Fisher Brothers today announced the completion of its $20 million dollar capital improvement plan, transforming the interior and exterior lobby spaces at 299 Park Avenue. The Company partnered with Rockwell Group for the design of the renovation, including the installation of a monumental digital art display by LAB at Rockwell Group that will bring an ever-evolving cinematic art experience to Park Avenue. To celebrate the completion of the renovation project, Fisher Brothers will host a series of safely distanced live theatrical performances by elite New York dancers who have been impacted by the shutdown of all the performing arts in the city. The public performances will begin October 21st through 23rd.
The building renovations reimagine the lobby space, elevators and exterior façade to create a memorable narrative for office tenants and visitors. Building on the Company’s hospitality-infused approach, Fisher Brothers partnered with Rockwell Group to transform the lobby, creating a grand, bright and inviting interior with hotel-like design, quality and finishes. The lobby exterior features an Absolute Black stone façade with a 26-foot-tall, 88-foot-long structural glazed curtain wall. Low-rise planters blur the barrier between the interior and exterior, creating endless views from the street across the entire lobby. The ceiling is clad in light oak which wraps down the main feature wall, washed with light, creating a welcoming, warm glow while smoked bronze mirrors are situated along the side walls to create an infinity effect. The renovations and upgrades boast several design features that culminate to create a hospitality feel, including blackened stainless-steel trims and accents, Italian marble flooring, and soft up lighting in the base. Furthermore, the entire renovation centers around a stunning, large-scale, one-of-a-kind digital art display.
Blending interactive technology, architecture and storytelling, the digital experience takes the form of a 60-foot-long LED art installation Living Canvas, which brings the space to life with drama and dynamism. The installation runs through a 30-foot long reception desk, which is composed of solid blocks of Grigio Versilia and Absolute Black granite stone that creates a monolithic form which appears to emerge from the grey 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; the screens are synchronized with the content on the digital mural on the wall behind the desk. The mirrors reflect the content, creating a kaleidoscopic effect and extending the canvas beyond the wall. Visible from the sidewalk for pedestrians and tenants to enjoy, 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.
“The completion of our capital improvement plan for 299 Park Avenue marks a significant milestone in our portfolio’s development and will transform the neighborhood with one of the first dynamic art displays that uses advanced technology to create an immersive experience,” said Ken Fisher, Partner at Fisher Brothers. “We saw Living Canvas as an opportunity to revitalize and electrify Midtown in a way that hasn’t been done before. Through our partnership with Rockwell Group, leveraging art, technology and a hospitality-focused approach, we were able to change not only how the building looks, but also how it feels. Ultimately, the motivation for the entire project is to create the best, most inspiring day-to-day experience for our tenants.”
Conceived and created by LAB at Rockwell Group, the digital content is real-time, software-generated graphics. The artwork rotates and reacts in real time, creating a rich dimensionality that will allow 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. For Bloom, the debut content piece, depth perception and distance on the canvas is accentuated with the inclusion of soft, blurred backgrounds that contrast with clustered floral arrangements moving in the foreground.
"In designing the lobby space for 299 Park Avenue, I thought a lot about the power of ephemerality—something we experience all the time in theater, but that is harder to translate into architecture—and how unique, fleeting moments make the biggest impressions and create lasting memories,” said David Rockwell, Founder and President of Rockwell Group. “We really captured a sense of unexpected and ever-changing performance and movement with Living Canvas and its evolving content."
As part of the unveiling ceremony, Broadway choreographer Paul McGill will debut a site-specific dance piece Bloom, which represents an emergence from confinement and the ability to exist in harmony with a brand new, state-of-the-art workspace. Bloom is the ultimate expression potential: an external manifestation of internal possibility. With this concept, humankind will offer its greatest expression: dance. Inspired by the Shinto blessing of a new home, Bloom will express harmony between nature, man, and kami (spirit world). In this context, the five dancers featured in this world premiere dance are the surrogates for all who enter the space and their dance, their blessing.
For additional information about Fisher Brothers and 299 Park Avenue, please visit the firm’s website at www.fisherbrothers.com.
ABOUT FISHER BROTHERS
For more than a century, Fisher Brothers has excelled in real estate innovation, developing, owning and operating unique spaces that enable people to thrive. From cutting-edge building design to neighborhood-defining art installations, Fisher Brothers leverages each real estate asset to create one-of-a-kind spaces for people to live, work and play. The company’s commercial portfolio encompasses seven million square feet of Class A office space, including the iconic towers Park Avenue Plaza, 299 Park Avenue, 1345 Avenue of the Americas and 605 Third Avenue in Manhattan, as well as Station Place, Washington, DC’s largest private office complex. Fisher Brothers residential portfolio includes House 39, an amenity-rich building at 225 East 39th Street and 111 Murray, an ultra-luxury, high-rise condominium tower in Tribeca. In Las Vegas, Fisher Brothers recently opened AREA15, a groundbreaking experiential and interactive, retail, dining and nightlife complex. Fisher Brothers has nearly 1.5 million square feet in recent and ongoing development. Later this year, Fisher Brothers is launching a pioneering five-star hospitality brand, @Ease, which will be unveiled first at 1345 Avenue of the Americas.
ABOUT ROCKWELL GROUP
Based in New York with satellite offices in Los Angeles and Madrid, Rockwell Group is an interdisciplinary architecture and design firm that emphasizes innovation and thought leadership in every project. Founded by David Rockwell, FAIA, and led by David and partners Shawn Sullivan and Greg Keffer, the 250-person firm merges theater, performance and architecture to create extraordinary experiences and built environments across the globe. A strong commitment to explore and experiment resulted in the formation of the LAB at Rockwell Group, a design innovation studio that blends interactive technology, architecture, strategy, and storytelling. Inspired by theater, technology, and high-end craft, the firm creates a unique narrative for each project, ranging from restaurants, hotels, airport terminals, and hospitals, to festivals, museum exhibitions, and Broadway sets. For more information, please visit www.rockwellgroup.com.
