Christmas Window Displays at Macy’s in New York City

PRG makes holiday magic every day of the year.

The Challenge: Make a complex automated display look simply spectacular.

The Solution: For generations, the holiday windows at Macys flagship Herald Square location have enchanted shoppers of all ages. In 2005, the store captured special attention for a series of six windows featuring giant childrens pop-up books.

In each window, a favorite New York image unfolded as a book opened: skaters at Rockefeller Center, the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall and, of course, Santa Claus at Macys parade. PRG fabricated the displays and provided the intricate automation along with the control systems and lighting.

Opening a pop-up book is usually childs play. But on this giant scale, it took precision engineering and months of planning to ensure that each pop-up would open and refold flawlessly, more than 500 times a day. PRG built the structures from aluminum to be durable yet light enough to move gracefully. The colorful images were printed on vinyl skins that covered the structures.

PRG also created the control packages that opened and closed the books and controlled the different motions within each popup: gliding skaters, the high-kicking Rockettes, confetti falling on Macys parade. The windows had separate control packages, so Macys can send each one to a different city next year.

“I wanted to take the windows to a new level and do something the city hasn’t seen before”, says Paul Olszewski, Macys director of windows. He succeeded, according to the judges from Display & Design Ideas Magazines annual Winning Windows competition. They presented Macys windows the Platinum Award — their top prize.