npr.org: "David Byrne, formerly of Talking Heads, has turned the inside of a defunct ferry terminal into a giant musical instrument, retrofitting an antique organ and wiring it to the pipes, the beams, and even the plumbing of the Battery Maritime Building." Listen here

wnyc.org: "Musician David Byrne talks about his music installation, called "Playing the Building," which opens this weekend in the Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan." Listen here

A video presentaion of Playing the Building

"Playing the building is a sound installation in which the infrastructure, the physical plant of the building, is converted into a giant musical instrument. Devices are attached to the building structure — to the metal beams and pillars, the heating pipes, the water pipes — and are used to make these things produce sound. The activations are of three types: wind, vibration, striking. The devices do not produce sound themselves, but they cause the building elements to vibrate, resonate and oscillate so that the building itself becomes a very large musical instrument." More info