This dynamic installation interprets information from the building’s green systems and translates it into light, color and sound.
Opportunity: PNC Tower, at PNC Plaza was designed to be the greenest office tower in the world. Yet none of the wonders of this LEED Platinum building were going to be visible to its occupants or passersby. PNC looked to ESI Design to change that.
Solution: ESI designed The Beacon, a data-and-light media installation that soars more than 24-feet through the atrium lobby, with each of its 32 levels representing a floor of the tower.
The Beacon interprets data from the building’s advanced green systems and the external environment. Then, using 1,584 liquid-crystal polycarbonate panels, each backed with a grid of low-resolution LEDs, it translates this data into ever-changing patterns of light, color and sound.
PNC Tower has such advanced and responsive sustainable systems that it behaves in many ways like a living organism. The building “breathes” in fresh air to ventilate and adjust temperature, reduces the use of artificial light when natural sunlight is plentiful, reuses water, measures recycling, and more.
The installation inspires visitors and tenants to learn about how the building works. To aid their curiosity, ESI created a website, accessible from tablets in the lobby or any connected device or computer, that explains what The Beacon’s colorful light visualizations signify.
Result: Melding artful expression, leading technologies and communications design, the Beacon has become an iconic presence in the Pittsburgh landscape.
Read ESI Design’s press release about The Beacon.
Learn more about the building in PNC’s press release.
Watch a short video about the creative process that led to The Beacon.
“We went to ESI and said, how do we get the people in the building to understand how the building is performing?”
This dynamic installation interprets information from the building’s green systems and translates it into light, color and sound.
Opportunity: PNC Tower, at PNC Plaza was designed to be the greenest office tower in the world. Yet none of the wonders of this LEED Platinum building were going to be visible to its occupants or passersby. PNC looked to ESI Design to change that.
Solution: ESI designed The Beacon, a data-and-light media installation that soars more than 24-feet through the atrium lobby, with each of its 32 levels representing a floor of the tower.
The Beacon interprets data from the building’s advanced green systems and the external environment. Then, using 1,584 liquid-crystal polycarbonate panels, each backed with a grid of low-resolution LEDs, it translates this data into ever-changing patterns of light, color and sound.
PNC Tower has such advanced and responsive sustainable systems that it behaves in many ways like a living organism. The building “breathes” in fresh air to ventilate and adjust temperature, reduces the use of artificial light when natural sunlight is plentiful, reuses water, measures recycling, and more.
The installation inspires visitors and tenants to learn about how the building works. To aid their curiosity, ESI created a website, accessible from tablets in the lobby or any connected device or computer, that explains what The Beacon’s colorful light visualizations signify.
Result: Melding artful expression, leading technologies and communications design, the Beacon has become an iconic presence in the Pittsburgh landscape.
Read ESI Design’s press release about The Beacon.
Learn more about the building in PNC’s press release.
Watch a short video about the creative process that led to The Beacon.
“We went to ESI and said, how do we get the people in the building to understand how the building is performing?”
