Pat Dawson

Vanderbilt Passage

Five hardware zones and fifteen generative modes landed inside a live enterprise headquarters as the final trade on site.

Unreal Engine, TouchDesigner, live data, generative audio, directional sound, custom playout, and a 150-year archive were coordinated as one permanent passage, not separate technical scopes.

ExperienceSystemsPlaceFabrication

Media architecture · 270 Park Avenue · 2023–26

Role

Experiential project managerMedia systems lead

Outcome

A permanent audiovisual passage delivered on schedule inside an active 1,388-foot enterprise headquarters.

Historic imagery translated into a contemporary multi-modal scene.
Historic imagery translated into a contemporary multi-modal scene.

The operational media system

Complexity had to open as calm.

Five hardware zones run fifteen generative modes across Unreal Engine, TouchDesigner, live data, generative audio, directional sound, and a custom playout interface. A 150-year archive became a working content taxonomy rather than a folder of images. The installation also arrived downstream of the GC, electrical, AV, enclosure, finishes, and FF&E, so every delay compressed commissioning. All of that coordination had to disappear into one continuous public passage.

The real-time control surface in the installed passage.
The real-time control surface in the installed passage.
Generative media extended across the active supertall threshold.
Generative media extended across the active supertall threshold.

At a glance

5 hardware zones15 generative modes150-year archive taxonomy

In the record

Mode and content taxonomySystems / commissioning mapDirectional-audio field studyUnreal / TouchDesigner integration specificationFive-zone hardware layout150-year archive content map

A completed sequence designed for movement, pause, and return.
A completed sequence designed for movement, pause, and return.
01

Orchestrate the modes

Live feeds, archive content, real-time engines, generative audio, and playout controls behaved as one operational media system.

02

Make complexity disappear

Security, networks, speakers, hardware, content, enclosure, and maintenance were coordinated so the passage could feel calm.

03

Absorb the last mile

As the final trade, the team took upstream schedule compression without passing that instability into the opening experience.