Historic Building Projection Mapping for Heritage Sites

An old building has already done the hard part. Its arches, carvings and windows hold generations of stories, and a projection show can tell them right where they happened.

We create projection shows for universities, congregations and heritage site owners who want to mark an anniversary or welcome new audiences.

If you look after a historic property and have a date in mind, tell us about your heritage site.

Historic building projection mapping uses the building itself as the screen. The content is drawn around the original architecture, so the stonework, cornices and window frames stay at the center of the show instead of disappearing behind it.

Old facades also ask more of the mapping. Historic or sculptural facades with stone relief, columns, and deep reveals need precise masks and content that follows the architecture. That is why a detailed survey comes before any content is made.

• Precise capture. Tripod laser scanners can capture at the millimeter scale under the right conditions, which suits carved and uneven stone.
• A record you keep. We typically deliver a clean, scaled mesh in OBJ or FBX, plus the original E57 or PLY point cloud for archive.
• Careful data handling. Secure storage, limited distribution, and clear agreements with venue owners are part of a professional workflow.
• Story from your archive. Our animation and visual storytelling team can build the show around photographs, documents and film from your own collection.
• Projector rigging. Projectors can be mounted on custom truss structures, as they were for our university centennial show.
• Show nights. Our crew aligns, runs and monitors the projection for every night of the run.

Many owners of older buildings answer to a local historic district commission, and the standards those commissions use most often are the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. Two of the Standards are worth keeping in mind for any show.

The first says that “distinctive features, finishes, and construction techniques or examples of craftsmanship that characterize a historic property shall be preserved.” The second says that new related construction should be undertaken so that, if removed in the future, “the essential form and integrity of the historic property” would be unimpaired.

The Standards were written for rehabilitation rather than light shows, but they offer a useful test for any temporary rigging, cabling or power near a historic facade. The National Park Service also recommends involving qualified historic preservation professionals early in the planning stage.

Texas Tech centennial. We transformed the Texas Tech Administration Building into a canvas for the university's 100th anniversary celebration in February 2023. Seven 4K Barco projectors mounted on custom truss structures ran a 5-minute show, and our team carefully captured each corner and feature of the historic building so the imagery matched it night after night. The production combined Texas Tech's archival media with original motion graphics and animations.

See more of our work on the projects page.

For other kinds of structure, see building projection mapping for towers and venue facades, landmark projection mapping for monuments and hillside signs, and castle projection mapping for castles and estates.

Send us the building's name and location, the occasion, and any archive material you would like to use, and we will come back with a plan for survey, content and projection. You can also explore our full range of projection mapping services or contact our team to book a call.