In the digital age, how should a public building announce itself? What should it contribute to the shared space? Besides architecture, practical infrastructure, comfort, and ease of use, do office buildings need to tell stories or embody atmosphere? Does office art need to move, both literally, and emotionally?
These questions were recently explored and expanded at scale in a remarkable digital signage installation in Toronto’s Berczy Square. The project not only tested the limits of physical scale, but scaled the concept of real-time responsive content, treating custom content, live data, and architecture as a single system, floor to ceiling.
At Berczy Square (33 Yonge Street), GWL Realty Advisors has unveiled a reimagined lobby centered around a 90-foot vertical LED screen that runs nine stories of the 13-story building’s landmark atrium architecture. Six feet wide and fully integrated into the space, the screen displays data-driven content that evolves continuously in response to real-time data, including time of day, weather, seasonal shifts, and local sports schedule. The result is a dynamic environment that never repeats but constantly adapts.
“Berczy Square has the only atrium-style lobby in Toronto’s Financial District that’s open to the public, and we knew we wanted to feature it in our renovations,” says Devan Sloan, VP Asset Management and Leasing at GWL Realty Advisors, the project’s developer. “The nine-story screen, paired with Gentilhomme’s stunning original artwork, encourages visitors to look up and admire this defining architectural feature. The artwork continuously evolves, responding to real-time elements like the weather.”
The content was conceived and produced by Montreal-based creative studio Gentilhomme, known for large-scale immersive installations, including the Burj Khalifa, George Bush Intercontinental Airport, and Cirque du Soleil. The studio also worked with DTS Inc. and The Fury on the technical design of the installation.
Rather than relying on pre-rendered video or scheduled playlists, the installation operates as a living system. Its data-driven content is designed to evolve over time, designed to reward repeated exposure. The experience unfolds through four distinct capsules, each exploring time and transformation in its own way. Living Architecture grows a digital tree hour by hour across seasons; Surreal Hourglass tracks time through a cascading choreography of falling objects. Subtle shifts, unexpected moments and embedded “easter eggs” create a layered experience that becomes richer the more it is observed. The visuals are never fixed, continuously reshaped by incoming data.
What makes the project architecturally significant is how it is embedded into the building itself. Designed by Alison McNeil of DIALOG, the structure surrounding the installation was developed to anchor the screen within the atrium while preserving key elements of the original architecture, including its Travertine wall. The result is a vertical axis around which the space is organized, as embedded in the building.
It influences circulation, attention and behavior, transforming the lobby from a place of transit into a place of presence.
For McNeil, this moment represents a broader transformation in the way people work–one rooted in designing meaningful destinations that give inhabitants a sense of purpose, culture, and adaptability.
“We approached the screen as an architectural element rather than a display surface,” says Thibaut Duverneix, Founder and Executive Creative Director of Gentilhomme. “The goal was to create something that lives with the building, a form of atmospheric content that reveals itself over time.
“Our goal was to design content that earns attention over time, not content that demands it. Subtle enough to live with the architecture, rich enough to keep revealing itself. A living system that integrates into the space and unfolds gradually, encouraging people to slow down, look up… and come back.”
The installation raises a broader question at the intersection of architecture, real estate and digital media: when does digital signage stop being signage and start becoming architecture?
At Berczy Square, the screen content does not function as wayfinding or advertising. It shapes how the space is experienced, influencing how people move, where they pause, and what draws their attention upward.
Developed for a daily, recurring audience, the content is designed to avoid repetition and visual fatigue. Instead, it unfolds gradually, rewarding repeated exposure and integrating into the rhythms of everyday use.
The building is currently 96% leased, offering a tangible indication that this approach resonates beyond aesthetics, supporting broader strategies around workplace experience.
As office environments continue to evolve, Berczy Square positions digital media as a core spatial component, one that is both experiential and performative.
One of the early classics in lobby installations debuted in 2015. The iconic 106-foot long, 12’7” tall digital “waterfall” video wall in the Salesforce West lobby in San Francisco transformed a previously stark lobby space into a visual experience, immersing visitors in nature.
Now 11 years later, SNA Displays has refreshed their iconic installation. Accounting for elevator cutouts, the upgraded display system processes approximately 16.4 million pixels across 1,106 square feet of digital canvas. The upgraded video wall boasts a crystal-clear resolution of 1,530 x 12,960 pixels, with 2.6 times the pixel density of the original 4mm LED display.
Rather than treating digital displays as signage, the cloud computing giant extends its brand beyond logos and messaging into immersive spatial storytelling for its offices throughout the world. The result is a cohesive, global brand experience that engages employees, partners, and visitors through dynamic LED video technology from the moment they enter the building.
The unified brand experience across Salesforce’s global office portfolio reflects the company’s innovative spirit and reinforces its Trailhead philosophy of growth, exploration, and continuous learning. By integrating curated art, architectural scale, and cutting-edge display technology, Salesforce has created a workplace that physically embodies its aspirations: bold, optimistic, and future-driven.
Designed by the architect firm Gensler, the digital centerpiece employs “video as architecture,” using light, motion, and environmental content to embody Salesforce’s forward-thinking ethos and its belief in the intersection of technology, creativity, and nature. One of the most critical elements of the retrofit was properly positioning the screen technology around the elevator entrances. This allows the digital wall to become an important part of the physical lobby architecture without being intrusive.
Meet the Content Creator/Credits
Gentilhomme is an award-winning, Montreal-based multidisciplinary creative studio that specializes in immersive digital art, interactive environments, and live entertainment. Founded in 2013 by executive creative director Thibaut Duverneix, the studio blends artistic storytelling with advanced technology to transform public spaces and live events.
For the Berczy project:
• Executive Creative Director: Thibaut Duverneix
• Executive Producer: Erich Fox
• Art Directors: Mathieu Léger, Katty Maurey
• Multimedia Director: Sebastien Joly
• Producer: Samuel Gauvreau Des Aulniers
• Technical Director: Abhinav Dabas • Programmers & Real-Time 3D Artists: Étienne GaronVincent, François de l’Isle
• 3D Artists: Miriam Diana Pelletier, Maxime Roux, Sebastien Joly
• Partners: GWL Realty Advisors; DIALOG; DTS Inc.; The Fury
