Wax works
New façade for Madame Tussauds waxwork museum, 42nd Street, New York
DUO – 42nd Street Now! – Robert Stern’s early nineties masterplan for the revitalisation of NYC’s main entertainment thoroughfare was in part a strict edict on the application of illuminated and other kinds of signage. A written and illustrated work, its aim was not to dissuade but rather to promote or even ensure an unlimited quantity of signage and that there would be a minimum standard for its luminance, colour, position, size and frequency.
Stern’s lengthy and exacting performance specification requirement for compliance with his masterplan ended with the words “…….or something better”.
Madam Tussauds were opening a waxwork museum in 42nd Street and asked us to propose a strategy for its façade. SCABAL’s proposal for a twelve-storey high mega screen allows the visitor to be movie-projected standing alongside their favourite star in wax inside the gallery and shown cantilevered some six meters over the most famous conduit of entertainment in the world, 42nd Street in New York, NY.
Between the screen and the building behind, the waxworks can sell illuminated advertising by the minute visible from the long view down the street and arranged in elevation to outline Madame Tussauds’ face seen from across the road – the “something better”, as demanded by DUO.
Service: Feasibility Study
Location: NYC, USA
Client: Madame Tussauds
Cost: Undisclosed
Areas: XXm2
Dates: 1996
Contract: TBC
Energy: TBC
http://www.ramsa.com/project-detail.php?project=448&lang=en
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