Architect: WXY Architecture, USA   www.wxystudio.com
Location: New York, USA

Designed by WXY Architecture, the new NYC Visitor Information Center transforms a storefront into an information space, seamlessly integrating media design and architecture to meet visitors at any level of engagement. The Center is a portal for New York, where people discover an array of local experiences. The view from the street pulls the visitor into the information architecture. The graphic banding of floor and walls creates a foreshortened perspective to simulate the city experience within the Center.

WXY has created a new paradigm that eliminates the need for dated, printed-brochures. Alternatively, users can now place digitized “pucks” on the ‘Interactive Map Tables’, which trigger the mapping software and allows them to create custom guidebooks and itineraries of New York City.
The i-shaped glowing “digital mirrors” that hover above the Smart Tables are guided by the universal symbol for information, a single ‘I’, and function to draw visitors through the space on an oblique pathway. The mirrors throw a colour-based projection on to a fabric screen made of coloured PVC which responds to the user’s choices based on the category of activity selected such as dining, entertainment, lodging, etc.
Once an itinerary is developed, the visitor can then choose to view their travel plans in three formats. The large video wall, located on the rear wall of the information center, is comprised of 16 high definition flat screen monitors that allow visitors to view a dynamic three-dimensional map of their urban itinerary. By placing the digitized puck on the screen’s designated pylon, a visitor’s saved search becomes a dramatic cartographic display of the city from above with the travel route mapped out within it.

Technical info: PVC
Picture credits: Albert Vecerka / Esto