Listen to the Sounds of NYC Buildings in Soundscape New York at Museum of City of NY

We know what New York City’s famous buildings look like, but what do they sound like? In the new exhibit Soundscape New York at the Museum of City of New York, visitors can experience an immersive sound and visual project of five iconic New York buildings: Grand Central Terminal, Rockefeller Center, New York Public Library Reading Room, the Guggenheim Museum, the and Seagram Building lobby. Four of the videos are embedded in this article.

The works are a collaboration between Karen Van Lengen, professor of architecture at the University of Virginia, and artist James Welty. According to NPR, in Grand Central you can hear the clanging of silverware from the balcony restaurants, the sliding of oak chairs at the New York Public library, and the escalator at Rockefeller Center’s International Building. Van Lengen hopes to record the US Capitol Dome and the Lincoln Memorial next.

For more soundscape fun check out this interactive map of what NYC sounded like in the Roaring ’20s. Get in touch with the author @untappedmich.