'Russian nesting doll' design provides unique fire protection solution for movie negatives [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
A major movie studio needed a new vault to protect its irreplaceable negatives for films released after 1982. SmithGroup came up with a box-in-a-box design solution.
A major movie studio needed a new vault to protect its irreplaceable negatives for films released after 1982. The studio was against installing a fire-sprinkler system. But a consultant reminded the studio that an insurer would require some sort of water system to protect the building itself if not the films, which are uninsurable.
The studio turned to SmithGroup, which designed the 415,000-sf National A/V Conservation Center in Culpeper, Va., where the Library of Congress houses its film, video, broadcast, and recorded sound materials.