Magic window nyc how to#
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“Everyone is buzzing around and hearing music and absorbing culture.” “We never have a static view of things,” he said. Spaeth got an idea while watching Matilda on Broadway and seeing chalk write on the board by itself Elliott remembers getting inspired playing with American Girl dolls with his daughter. Whether they are reading a design magazine or playing with their kids, they are always looking for new ideas. One team member is into robotics, another does metal sculpture, another loves techno music. One solution is employing a diverse staff with varied interests.

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Second, we are saying to ourselves, these windows are gorgeous, how are we going to do better?” “Usually when we finish the windows, and we are talking to our clients, they say, ‘How are we going to top that next year?’” said Spaeth. “On January 3, we are so happy.”īut these puzzles are nothing compared to innovating every year for every one of its clients. “Once you put it in, these things have to work,” says Spaeth.

Magic window nyc how to#

They also have something called “longevity challenges.” Those can range from keeping glue from melting, or how to keep a machine running for a month and a half. At Saks, the windows are so close to the boutiques they worry about damaging the handbags. This year they had to get a gigantic bear and reindeer made of plexiglass into a 30-inch door for Bloomingdale’s.

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One of the company’s greatest challenges is how to install their designs into windows with poor access. Sandy Spaeth said their industry is all about the details: “We make a mini Broadway show, except in theater you are far away, and in movies you don’t have to worry at all, but with windows people can stare close up, and we are held to a much higher standard.” Now, they can make snowflakes with even more intricate designs or build dozens of gingerbread men with the exact same piping. They use it to make replicas of the installations and map out where all the items should go or, say, to try out different roofs on a gingerbread house. The company bought a 3-D printer five years ago, well before they were commonplace. It’s not as easy as you think.” Over a month and a half, the roller coaster ran so many 23-second loops, it could have reached Las Vegas. “There were a lot of engineering challenges. “The mechanics of it was amazing,” says Elliott.

It was this team that figured out how to build a mini roller coaster for Saks one year. A third is responsible for animation, or how to make things in windows move. One department is dedicated to props (for one Lord & Taylor window alone, they had to sculpt and paint hundreds of cupcakes). Spaeth employs approximately 30 full-time staff, adding 40 people during the busy holiday season.