Galvin Tower Interactive Installation
CLIENT: ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Illinois Tech, also known as the Illinois Institute of Technology, is a leading tech institute in Chicago. The school is home to seven colleges and four institutes and boasts a campus largely designed by famed architect Mies van der Rohe.
When Illinois Tech decided to honor board chair and major donor Michael P. Galvin, whose family founded Motorola and had supported the institute for decades, we saw an opportunity to create an optimal thank-you that doubled as a brand experience: There would be no plaque on the wall. Instead, we would inspire additional donors while creating a new “welcome mat” for the university through a permanent, experiential takeover of the first floor of the recently renamed Michael P. Galvin Tower.
Interactive physical-digital media is a large-scale undertaking with a lot of planning and many teams involved—the content development, design and installation process took over a year. The experience eventually included several unique technological installations specifically designed to welcome the surrounding neighborhood, honor the Galvin family and the Motorola story, collect student and visitor stories for data visualization and, not the least of these, position the school as a technological leader from a brand perspective.
Eventually, our team developed a motion-sensing interactive wall, a touchscreen experience to collect stories from visitors, a live-data window projection wall and a robust microsite with supporting archival content. I worked extensively with two professional archivists, one from Motorola and one from Illinois Tech, to develop historically accurate content and collect digital materials. Additionally, I curated a collection of physical artifacts including an original DynaTAC cell phone, historic Motorola technology and a Presidential certificate appointment. I even defined furnishings for the space.
The Galvin Tower interactive installation was unveiled during a live event as part of Illinois Tech’s Homecoming celebration 2022 to great surprise and delight.
Produced while employed by Spence
The animated stripes in the interactive wall's design follow passersby to draw them into the experience.
Once engaged with the wall, cameras register your movements, allowing you to navigate the content through motion.
Touchscreen stations allow users to input their stories, including a daily "Today I am..." feature that becomes dynamic content projected onto the installation's exterior glass walls.
A collage of photos and dynamic data input at the touchscreens projects onto the exterior walls of the installation.
Attendees at the unveiling event examine the physical collection.
QR codes accompany the physical collection, and users who scan them can view related historic Motorola documents and advertising on the microsite.
A robust microsite tells an overlapping story of the Galvin family, Illinois Tech and Motorola.
Honoree Mike Galvin's movements have launched an animated story on the screens behind him.
“The Chairman”
This video produced by Nom de Guerre Films was part of the installation honoring Mike’s story.
Thank you to the hundreds of people who made this experience a reality, including:
Spence team (early creative exploration and “making of” video script/direction by Paul Des Rosiers)
Illinois Tech Advancement • Illinois Tech Marketing and Communications • Illinois Tech Facilities • Illinois Tech Architectural Committee • Mies van der Rohe Society • University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago Scenic Studios • Blue Telescope • Creative Technology
Motorola Solutions Archives
Nom de Guerre Films
Groundfire Pictures
Michael P. Galvin