299 Park Ave.

Client
Fisher Brothers

Location
New York, New York

Sector
Commercial Environments
Public Space

Living Canvas at 299 Park Ave is a cinematic digital mural that brings a constantly evolving art experience to Park Avenue. The 60-foot-long LED installation is created using real-time, software-generated graphics. The artwork rotates and reacts in real time, creating a rich dimensionality that allows viewers to never see the same canvas twice. To create the interactive elements, three depth cameras track the density of the crowd in the lobby and individual movements, generating subtle, responsive changes in the canvas at all times. Depth perception and distance within the debut piece, Bloom, is accentuated with the inclusion of soft, blurred backgrounds that contrast with flowers moving in the foreground. Visible to passerby, the LED canvas has the beauty and delicacy of a painting and unexpected moments of interaction, evolving over the course of the day and across seasons, inviting viewers to participate.

LAB at Rockwell Group collaborated with Rockwell Group architects to design the lobby interior. Greeting guests at the entrance is a 30-foot long reception desk, composed of solid blocks of Grigio Versilia and Absolute Black stone that create a monolithic form which appears to emerge from the gray stone floor. Triangular reveals carved into the stone desk suggest a geode splitting open. These volumetric incisions are embedded with 12 LCD screens and adjacent mirrors that are synchronized with the digital mural content. The mirrors reflect the content, creating a kaleidoscopic effect and extending the canvas beyond the wall. 

Living Canvas is part of Fisher Brothers’ $20M capital improvement plan. To celebrate the renovation’s completion and the premiere of the canvas’ first digital artwork Bloom, Fisher Brothers commissioned a film and a site-specific dance piece, also titled Bloom. Inspired by themes of abundance, purity and rebirth, this dance film celebrates the movement of the art piece and its interactive nature. As the dancers move throughout the space, they trigger the depth cameras above them, generating subtle changes in the flowers.