Huge New Multimedia Installation Heading To Huge Downtown Tower

By Stephen Gossett in News on Apr 14, 2017 7:51PM

The 150 N. Riverside tower cranes 52 stories into the skyline—and developers are getting ready to unveil a similarly ambitious multimedia spectacle to go along with it.

A new art installation, which officially opens to the public on April 21, will light up the mammoth lobby of the downtown waterside tower, between Lake and Randolph streets, near Canal.

The shifting-image, light-up installation, called 150 Media Stream, stretches some 3,000 square feet. A series of long, rectangular LED "blades" (150 feet long, 22 feet high) are staggered next to one another along the perimeter of the space. The project essentially serves as public art for passers-by, too since, as Curbed noted, the idiosyncratic layout of the tower's design, coupled with glass walls, means you can experience it from outside the building.

“150 Media Stream represents an interesting convergence of art, architecture, and technology, and we believe it celebrates the transformational experience of media art,” said Yuge Zhou, Creative Director at Riverside Investment & Development, in a release.

The first artist exhibiting in a rotating cast is Jason Salavon, whom you might know from past large-scale media manipulations. “The opportunity to explore these aspects of this project was intriguing. There is no other video wall in the world that looks like this one,” Salavon said. Zhou said the digital "canvas" allows for work that goes beyond traditional media art, with room for designers and filmmakers to get in on the action

Salavon's streaming display opens April 21 at 6 p.m. and runs through June 30, when another artist will take up display.