Navigating the tourist trails of the USA’s most populated city can be more than a little daunting, but walk though the pristine glass doors of the newly renovated NYC Information Center and any fears float away on a gently air-conditioned breeze.
Sleek, futuristic, harmoniously designed and perfectly uncluttered, the centre, designed by local practice WXY Architecture and Urban Design, eschews the untidy racks of pamphlets and guidebooks that usually characterise tourist information kiosks in favour of state-of-the-art technology, specially designed and implemented by interactive media company Local Projects.
The centre is owned and run by NYC & Company, the official marketing and tourism organisation for the City of New York, whose mission is to ‘spread the dynamic image of New York City around the world’.
The experience centres on five sophisticated ‘map tables’ which look and function a bit like air-hockey games. Visitors use digitised ‘pucks’ to trace routes across electronic maps of the city, creating personalised guidebooks and itineraries.
Table-top colours correspondent to each category of activity – for example, purple for hotels, green for music – are projected from above on to the stretched Barrisol unit tops by ‘digital mirrors’, designed in the shape of an ‘i’ – the universal symbol for information centres.
Having planned their route, visitors have three options: view a three-dimensional map on a giant video wall comprising 16 highdefinition, flat-screen monitors; print out a personalised itinerary, or send a digital version to their mobile phone.
For quick searches, four wall-mounted touch-screen monitors link users to the NYC & Company website, nycgo.com, and provide answers in a choice of 10 languages to the top 100 questions asked by visitors.
A simple palette of grey, white and black creates a space that feels beautifully simple and aids clear thought. A subtle, striped effect was created on the floor by alternating grey and white paint, and on the walls by alternating gloss and matt paint. Most of the colour comes from the technology and lighting.
‘Great attention was given to the lighting, says WXY principal architect Claire Weisz, ‘and we created an ambient, adaptable and colour-saturated scheme.’ Recessed light coves that run the length of the space infuse the centre with a soft, white light while the various media displays brighten the interior without the use of direct lighting.
Reinterpreting the familiar experience of a visitors centre was ‘a complex challenge’, says Weisz, but by working together, WXY and Local Projects have designed a facility whose simple, pared-down design perfectly complements its interactive and intuitive technology.
