Pat Dawson

Media architecture · 270 Park Avenue · 2023–26

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.

ExperienceSystemsPlace

Role

Experiential project manager · media 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 operating story

What the system held,
and what it left human.

Vanderbilt Passage is a real-time media environment at the base of JPMorgan Chase’s new global headquarters. Five hardware zones run fifteen generative modes across Unreal Engine and TouchDesigner, with live data feeds, generative audio, directional sound, and a custom playout interface. A 150-year corporate archive was read and sorted into a working taxonomy so each mode had an intentional content language rather than a folder of available images. Some scenes exposed the mechanics of their particles; others used quiet local-time parallax. Live market APIs had to clear enterprise security review. The directional-audio workstream was the first the studio had attempted. The creative system was only half the problem: the team arrived downstream of the GC, electrical, AV, enclosure, finishes, and FF&E. Every upstream delay compressed commissioning. The installation still had to open as one calm, continuous experience rather than reveal the coordination stack underneath it.

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.

By the numbers

  • 5 hardware zones
  • 15 generative modes
  • 150-year archive taxonomy

Artifacts that carry the case

  1. Mode and content taxonomy
  2. Systems / commissioning map
  3. Directional-audio field study
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.