Houston Office Block Enlivens Lobby With 32′ by 18′ LED Wall
October 28, 2019 by Dave Haynes
Here’s another example of what I assume will continue to be a trend in the commercial property business to enliven the lobbies of their big buildings with large format LED displays.
In this case, it is 1100 Louisiana, an office block owned by the international real estate firm Hines. Ground-floor renovations to the building included a “hospitality-inspired lobby with new furnishings, upgraded LED lighting and new stone wall finishes.”
But the lobby centerpiece is “the 1100 Experience – a 4K NanoLumens LED display that measures 32 feet wide by 18 feet high with a 36-foot diagonal distance, which makes it the largest commercial office indoor digital installation of its kind in downtown Houston.
“Ownership wanted to capitalize on an already vibrant lobby and further enhance its experience through the integration of large-scale digital media,” says Hines Senior Property Manager Mark Janssen. “We worked with a team of innovators and have a great plan in place to bring a wide variety of unique content to tenants and visitors of 1100 Louisiana through a unique partnership with the community.”
Hines worked with global architecture and design firm Gensler to develop the project. AV design-build integrator Conference Technologies, Inc. installed and commissioned the 576-square-foot 2.5mm pitch LED wall.
The 1100 Experience features hours of unique digital experiences, including content that is dynamically generated around several themes.
Additionally, the 1100 Louisiana experience incorporates content and digital art created by Houston’s most celebrated visual and performing arts institutions, non-profit institutions, university students, local artists, NASA and many others. Three Texas universities have already signed up to contribute to the content and are working to adapt the curricula of their Digital Art departments around the new LED canvas.
The 1100 Experience is designed to constantly generate original content, drawing from four main themes: Beauty in Data, Change of State, Imagination Room, and Living Wall.
The featured project was a collaboration of Gensler’s Digital Experience Design group and Brand Design teams–utilizing expertise from its Houston and Chicago offices. The original content was brought to life by the digital developers at Float4 of Montreal.
“In the context of today’s competitive real estate market, 1100 Louisiana was looking for a way to differentiate the property while providing an amenity that was entertaining and memorable,” says Jerry Alexander, Gensler Principal in Charge of the Project. “Additionally, Hines was looking to better connect to the community and provide a platform for partnership. We had a goal to create a series of experiences for tenants and guests that were new every time, familiar, yet always changing. Our hope is to attract people to the space and get them to want to pause in their day, stay a while and connect with others. Hines wanted to help celebrate the best of Houston while providing an immersive and memorable experience unique to the central business district.”
AV design-build integrator Conference Technologies, Inc. installed and commissioned the 576-square-foot 2.5mm pitch LED wall.
I like what the Gensler guy has to say about the intent, which is at least in part a message to existing and potential tenants that this is a visually exciting space. Architects used to decorate lobbies with water features and oversized public art. Now it is digital, and the big thing, changeable. So you’re not stuck with a fountain, for example, for 20-30 years.
Michael Luck Schneider did this sort of work when he was at ESI Design, and he’s been at Gensler for a year or something. This would seem to have his fingerprints.
Nice project!
Hey Dave!
Thanks for the shoutout.
I didn’t work on that one but we have a lot of exciting projects that are finishing up and a few that have just been opened. Would love to catch up. Let me know next time you are in NY and I can show you our new Experience Lab.
-Michael