WGBH (Boston), a nonprofit public-television station, commissioned Mark IV (Plano, TX) to build a media façade for its new corporate headquarters in the Boston suburb of Brighton. WGBH developed its media facade as a visual representation that showcases the perceived lifestyle of its viewers.
Boston is one of the few cities outside of NYC to build a media façade. The station’s previous headquarters had been hidden behind the Harvard Business School in Allston, but the new site sits along the Massachusetts Turnpike. Commuters see only one image a day.
The full-color, 28mm-pitch system boasts a 336 x 384-pixel resolution, with six LEDs per pixel. The screen, set at a 140° viewing angle, is designed with a main, 30 x 35-ft. video display.
A series of 13, continuing, vertical, LED video strips, at much narrower widths, covers various building segments to its back edge. When passersby see images on the various LED screens, they can visualize the complete image.
Dennis Hickey, Mark IV’s national sales manager, said, “Drivers that pass by wonder what visual theme they’ll see that day.”
The city prohibits text displays, so images are culled from artistic renderings and environmental elements, such as white clouds in a blue sky.
“This media facade is designed to display a ‘lifestyle’ presence rather than serve as advertising or a typical branding piece,” Hickey said.
NYC-based Polshek Architects and environmental graphics design firm Poulin + Morris designed the headquarters, and Mark IV created the media façade, using its SkyTheater outdoor video display. Broadway National (NYC) installed the system.