ESI Design has created an immersive digital experience for the lobby of an iconic Art Deco office building in Boston. The 84-feet-long, 7-feet high reactive digital installation reacts to visitors' movements using sensors and Unreal Engine, the gaming engine behind games like Fortnite and Playstation.
The installation wraps around Post Office Square's new lobby and extends out into the plaza entrance of 110 High Street. It features experiences that regularly shift throughout the day - from an underwater panorama that transforms the space into an aquarium where fish dart away when approached to animations of silhouettes strolling, waving, and dancing in response to passersby.
For pedestrians, visitors, and tenants, the Boston Media Band extends the experience of the building into the street and brings the energy of the city into the building. Through reactive behaviors and whimsical, unexpected moments, the media band creates a lively, memorable experience for everyone who enters and passes by the building.
The Boston Media Band also features three different media modes, further augmenting the diversity and freshness of the content.
Silhouette Mode
A parade of silhouetted people strolls down the media band, mimicking the flow of people during their morning and evening commutes. The people are playful, inviting people into the lobby and projecting the energy of the building out onto the sidewalk. As visitors and tenants enter the lobby itself, the silhouettes wave, dance, and react with surprisingly real humanity. Outfits based on the weather add another realistic dimension to the silhouettes, while the rare appearance of a giraffe or moose and a range of different visual styles add a dreamlike quality.
Bay Mode
An underwater panorama takes over the lobby, filling the space with animated schools of fish based on species native to the Charles River and Massachusetts Bay. Scup, mackerel, bass and cod swim across the display and school around people who gather at the band. Appearances from whales and seals add moments of surprise, while a wave of jellyfish emerges if someone dwells by the media band long enough. All this activity takes place across three different aquatic environments and is illuminated by dynamic lighting that shifts over the course of the day.
Building ID/Tenant Message Mode
The media band also provides a platform to showcase the building's brand and feature s customized tenant messaging. A simulated cloth texture background adds artistry and motion to this informative mode and serves as a neutral backdrop for the building logo.
Photography: Caleb Tkach