Update from Protecting the Nitrate Film Heritage

This post was written by Caroline Yeager, Associate Curator in the Moving Image Department at the George Eastman Museum.

The George Eastman Museum (GEM) project Protecting the Nitrate Film Heritage is gathering steam! The museum has recently published its ‘Request for Proposals’ seeking to hire a professional design service to update and improve the conservation systems at the Louis B. Mayer Conservation Center, home to the museum’s rare and fragile nitrate film collection. This undertaking has a long list of requirements that the selected design services firm will need to provide. Of major importance will be the development of preliminary designs and cost estimates for a new backup generator, a must in these increasingly uncertain times. Each proposal will describe an efficient air-to-air energy recovery system (save power!), plus incorporating passive building improvements to increase energy efficiency. Finally, we are seeking recommendations for improvements to the building envelope to support a balanced, consistent, and reliable environment for the fragile nitrate film collections conserved there. Proposals have to be very detailed — they must include the preparation of schematic design drawings; preparation of construction bid documents; review of contractor bids, and recommendations, and construction monitoring.

This stage of the project will take a month or more to complete, but we are confident that by the end of the review process, our Senior Facilities Manager, Grif Stappenbeck, and the museum’s administration will choose the best design firm to handle this technically difficult project. We are all looking forward to completing this step in the process, because the actual building stage won’t be far behind!

Protecting the Nitrate Film Heritage project is funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).