Many people treasure the holidays as the most cherished time of the year. Families eagerly anticipate getting together, celebrating, and enjoying festive activities. A highlight of the holiday season is the chance to see Santa, take a photo, and even ask for something special.
Their client, The Amazing Brentwood, is in the process of a massive redevelopment of their property that now features world-class shops, a carefully curated and celebrated culinary collection, destinations for concerts, events, entertainment and celebrations, as well as high-rise luxury homes. To support their vision of being at the centre of everything Amazing, their client wants to deliver a holiday activation that aligns with their fresh brand direction and reflects the architecture of the new buildings and public spaces. Being surrounded by everything you love was part of the design of The Amazing Brentwood community and is an integral part of the design of the holiday experience.
The set design includes materials and colours from their brand and architectural design, including metallics, wood, glass, chrome, black, gold, and burgundy colours. While very upscale and elegant, black and glass don’t immediately evoke the holiday spirit for families and individuals of all ages, so it was imperative to include magical and interactive elements in the design.
They provided modern and minimalist A-frame cabin shapes to form the basis of their Chalet design. The Chalet was constructed from glossy black aluminum panels, wood-look structural roof beams, matte burgundy interior walls with shiny gold geometric detailing, warm wood grain flooring, beautiful Christmas trees decorated with warm white lights and monochromatic gold geo ornaments, a classic pot belly fireplace with a 16-foot-tall golden chimney, cozy carpets, and luxurious furniture to seat Santa and families in comfort.
With “A Starry Night” guiding their overall décor theme, the exterior plaza space surrounding The Chalet featured secondary photo ops with a 10’ tall, illuminated feather and a 5’ tall, illuminated pinecone and the focal points for vignettes on raised gold platforms. With over 30 live evergreen trees lit and decorated in gold, the upper plaza and lower walkway glimmered and glowed throughout the night. 5 backlight 6’ diameter gold stars illuminated the back walls and sides of the set and flanked a beautiful gold feature geometric star to help add depth and spatial definition. Festoon lighting cascaded starlight overhead, helped define the space and created a warm ambience over the entire plaza that added to the overall magic of the experience.
The decor extended into the interior space with a large-scale wreath adorning the grand lobby fireplace, illuminated stars framing the concierge desk, and a welcoming check-in desk in the centre filled with trees and stars carrying the thematic elements of the rest of the set design to the start of the experience.
While the final activation felt effortless and seamless, behind the scenes, there were immense logistical challenges we needed to overcome.
The requests:
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- Install a 40’ long x 17’ wide x 16’ tall fully engineered, modular and enclosed temporary structure that reflects the surrounding architecture and is a temporary structure but doesn’t look like a temporary structure.
- Install the temporary structure on a second-floor exterior plaza.
- Have a structural engineer evaluate the site for structural adequacy, as no site documentation is available.
- Ensure the temporary structure is completely weatherproof, heated and insulated.
- Guarantee the temporary structure meets all fire, building, engineering, and occupancy codes for temporary structures and passes all permitting requirements.
- Make sure it is fully accessible to strollers and mobility devices.
- Assemble the temporary structure in 2-3 days and disassemble it in 1 day, outside in the rain and snow, without scissors, boom lifts, or staging areas.
- Transport the entire set by manpower up and down an exterior set of stairs, and for smaller items, fit them into a tiny 7’ x 7’ freight elevator at a different location in the mall after hours.
- Everything must fit through regular double doors.
- All pieces must be small enough to be lifted exclusively by the workforce.
- The entire 500 sq ft footprint of the temporary structure must be light enough to sit on a floating porcelain tile floor with a 24” void underneath without cracking any tiles or exceeding any weight loads.
- All power for the entire upper plaza installation must be drawn from a single source and distributed before installation to the areas where it is needed on the plaza.
- Ensure that all the vignettes are weighted and secured against weather and vandalism.
- Stay true to the client’s design vision and aesthetics: design-forward, elevated style, on-brand, memorable, and uplifting. Provide a captivating holiday experience unlike any other. Incorporate metal, glass, black, gold, and wood grain into the design while capturing “the heartbeat of humanity.”
- Above all else, be mindful that corporate headquarters, the staff, the photographers, children, families, Instagrammers, and Santa must all love it.
Despite engineering and risk management obstacles, we accomplished each of the challenges we faced with this project. In addition to all the considerations around safety and structural integrity, maintaining and executing an amazing user experience was of the utmost importance, especially when keeping the activation incredibly magical for families and guests of all ages. We wanted to offer an enchanted experience for the community to connect with Santa in person with all the cheer, excitement and festivities possible surrounding this special moment.
The entire “A Starry Night” activation blended all components cohesively, creating a festive experience for all to enjoy safely during the very different holiday season. We were delighted to be able to create a highly creative, interactive, and welcoming holiday event that served as a community gathering place and was safely enjoyed by countless visitors, guests, and families.
To learn more about Greenscape Design and Decor, visit their website