How LiDAR gave a century-old theater in Jersey City the tools to step into the future (without losing its soul).
There’s something magical about standing inside a 100-year-old building. The creak of the floorboards, the quiet echo off plastered walls, the feeling that if you listen hard enough, you’ll hear stories buried in the rafters.
But magic won’t measure curtain height. And history doesn’t come with CAD files.
The historic Loew’s Theater in Jersey City is getting a second act—and not the kind that involves a simple gut-and-go renovation. It’s a $100 million restoration that respects the bones of the building while prepping it for a modern performance space. And when the margin for error is basically zero, the people running the show need more than blueprints and best guesses.
They need data. Really, really precise data.
Let’s Talk Curtains.
In a project like this, even something as simple as figuring out where the new curtains will hang becomes a high-stakes operation. These aren’t off-the-shelf drapes from a department store. We’re talking about large-scale, custom rigging systems in a landmark structure where the existing geometry wasn’t exactly built with 2025 in mind.
So, how do you place them just right? 47 LiDAR scans. One for each planned curtain position.
Using our LiDAR technology, we created 47 unique point cloud files—dense, 3D maps that give an ultra-accurate view of the interior space. Every column. Every curve. Every surface. Nothing left to guesswork. Because when subcontractors are trying to figure out if a rig will clear a 1920s-era beam by half an inch, you’d better believe “close enough” isn’t good enough.
This Is What Adaptive Reuse Really Looks Like.
It’s not glamorous. It’s not flashy. It’s slow, deliberate, careful work—layering modern tech on top of historic craftsmanship so the building’s future can be just as bright as its past.
And let’s be honest: without this kind of data, those subs would’ve been stuck spending days—maybe weeks—trying to cobble together site measurements, tape by tape, room by room. Not only would that be brutal, it would still fall short of the precision you get from a single LiDAR scan.
We’re Proud To Play Our Part Behind The Scenes.
We know the audience won’t see the point clouds. They’ll see the lights. The music. The magic. But we’ll know the rigging fits, the curtains drop cleanly, and that this century-old building has officially caught up with the times.
Because old buildings aren’t obsolete—they just need a way to speak your language.
Want To Bring Your Next Restoration To Life—With Confidence, Not Guesswork? Let’s Talk.
From iconic theaters to tucked-away warehouses, FirstLook Services helps you build on the past using the smartest tools available.
Reach out today and we can talk about your project.
