The General Assembly Hall reopened to guided tours today after three and a half months of repairs to its roof.

In early July last year, ceiling tiles came crashing to the floor.  Happily, the Hall was unoccupied at the time.  A safety net had to be erected as an emergency measure as there was not enough time to repair the roof before the beginning of the Assembly’s fifty-sixth Session.  The renovations started in May of this year.  The old ceiling tiles in the Hall were removed and replaced by a sprayed-on acoustical type of ceiling.  And at the same time, the asbestos that was used as fireproofing in the blue dome of the roof was also removed.

The old power, lighting and dimming systems and the Heat, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems were replaced as well.

The old lighting system was obsolete, expensive to maintain and generated a lot of heat, affecting the environmental controls of the Hall.  It was cost effective to replace this with new theatrical lighting system, which produces less heat and four times as much light for one third of the energy consumed by the old system.  The old lamps needed replacing about every fifteen days.  The new lamps are estimated to last between one and three years.

The total cost of the renovations was about $5 million.

seen at 12:00, 4 September in Spokesman for the UN Secretary General. Email this to a friend.
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