$150M rehab completed at New York Fed

After $150 million and more than a decade, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s building at 33 Liberty Street is finally ready for the 21st century, according to the Wall Street Journal. The 870,000-square-foot bank, modeled after the Florentine palazzos of the Italian Renaissance, had been in need of nearly every kind of upgrade. The 22-story building, which houses 1,400 employees and 14.8 million pounds of gold bars, got air conditioning, fire alarms and sprinkler systems, as well as modern lighting and updates to its Internet connection and phone lines. Years worth of soot and pollution were removed from the exterior and interior limestone and sandstone walls, while preserving their original aesthetic. The first floor, once a public bank and later an office, is now the New York Fed’s museum. The rehabilitation program was “necessary to ensure the effective functioning of modern-day central-bank operations,” said Thomas Reilly, vice president of real estate and general services at the New York Fed. [WSJ]