Preserving an icon while modernizing what powers it.
AIS completed an LED retrofit of the New Amsterdam Theatre's multi-story Broadway signage — cutting the electrical load, removing roughly 1,500 lbs of transformers, and making the system far easier to service.
New Amsterdam Theatre
- Context
- Historic Broadway landmark restoration
- Circuits
- 12 reduced to 2
- Weight removed
- About 1,500 lbs of transformers
- Replaced with
- 37 LED power supplies, about 50 lbs
The Challenge
A landmark Broadway theatre's signage has to keep looking exactly like itself. The constraint was not appearance — it was everything behind the face: an aging system carrying substantial transformer weight and drawing across 12 electrical circuits on a historic structure.
The Scope
An LED retrofit of the theatre's iconic multi-story signage, executed within the preservation context of the building.
- Multi-story sign retrofit
- Electrical load reduction
- Transformer removal
- LED power supply installation
How AIS Delivered
The retrofit brought the system from 12 electrical circuits down to 2. Approximately 1,500 lbs of transformers were removed and replaced with 37 LED power supplies totaling roughly 50 lbs.
Removing that much weight and that much wiring from a historic structure changes what the building has to carry and what a technician has to reach.
The Result
A landmark sign that looks unchanged from the street and is meaningfully safer, easier to service, and less prone to service issues than the system it replaced.
Related at AIS
Planning something with this much moving in it?
How AIS delivers signage programs
- Consultation
- Survey
- Design & Engineering
- Permitting
- Manufacturing
- Installation
- Service