Check out this great video of the groundbreaking ceremony for the $20M redevelopment of Nikola Tesla’s former lab into the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe.
Mark Thaler attended the groundbreaking for the Tesla Science Center. The firm was hired to complete a Historic Structure Report, which documents the history of the site, evaluates the existing conditions of the laboratory, tower foundations and selected additional structures, and make recommendations as to how the site should be restored and how it may best function as a museum to the father of modern electricity.
In 1901-02, Tesla built a brick laboratory building designed by architect Stanford White and a 187-foot high Wardenclyffe Tower to send messages across the Atlantic using the earth’s atmosphere as a means to conduct the signal. Construction was slowed due to financing and before he could complete the site Guiliamo Marconi transmitted a trans-Atlantic radio signal in December 1901. The financier JP Morgan then pulled his financing and Tesla, deeply in debt, ultimately filed for bankruptcy.