one place at a time and only during working museum hours, which in turn facilitated monitoring and shortened response time. Getting involved early (a recurring theme at this year\u2019s meeting!) and playing nice will get you a long way in safeguarding objects as walls crumble around \u2013 or below \u2013 them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this presentation\u00a0Anna Serotta and Andrew Smyth presented their efforts to assess and mitigate vibrations in the Metropolitan Museum’s Egyptian galleries during a large-scale renovation of the spaces directly below. Having worked in museums that remained open during renovations, and now at one that is about to expand, I was particularly interested in the subject … Continue reading “42nd Annual Meeting, Objects Session, May 30, "Managing Construction-Induced Vibration in the Museum Environment," by Anna Serotta and Andrew Smyth”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":10236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,32,16],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-10797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-annual-meeting","category-objects","category-specialty-sessions","tag-aics-42nd-annual-meeting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}