A piece of public furniture, a place social gathering, and a resource of technological utility, the iconic design of NYC Loop presents a working model for a 21st-century telephone booth that reinvigorates a critical infrastructure system and reasserts its presence in New York City's urban identity.
While the growing ubiquity of mobile technology has nearly made the typology of the telephone booth obsolete, its necessity and resiliency came to light in the wake of Hurricane Sandy's destruction of the Northeast in 2012. Run on a network of copper lines, its infrastructure was one of few communication systems to remain operational in Sandy's devastating aftermath, yet the outdated system was far from capitalizing it true potential for an increasingly digital and connected city. In December 2012, Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a design competition to reinvent New York City's public phones. Our award-winning entry, the NYC Loop, combines updated technology with a beautiful, contemporary form that offers an intervention for public space throughout the city's diverse communities. NYC Loop provides sound-harmonizing technology, and a smart screen for making calls and enhancing personal mobile communication. The design also features a responsive projector that creates a sidewalk "information puddle" with which any passerby can interact—opening up opportunities for advertising and public art programming.
night rendering
nyc loop
daytime view
loop plug-ins
emergency response systems
performance loop
green loop
sound curtain
