Manipulated image of blue, white and orange gradient, divided into sections

Client Project

Reinventing Vornado’s Penn 1 With Artful Digital

Client

Vornado Realty Trust

Challenge

Vornado Realty Group is the primary developer working to redevelop Manhattan’s Penn District through a series of complex, new building projects that merge transportation, workplace, retail and entertainment. Within the entire district redevelopment project, the Penn1 building was the first to exhibit massive revival and signal the new strategy, design, and amenities that would eventually become the District’s new norm. To set the bar, Vornado wanted to inject the entire building’s user experience with integrated digital experiences that would create a cohesive space driving community and generating unparalleled tenant value.

Opportunity

Design a digital experience concept to guide all interconnected digital expressions from transit to workplace, from the artful to the informational, that allows the building to become a high value, dynamic platform for storytelling, community gathering, tenant interaction, thought leadership, and visual arts.
Workplace bleachers with wide screen with digital horizon on it and people walking through space.
Woman standing in front of staircase with digital letters on risers.
Image of timelapse of sunrise and sunset
For reference only, credit: Zumbotel
Painting of orange and blue painted rectangles on red background
For reference only, credit: Mark Rothko, “Yellow Blue Orange”, 1955
Woman in elevator bank with a digital horizon in background

Investigating The Workday Cycle

Our team explored how digital experiences can enhance the cyclical nature of the workday experience. We looked at ways to breathe life into the arrival, gathering, the rituals of meetings, and the close of the day, focusing on creating a holistic digital narrative that would support the thousands of guests who will engage Penn1 and the District at large every day.
Section view of people standing in escalator with light shining through ceiling.
Woman going up escalator with white light at top

Aligning Workday Cycles With Natural Cycles

We arrived at a core conceptual framework that reflects the behaviors of natural cycles–not their literal interpretations–with digital interventions. Many of these experiences took on the appearance of changing color tones to match that of the sun, rising and setting objects on the horizon, and ever-changing shifts in movement, connecting guests with a passage of time and aligning their activity with that of the natural world.
Diagram of elevators going up and down, manipulating digital horizon
A generative artwork connecting the elevator banks. Data from elevator movement alters the digital artwork, creating artful colorscapes that symbiotically match the energy and behaviors of Penn1 guests.
View of woman going into elevator, with digital horizon on wall and in the elevator.
Wide view of six elevators with continuous horizon across all of them
Woman in elevator bank with abstract green and blue content
Three elevator banks with blue and orange abstract content
Woman standing in elevator with images running over digital gradient
Woman going up stairs with digital slats on sides playing abstract gradient content
Axonometric diagram of staircase and strips of digital content
Exterior view of staircase with black and white abstract wave content
Diagram of staircase content, with blue to orange gradient with text moving across
Diagram of person walking up stairs, with black and white waves moving upward.
Man walking up staircase with arrows moving up risers to the left hand side
Axonometric diagram of staircase assembly for digital riser content
Low view of man walking up stairs with "Freesolo Screening" running across the risers
Close view of staircase with lettering on the risers.
Woman standing in front of a digital billboard with lettering showing events throughout the building
View of reception, with digital slats behind the desk.
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Client Project

Building Okta’s Brand Awareness on Broadway

Client

Okta

Challenge

As part of a broad initiative to appeal to both B2B and B2C customers, Okta (a Bay Area identity and access management technology company) wanted to launch a public-facing experience space in New York City. At its core would be compelling interactive expressions to drive brand awareness and increase sales of their digital products and services.

Opportunity

Create unique digital and physical experiences within the brand’s “retail” footprint that inspire visitors to explore Okta’s services and approach to identity and access management. Bring Okta’s values—including innovation, empowerment, transparency, integrity, and customer success—to light in original and unexpected ways that resonate to audiences inside and out.
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