In an extraordinary new interactive feature, The Washington Post tells the fascinating story of the Tenement Museum and its preservation of “relics and reminders of one of the most consequential migrations in human history, a flood tide of humanity that changed the fabric of America.”
Set to haunting music, the feature takes viewers inside the building, across “the y-axis of time, as landlords and residents … left indelible marks on its design and structure.” Using text and an oral-history recording of Archie William Friedberg, a resident who lived there from 1914-1918, viewers can read and hear about what life was like in the building at different time periods as the tour proceeds from a basement beer saloon to the outdoor privies, and then up to its apartments.
The Perkins Eastman team, led by Co-CEO and Executive Director Nick Leahy, is proud to have collaborated in the development of the museum over the course of a decade to preserve the historic tenement at 97 Orchard Street on New York’s Lower East Side. The firm also renovated two adjacent tenements that now house a visitor’s center, educational space and exhibit areas, and administrative offices. The Tenement Museum is now one of New York’s most beloved cultural destinations.
To learn more about the buildings’ renovation and preservation, listen to this presentation Leahy gave in July before The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York: