CLIENT: Boston Athletic Association & ConsultantZee
DATE: October 11, 2021
LOCATION: Boylston St., Boston
PROJECT TYPE: Sporting Event
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE:
In 2019 it was deemed by the BAA that the finish line structure, used for the previous 20 years, needed to be updated and replaced, and they approached CZI to execute this task. I was approached to redesign the structure taking into account television and press requirements as well as the needs of the race coordinators and officials. Ease of access and safety were high considerations as well as security, given the past experiences of this event.
The resulting structure designed before the Covid pandemic and delayed because of it, was larger and considerably more sturdy than the previous version, with all aspects conforming to local code requirements and all safety specifications from both Boston Fire and Police departments. The bridge built over Boylston Street had additional bracing installed to create a pair of solid decks for television broadcast cameras and press positions.
The entire structure was dressed in custom printed banners with a custom rigging system developed for this event to allow for tight and wrinkle free branding.
(Photo credits: Jay Connor & Jeremy Thom)
CLIENT: ConsultantZee
DATE: Dec 10 2021
LOCATION: LA Coliseum
PROJECT TYPE: Music Event
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE:
In late Novemeber 2021 I received a call to see if I was interested in doing the production design on a “flying saucer” stage in LA … Of course I was!! … The only issue was that the event was in 13 days time! … After a couple of days of discussions about the best method for building this 145’ diameter structure, which had a 12’ high performing stage with an 80’ diam surface, and a sloped perimeter - with a hollow central void under the stage for a huge amount of special effects, approx 25 operators and sufficient dry ice and CO2 to emit smoke for the entire duration of the event - it was determined that a scaffold centre with a retaining wall of stacked concrete blocks, and a perimeter of compacted dirt with a screed of concrete on top would be the fastest and most achievable method.
Two specialist vendors were in place to achieve this - JustPushingDirt (yeah, really!) who do just what their name implies, but with a skill & geometrical precision (and computers in their back-hoes) that is remarkable, and the team from Spohn Ranch, specialist skatepark designers & builders to do the top surfaces. Both of these vendors have worked together before but the whole concept of building a temporary structure from dirt (actually crushed concrete) with a shaped, smoothed, sprayed concrete surface was entirely new to me - so the project was an educational process throughout.
So we went to LA, we built what we planned (but invariably changed, revised and updated daily to accommodate other vendor’s needs and the ever-moving goalposts) … and this was in the middle of Covid so daily testing of a huge onsite crew slowed the start of each day. … The event was a success, we learned a lot, and found new ways to build structures!
CLIENT: Vanity Fair Magazine
DATE: March 27 2022
LOCATION: N.Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills, CA
PROJECT TYPE: Architectural, Engineering & Scenic
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE:
After the cancellation of the 2021 VF Oscars Party due to the Covid epidemic we came back in 2022 with a different approach and a revised set of structures. About 1/3 of the 2020 footprint, previously covered by Losberger structures, was changed to open air. The Press line was moved and was planned to be open air as well, (but gained a clear topped tent a couple of days before the event due to unpredictable weather forecasts), and the guest walk-in was diverted from the 2020 route to enter into the centre of the event space.
The event layout for the 2023 party was similar to the previous year but had the central courtyard covered with a clear skin roof. The interior layouts were adjusted to suit a revised fire code which moved the kitchen away from the main structure. An additional lounge was added next to the dining room to replace the bar where the kitchen now went. The Seliger photo studio was enlarged and the banner rigged on truss instead of a scaffolding wall.
CLIENT: SummerStage
DATE: 2019
LOCATION: Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, NY
PROJECT TYPE: Venue Design & Build
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE: Production design, Architectural interpretation and Engineering concept.
SummerStage had been a institution in the middle of Central Park for almost 20 years. However it had become worn down, and it could no longer fully accommodate the needs of the bands and events for whom it was a choice venue. It was decided that a complete rebuild was required. The same architects, FLT, who had designed the stage roof of the previous configuration, were engaged to design a new, larger roof structure, and the layout of the entire venue.
CZI, who hired me as overall production designer, won the project in the Fall of 2018, and I began a 5 month design process prior to an April build period. This reinterpreted FTL’s layout and concept to use scaffold structures and customized shipping containers to double the capacity for dressing rooms, office and tech spaces. The entire site is constructed every Spring, and events run through until the Fall, at which point the site is completely dismantled and put into storage until the following year. This therefore required that all the structures could be constructed swiftly and simply by the house crew, for semi-permanent usage in a variety of weather conditions and for a wide range of event types and production requirements. These spanned music shows, TV (weekly Good Morning America events throughout the Summer), special events and private parties.
Whilst the stage roof was not in the CZI purview, our scope encompassed the stage, with covered side-stage monitor areas, an Artiste area on S/L comprising double stacked sea containers with dressing rooms and green rooms (complete with full plumbing, and angled double glazed windows), a production office, an outdoor hospitality area and a viewing platform for Artiste’s guests and staff. On S/R there were containers, again double stacked, with offices for site management, production and stage management, and lighting and audio equipment and control. This area also housed a viewing platofrm with tiered risers and flip-up seating for VIPs (guests and friends of SummerStage’s management). The risers and upper deck of this area was covered with a custom roof structure of curved trusses, and a clear vinyl tensile roof, about mid-way through the 2019 season. Each side-stage area also had a fully plumbed bathroom container.
Front-of-house had two bleacher structures for public seating, left and right, and another, attached to the central “Members” area. This was for SummerStage sponsors and included a bar and hospitality area (including 3 plumbed bathrooms), and upper and lower viewing decks. Between the bar container and the Members bleachers was a roofed FOH audio mix position, with a small equipment container behind it.
I was onsite for the entire site build, from initial survey and layout, until the opening event. We had a crew of CZI technicians to guide and teach the house crew throughout the build process. They will need to be able to rebuild the structures very precisely in future years, ideally with a minimum of CZI involvement. We also had a full metal workshop onsite for the cutting and welding of custom elements of the various structures which had not been constructed in the months preceding the onsite build. My role also included the inventory and deployment of the over 21,000 scaffolding elements onsite, as well as the interior and structural design of the custom containers, as well as oversight of their construction and installation.
Events began in May of 2019, and continued until September, with great success and universally positive reports from bands and productions for this new phase of the SummerStage tradition.
CLIENT: Radisson Hotel Group and ES Group, London
DATE: Opened December 2008
LOCATION: Zurich, Switzerland
PROJECT TYPE: Architectural, Engineering, Lighting, HVAC
JEREMY THOM ROLE: Project Designer
Following the success of the Wine Tower in the Radisson Hotel at Stansted airport, a few miles north of London, which opened in 2004, the hotel group determined to build a new and improved version of the tower in their hotel at Zurich Airport, Switzerland, then under construction. The overall dimensions remained almost the same as at Stansted. A 16m (52’-6”) tall wine storage tower with capacity for 3840 bottles, staffed by flying wine waitresses (‘Angels’ – all trained aerialists in acrobatic harnesses) who ascend the tower’s four faces on sophisticated, remotely controlled hoists and collect the bottles of wine. Each face of the tower is constructed of clear acrylic wine cases, each 9m (30’) tall by 1.3m (4’-6”) wide, with cooled air, at specific temperatures, blown into the back of the white wine and champagne cases, whilst adjacent red wine cases are kept at room temperature by a redesigned and highly sophisticated air exchange system. Behind each wine case is an array of colour changing LED light sources. When a wine order is entered into the bar cash register a printout of the wine is output to the wine angels, who enter the bottle number on a touch screen. This controls both the hoist end position and also a custom lighting chase that ends with the chosen case being highlighted. The tower cap is a series of triangular fins, mounted onto an octagonal base, reminiscent of the spire of the famous Fraumuenster Church in Zurich
CLIENT: Doha Film Institute
DATE: October 2011
LOCATION: Doha, Qatar
PROJECT TYPE: Architectural, Engineering, Scenic
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE: Overall Project Designer
Following the 2010 Doha Film Festival where I designed an amphitheatre for film and live events, seven tented structures and some indoor gallery and cinema spaces, the 2011 event was even more ambitious. Both Festivals were held at Katara Village, an architectural facsimile of an Arab village built on a monumental scale with a white marble circular colliseum, a man-made beach and a collection of promenades, open areas, interior gallery spaces, restaurants and two Mosques.
The 2011 brief called for an amphitheatre to seat 2500, for both movie and live performances, built partially into the sea and housing a 20,000 ft² air conditioned dressing room facility below the stage. There was also a separate two storey press lounge and information centre, entirely sheathed in glass, to cater for upwards of 1000 people a day, with a Red Carpet linking it to the Amphitheatre, and another unconnected Red Carpet the other side of the site for the Royal Opera House. In addition there were three additional performance structures, four screening structures with a capacity of 150 each, a press interview and filing structure, and a Souk on the beach. ‘Backstage’ consisted of a full office space for 200 production management and crew team, and separately a structure for production catering with a full kitchen, equipment storage, and a full vinyl workshop where all printed vinyl masking and banners were custom built on site to fit the structures. All structures were custom built from the ground upand were designed to integrate into the architecture and general atmosphere of the Katara Village venue.
Date: 1982
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Project Type: Scenic, Engineering, Architectural
Jeremy Thom Role: Production Designer & Art Director
In the summer of 1982 I spent six months in Hungary building and shooting a movie roughly based on the story of Jaws but set at a Rock'n'Roll Festival, and with a giant grizzly bear as the 'bad guy'. For this we (myself and assistants at Plumbline Design) built an enormous and hugely detailed model to establish the look, propping and camera angles. We shipped everything (including catering, American Jeeps, animatronic bear models, etc.) from UK to the tiny valley of Pilisborisjeno about 6km outside of Budapest where we built a huge facsimile of an American eagle with programmable lighting up wings and a rotating head that breathed 25' long flames from each nostril. ... The entire stage and surrounding area was built so that the director could shoot a 'real' show, with many thousands walking from Budapest to fill a large portion of the valley, and with Nazareth as the headline band.
The Bear's demise came upon the electrified lighting panels of the Eagle's wings as a firework display, through which the bear had just rampaged, exploded all around. Fabulous fun! ... But the producers went and ran out of funding following shooting and the movie never saw the light of day - With a story-line like this it might have been a good thing, but it was fun to build!
Client: The Rolling Stones & Roskilde Festival
Date: 1976 to Present
Location: European Tour & Roskilde, Denmark
Project Type: Engineering
Jeremy Thom Role: Co-designer
In 1976 the Rolling Stones wanted something different! Along with my then partner Bill Harkin of Revelation Staging I designed an orange tensile canopy for their Summer tour of Europe. The structure was built to erect in two days and come down in one so we could do one show a week. The first use was at Knebworth House, an hour north of London.
Following the Stones tour the canopy was erected in Hyde Park in London for Queen. It then went into storage and in 1977 was sold to the Roskilde Festival who used it for the first time in the early summer of 1978. The same structure, with a couple of new fabric skins and a revised front hood and rigging truss, is still in use today as both the main stage, and, as it has been from 1989, the Festival logo.
CLIENT: Citizen Optimum
DATE: October 8-10, 2013
LOCATION: New York City
PROJECT TYPE: Special Event, Engineering
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE: Overall & Site Designer
Diana Nyad completed her non-stop swim from Cuba to Florida and announced shortly afterwards that her next record-breaking attempt would be a 48 hour swim in a custom pool in Herald Square outside Macys in New York to raise money and awareness for the victims of hurricane Sandy. The site was designed around a pool brought in from Italy, with additional press and viewing platforms built onto decking abutting the pool edges, with locker rooms in an enclosed backstage area, along with signage and printed masking for the sponsors, Proctor & Gamble. The build took less than 36 hours, a shorter time than Diana was in the water, including the time taken to heat the pool (filled with water from a New York City hydrant) to 84º, using a boiler in a 40’ container usually used for apartment blocks with broken heating systems.
Diana successfully completed her 48 hour marathon swim. The event was deemed a huge success and the pool and all surrounding structures were gone within 24 hours.
CLIENT: Vanity Fair Magazine
DATE: 2002 to 2015
LOCATION: New York City
PROJECT TYPE: Architectural, Engineering, Special Project
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE: Production Management & Design Execution
Vanity Fair Magazine has traditionally celebrated the start of the Tribeca Film Festival with a party the night before the Festival’s opening. This has been held at the magnificent Supreme Court Building on Centre St., NYC. From 2002 to 2009. This entailed cocktails on the Terrace, followed by a seated dinner in the Rotunda for about 200 guests (with an adjacent court room transformed into a kitchen) and post-dinner drinks back on the Terrace. After 2009 the event became a cocktail party on the Terrace with no dinner. Whilst we had access to the Terrace and front steps a day, or so before the event we were not permitted to build in the Rotunda until a matter of a couple of hours before the event opened, requiring precise planning and scheduling.
From the beginning the event has been designed by Basil Walter of BWArchitects and executed to the exacting standards of the Vanity Fair organization. In recent years the design for the Terrace and front steps has become increasingly intricate. My role on the team has been to execute Basil’s designs and run the onsite build and crew.
(Photo credits, where applicable, to Justin Weiner of BWArchitects)
CLIENT: Vanity Fair Magazine
DATE: 2001-2007
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PROJECT TYPE: Architectural, Engineering, Special Project
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE: Production Management & Design Execution
From 2001 until 2007 Vanity Fair Magazine took over the restaurant, kitchen and three adjacent parking lots of Mortons Restaurant on the corner of Melrose & Robertson in West Hollywood. These were completely transformed, to the designs of Basil Walter Architects, into the premier Oscars After-Party venue for about 2000 guests. Every year the designs were different but for all of them I was instrumental in the production design and builds of these elegant and functional venues. The image shown here is from 2007 (see more below) and is the interior of a structure built over the parking lot, from blacktop up, in 5 days, and shows the quality of finish created to provide the venue for the most sought-after invitation in Hollywood.
