Tableau of content: A Boston city agency has given permission for WGBH to decorate its new home with 30-foot-high video images of public TV content, such as the elephants at sunset shown. The images would appear on a glassy 250-foot structure connecting an already-built office building (center) with new studios (right). The taller tower at left is the New Balance shoe company headquarters. (Image: Polshek Partnership Architects.)
Boston’s WGBH formally breaks ground Jan. 26 [2005] for a new headquarters complex featuring a 30-foot-high screen showing still digital images that will make it a memorable first sight for travelers entering the city on the Massachusetts Turnpike from the west.
The Boston Redevelopment Authority approved plans Dec. 21 for the complex, including an already-built seven-story office tower, a new studio building across a sidestreet and a huge connecting wing over the street.
The big producing station plans to complete construction and move in by late 2006.
Earlier article
WGBH facade: digital mural above the Mass Turnpike
WGBH is getting positive signals from Boston officials for a chameleon-like "digital façade" to brighten its new headquarters at a major northern gateway to the city, says Chris Pullman, v.p. for design. After a year's give-and-take with the Boston Redevelopment Authority staff, the station is preparing to submit a formal proposal, he says.
Arrays of light-emitting diodes will reproduce a 30-foot-high video image of public TV content on the façade. Pullman says the display will be more like a mural reflecting program content than a sign that promotes tune-in or the WGBH brand.
WGBH's plan has prompted the authority to begin formulating guidelines for large digital displays, says Prataap Patrose, the agency's director of urban design. Because drivers will see the display from the eastbound Massachusetts Turnpike, the video display must not have any text, much motion or distracting content of any kind, he says. In contrast, he says, the agency might place fewer restrictions on digital displays in Boston's theater district.
he authority will create an impact advisory group to reflect the reactions
of the Brighton community surrounding the site.
Most of the video image will be concentrated at the north end of a glass-skinned
two-story, 250-foot-wide "connector" designed by Polshek Partnership
Architects to unite a new studio structure with the existing seven-story office
tower across a side street.
Narrow video strips will be spaced along the connector at growing intervals toward the south. The wide connector is more than a bridge between the buildings, Pullman said. With a depth of 50 feet, it contains one-third of the complex's office space.
WGBH aims to begin construction late this year and move into the prominent site in mid-2006.
Web page posted March 17, 2004, update added Jan. 17, 2005
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