CyArk Creates First Ever 3D Virtual Record of the Stonewall National Monument

NEW YORK, March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CyArk, a heritage preservation non-profit, has completed the first ever 3D digital record of the Stonewall National Monument in New York, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Iron Mountain Incorporated® (NYSE: IRM), the global leader for storage and information services, sponsored the effort through its ongoing partnership with CyArk and its mission to capture, share and archive the world's cultural heritage.

The project -- the first of its kind to detail an LGBTQ historic site and national monument -- uses data to create a photorealistic digital record of Christopher Park and the Stonewall Inn. This experiential record will aid in the preservation of the national monument and make these historic sites accessible to visitors across the globe, for generations to come.

The CyArk 3D recording will be incorporated into a virtual reality experience that foregrounds the history of the Stonewall Uprising and enables virtual visitors to learn about the event's significance in the LGBTQ rights movement.

"The data collected will be used to create a powerful backdrop that immerses people visually in the history of the Stonewall uprising, and engages a new generation who may not be able to make the journey to New York to visit the Stonewall National Monument," said John Ristevski, CEO of CyArk.

The Stonewall Inn, in Greenwich Village, was the site of a police raid in the early hours of June 28th, 1969. This was not an unusual occurrence, as the LGBTQ community faced intense discrimination from law enforcement at this time. But instead of dispersing, the angry crowd fought back and the resistance and uprising was a key turning point in the LGBTQ rights movement. In June 2016, President Obama designated the Stonewall National Monument, America's first LGBTQ national park site.

"Our goal is to broaden people's knowledge of LGBT history and to place that history in a geographical context through our research and website," says Ken Lustbader, co-director of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. "We endorse the technology used by CyArk to create an unsurpassed digital record of Stonewall, acknowledging its historic and cultural significance. The Stonewall National Monument now joins other monuments throughout the nation and globe that CyArk has recorded including the Washington Monument and the Mount Rushmore National Memorial."

CyArk documented the portions of the National Monument site, comprising the Stonewall Inn and Christopher Park, using 3D mapping technology including LiDAR laser scanners and photogrammetry to create a sub-centimeter, detailed record of the site as it exists today. The three-person mapping team captured exteriors of the park, the bar and its Christopher Street neighbors and, importantly the interior of the Stonewall Inn. Now, any member of the LGBTQ community or ally can walk into this important historic site and connect with history.

"We are pleased to support the digital blueprint of the Stonewall National Monument as part of our ongoing partnership with CyArk," said Ty Ondatje, senior vice president and Chief Diversity Officer, Iron Mountain. "The events at the Stonewall Inn fifty years ago helped call attention to the rights of LGBTQ individuals, jumpstarting our journey towards a more inclusive society that recognizes the value of diversity in our communities and workplaces. Iron Mountain believes in this journey as an expression of who we are as an employer, and, through our Living Legacy Initiative, we can support organizations like CyArk that share our philanthropic mission to preserve, and make accessible, the shared cultural and historical information and artifacts of our diverse global community."

About Iron Mountain

Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM), founded in 1951, is the global leader for storage and information management services. Trusted by more than 225,000 organizations around the world, and with a real estate network of more than 90 million square feet across more than 1,400 facilities in over 50 countries, Iron Mountain stores and protects billions of valued assets, including critical business information, highly sensitive data, and cultural and historical artifacts. Providing solutions that include information management, digital transformation, secure storage, secure destruction, as well as data centers, cloud services and art storage and logistics, Iron Mountain helps customers lower cost and risk, comply with regulations, recover from disaster, and enable a digital way of working. Visit http://www.ironmountain.com for more information.

About CyArk

CyArk is a non profit organization founded in 2003 to digitally record, archive and share the world's cultural heritage and ensure that these places continue to inspire wonder and curiosity for decades to come. CyArk strives to share this data in powerful ways, including truly immersive experiences that convey the power of these places, transporting users that may never have a chance to experience them and inspiring others to make the journey.

SOURCE CyArk

Related Links

www.cyark.org