The Panorama of the City of New York is the jewel in the crown of the permanent collection of the Queens Museum, and at 9,335 SF it is the world’s largest architectural model. Built for the 1964 World’s Fair, the Panorama comprises 895,000 individual structures. A complete update involving 60,000 changes made to the exhibit was undertaken in 1992.

The project goal was to provide a fully functioning state-of-the-art lighting and sound system to significantly enhance the visitor’s experience and presentation of this important cultural artifact. The anticipated replacement of the electrical infrastructure required to support the proposed light and sound system threatened to consume a fair amount of the modest budget. Collado recommended and tested strategic reuse of some of the existing infrastructure, allowing a greater portion of the budgeted funds to go towards building a better user interface.