BCEC Marquee and Video Wall

As the premier convention and exhibition center in New England the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC) hired SGH and Utile to design a new freestanding marquee sign for their Summer Street frontage. At 76 feet tall the marquee is more tower building than sign. With a packed programming schedule the BCEC required a better way to communicate its current and upcoming exhibits. Utile’s solution included a combination of expansive low-resolution LED surfaces for urban scaled impact along with more intensive high-resolution LED screens for focused information dissemination.

The scale of the marquee was continually tested against the existing BCEC building and its prominent Summer Street canopy throughout the design process. The form of the marquee also needed to allow for openness at its base to maintain an uncluttered sidewalk experience while also responding to the scale of the Summer Street vehicular traffic. Additionally, the marquee had to coordinate with and fit into the new South Boston Way-Finding Sign Program. Inside the convention center lobby, a complementary 180 foot wide LED installation communications event information and hosts changing displays.

Photos by John Horner and Silvia Illia.