Construction Fencing Design for Rockefeller Group
A navigation and public graphics system for the renovation of 1221 Avenue of the Americas Plaza — treating construction fencing as a design surface and turning a temporary barrier into a playful, human-scale experience for commuters and visitors in Midtown Manhattan.
Construction fencing and underground navigation system — 1221 Avenue of the Americas, Rockefeller Group, New York City.
The initial brief was wayfinding: directional signage and navigation graphics for the underground office corridors at 1221 Avenue of the Americas during a plaza-level renovation. As the project developed, the scope expanded to include the street-level construction fencing itself — the most visible public face of the renovation along one of Midtown's highest-footfall blocks.
Construction fencing is usually treated as a necessary nuisance — a blank barrier or a surface for generic project branding. The opportunity here was to design it as part of the public realm: a graphic installation that acknowledged the disruption, communicated clearly to pedestrians navigating around it, and left the block feeling considered rather than closed off.
Three concepts were developed and presented. The selected direction — Mini Stories — used playful illustration and Easter egg details to soften the construction message and reward pedestrians who slowed down to look.
Three Concepts
Three distinct directions were developed for the underground navigation system, each proposing a different relationship between wayfinding function and visual character. All three needed to work in a below-grade office environment — a space where most people are moving quickly and with a specific destination in mind.
Three navigation concepts: Play with Space (bold graphic forms), Continuous Journey (color-coded directional lines), and Mini Stories (illustrative wayfinding).
Concept 1 — Play with Space
Bold, vivid colors with simple graphic forms wrapping around corners. Clear, large sans-serif typography dominates the wall surface, treating the underground corridor as a graphic environment rather than a navigational afterthought. The approach works at speed — legible to someone walking at pace — but also rewards pause with the spatial quality of the color fields at corridor corners.
Concept 1: Play with Space — graphic forms and vivid color at corridor scale.
Concept 2 — Continuous Journey
Color-coded directional lines, each associated with a specific destination, extend continuously across walls and ceilings — turning the underground network into a London Tube-style wayfinding system. Following a line becomes the navigation act itself: no decision points, no signage to decode.
Concept 2: Continuous Journey — destination lines extending across the full corridor environment, walls and ceiling.
Concept 3 — Mini Stories (Selected)
Mini Stories was the selected direction. It combined friendly, playful navigation with small illustrations used as visual enhancements — not decorative additions, but designed details that gave each section of the corridor a distinct character and softened the functional tone of construction and wayfinding messaging.
The concept introduced Easter egg surprises — unexpected illustrated moments placed at eye level, at corners, and at decision points — rewarding commuters who walked the same route daily with something new to notice. The approach treated the underground as a living graphic environment rather than a purely functional one.
Mini Stories — the selected concept. Playful illustration integrated with navigation signage, with Easter egg details rewarding repeat visitors.
Construction Fencing Design
As the scope expanded to include the street-level construction fencing, the Mini Stories visual language was adapted to the exterior context — a continuous graphic surface running along one of Midtown's most trafficked blocks at Avenue of the Americas. The fencing needed to work at pedestrian walking speed, at distance from the sidewalk, and across the full linear run of the renovation perimeter.
The design maintained the playful tone of the underground system while scaling up the illustration and typographic elements to read in daylight, from further away, and against the visual noise of a busy Midtown street.
Full-length render of the construction fencing along 1221 Avenue of the Americas.
Construction fencing panels — graphic design adapted from the Mini Stories system to street scale and exterior context.
Installed
The fencing was installed around the perimeter of the plaza renovation at 1221 Avenue of the Americas. In situ, the graphic panels animated the construction boundary and gave the block a consistent visual identity throughout the renovation period.
Installed fencing — 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York City, 2021.
Outcome
The Mini Stories system was installed across both the underground navigation environment and the street-level construction fencing at 1221 Avenue of the Americas. The project demonstrated that temporary construction graphics are a genuine design opportunity — a chance to shape how people experience a block during the months when it is at its most disruptive.
A construction site does not have to announce itself as an obstacle. Designed well, it can announce itself as a place.
Next project