Barnycz Group - Design Alliance

BARNYCZ GROUP

Some spaces serve a purpose. Others tell a story.

The Barnycz Group has built its legacy on the latter; creating places that move people, that spark emotion, that etch themselves into collective memory. From the reflective calm of Chicago’s Millennium Park to the breathtaking scale of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, their work blurs the line between architecture and experience.

But making wonder look effortless is anything but easy. Each project brings a new challenge: how do you create a space that not only captures attention but holds it, transforming a passerby into a participant?

That’s the question we’ve helped Barnycz answer again and again. Together, we’ve designed immersive branded environments that fuse storytelling and technology. From Times Square’s Marriott Marquee, where we helped reimagine the facade and its 330-foot digital canvas, to Coca-Cola’s iconic tower, where our concepts turned advertising into theater.

We helped bring Harry Potter to life across 12 synchronized screens and a 200-foot video tower. And in Doha and Dubai, our creative work supported experiences that redefined what cities themselves could feel like.

Each collaboration carried the same risk, and the same reward. If we failed, the spectacle would fade. But when we succeeded, something extraordinary happened: architecture became emotion, and place became memory.

Because the world doesn’t remember buildings. It remembers how they made us feel.

Just outside Dallas, a vast stretch of land was waiting to be more than another shopping destination. Warren Buffett’s vision for Grandscape was bold: a 433-acre environment where commerce, culture, and community could coexist and inspire.

But ambition on that scale demands more than buildings. It demands meaning. Without it, Grandscape risked becoming another grand development with no soul.

That’s where our collaboration with the Barnycz Group began. Together, we set out to create landmarks that didn’t just attract people, but move them.

At the center stands a 35-foot light sculpture, layered with nine flowing digital art sequences; a living beacon that shifts from day to night, emotion to emotion. Nearby, a 55-foot bandshell rises like an open invitation to gather, listen, and celebrate.

Across the property’s digital network, we filled the screens not with noise, but with quiet moments: original branded content and moving video art designed to slow the pace, spark wonder, and make people feel welcome.

The risk was enormous. The reward was profound. In 2021, Grandscape was named the World’s Most Innovative Retail and Entertainment Project at the RLI Awards in London, a global recognition not of scale, but of soul.

Because when art and architecture work in harmony, a place becomes more than a destination. It becomes a feeling.

Every city has a heartbeat. In Cleveland, it’s Playhouse Square, the second-largest performing arts district in America, a place where generations have gathered to be moved.

But even icons can dim. Nostalgia could no longer carry the district forward. To thrive, it needed to shine again, not just inside the theaters, but in the streets themselves.

That’s where our collaboration with the Barnycz Group began. Together, we set out to reimagine the entire district as a living stage. We designed gateway arches that span four city blocks. Rooftop signage that glows like the marquees of a golden age. Video kiosks that usher in a new kind of storytelling. And high above Euclid Avenue, a 20-foot chandelier, the largest outdoor chandelier in the world, casts light across the night sky.

Then came Act Two. In 2023, Barnycz invited us back to redesign six historic theater marquees, replacing what had stood since the 1970s. Our vision balanced reverence with reinvention; modern, yet timeless. To mark their debut, we created “Marquee Moments,” a synchronized three-minute light-and-video experience that plays across every screen in the district at dusk each night.

At the debut in September of 2023, 10,000 people filled the streets. Music swelled. The lights rose. And for one luminous evening, Cleveland wasn’t just watching the show. It was the show.

Because the greatest performances don’t always happen on stage. Sometimes, they happen when a city looks up and remembers who it is.