National Museum of American Jewish History

EventQuip

In a 15-hour, overnight time-frame on a busy center city street, our company installed 22,880 square feet of tenting and over 15,000 square feet of flooring and carpet. Precise logistical planning for the delivery and installation of equipment from five flatbed tractor trailers and 10 24-foot flatbed trucks in a limited time with limited space was the key to the success of this installation. This included a 20 meter by 70 meter clear top tent over a 4-inch high double stringer wood floor with carpet and 7,700 square feet of support tenting such as walkways, catering tents and restroom trailer tents. All tents were required to be walled, heated and weighted with over 250,000 pounds of concrete ballast, as staking was not permitted on the city street.

The project was for the opening celebration for the National Museum of American Jewish History. The installation was designed to accommodate two events. This involved the Saturday evening gala, a 1,000-guest seated dinner, emceed by Jerry Seinfeld with entertainment by Bette Midler, and the Sunday Opening Ceremony, where the tent was re-configured for the dedication and official opening ceremony for the museum, including a keynote speech by Vice President Joe Biden.

The most complex aspect was the time and space allotted for installation. Everything hinged on creating a specific timeline. We created a detailed loading and installation schedule. Trucks were loaded in a precise order and scheduled to reach the site based on where they would unload. We took into account the variability of city traffic and planned to arrive prior to the scheduled street closing. The time invested prior to the job was key in overcoming the challenge of a time-restricted installation. There was a three-tier hierarchy on site: the project manager, the crew leaders and the teams of six to eight installers. Periodic meetings were held between the project manager and crew leaders during the weeks prior to the event. Creative solutions were vital to staying on track and keeping the crew safe. When the street was not closed as scheduled, we began the closure ourselves using barricades and flagmen on the incoming end of the one-way street. Cars still drove around our flagmen and through the site while we worked. Our solution was to create a mini-convoy with five 24-foot trucks driving single file around the block until they reached the access point, then parking the trucks side-by-side to span the width of the street. The police arrived later and remarked on the effectiveness of our roadblock. Any other obstacles were eliminated in the pre-planning done for the event. The combined dynamics of camaraderie and competition amongst mini-crews on site established a very motivated and fast-paced job site.

The result of this project was a very successful installation that allowed us to be a key player in a high-profile, national historic event.

Project details

Location: Philadelphia, Pa.
Size: 22,880 sq. feet
Fabrics: Double Polished Clear from Aztec Tents, Duraskin by Verseidag-Indutex GmbH from Losberger Tent, Multi Layer Fabric Lined With High Denier Polyester From Aztec Tents
Project Manager: Alan Pavlik, EventQuip
Installation: Don Freiwald, EventQuip