(Photo credits, where applicable, to Justin Weiner of BWArchitects)
Client: Vanity Fair Magazine
Date: 2014
Location: Sunset Plaza Parking Lot, Sunset Blvd. LA
Project Type: Architectural, Engineering, Scenic
Jeremy Thom Role: Production Design & Technical Director
Following six years of constructing a custom venue for the VF Oscars event attached to the end of Mortons Restaurant the event moved to the Sunset Towers Hotel for another six years. In 2014 it moved again. This time the venue was an enormous, and gently sloping parking lot off Sunset Blvd.
A brand new, customized Losberger structure was built housing not only the main party space but also a dining room for approximately 240 guests with a garden area between the two. Beyond this were a full kitchen, the In & Out Burger truck and a Nespresso truck parked backstage next to the guest exit area. There was also a long red carpet press area (actually a green & white stripes) leading down a long covered corridor from the guest drop-off which was beneath a custom facade on Sunset. The event decking was 4' high at one end and 14' at the other and contained a complete technical operations area, all heating and A/C, a crew room and access corridors for staff & press. All this was fronted by a magnificent 100' long balcony looking out over Los Angeles.
(Photo credits, where applicable, to Justin Weiner of BWArchitects)
Client: Vanity Fair Magazine
Date: February 2015 to 2020
Location: North Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills, CA
Project Type: Architectural, Engineering, Scenic
Jeremy Thom Role: Technical Director & Production Design
For the past few years Vanity Fair has taken over the northern stretch of N. Crescent Drive, as well as the garden of Beverly Hills City Hall and the driveway and interior lobby of the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, and transformed them into an elegant customized venue for their After-Party event. The overall design was, as in previous years, by Basil Walter of BWArchitects.
Each year the exterior had three bespoke Losberger structures containing the Press and Red Carpet, the main party space and an additional dining room for 240 guests, a full kitchen for Thomas Keller, Nomad, Frenchette, and others, a portrait studio for Mark Seliger, a garden bar with surrounding balconies and walkways, and parking and service for the In-n-Out Burger semi truck. All of this was built on top of a technical 'underworld' situated on street level below the main deck, and containing everything and everyone needed to run this flawless event. Surrounding the main event structures in 2016 were rows of 'Chinese Lantern' like scaffolding towers, all internally illuminated, to define arrival and departure areas. All guest and car service parking was in an underground parking lot immediately beneath the site with an entrance at one end of the street and an exit which threaded past the other end of the structure, requiring a pedestrian bridge for guest exits in 2016 & '17.
I worked as part of the six person Vanity Fair production team to design, oversee and install both the exterior structures and the exquisite interior scenic elements, created by Basil Walter, in an insanely busy 10-day period.
The event was, as always, an enormous and magnificent success!
(Photo credits, where applicable, and drone fly-by video by Justin Weiner of BWArchitects)
CLIENT: City of NY & NY/NJ Port Authority
DATE: September 11, 2002
LOCATION: New York City
PROJECT TYPE: Special Event, Architectural
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE: Project Designer
The main commemorations of 9/11, a year after the attacks on the World Trade Center, were planned for Ground Zero, where the families of those lost would be permitted to walk down the ramp to the bottom of the ‘Pit’ for the first time, following the reading of all of the names from a stage on the ‘Haul Road’, next to the West Side Highway.
At Ground Zero, for the centrepiece in the ‘Pit’, I designed a simple wooden ring to hold flowers, pictures and mementos. For the Haul Road stage I built a double width polished wood lectern for two readers which is still used every year for the Commemoration events.
There were simultaneous all-day gatherings at four City parks for New York area citizens with video feedback between all sites. For these City park events site plans, surveys and designs were made for the local production teams to assist their running of the events and to co-ordinate the look and feel of all sites.
That evening an Eternal Flame was lit at a new monument in Battery Park where a tiered stage for 91 Heads of State was placed just behind the eternal flame site. Liaison with Port Authority, Battery Park Conservancy and NYC Parks Dept. resolved the placement and movement of public and families, and determined the security cordon around both sites.
CLIENT: Godiva
DATE: September 29, 2006
LOCATION: New York City
PROJECT TYPE:
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE:
Godiva Chocolates launched their new 'Gold Collection' and wanted to showcase their main New York store on West 50th St. to mimic the Collection's presentation box. The structure, printed cladding & sidewalk surface were installed overnight. There were additional stacks of over-sized "chocolate boxes" in various locations around the City.
CLIENT: Tangram
DATE: July 2005 & 2006
LOCATION: San Diego, California
PROJECT TYPE: Architectural, Engineering, Trade Show
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE: Production Designer
Following a 2004 competition to design a more distinctive and iconic trade show booth, the Sci-Fi channel selected a curvaceous, organic sculpture by the German architects Graft. The 3D drawings were completed in early 2005 and a Los Angeles fiberglass workshop selected to construct the design, but some practical questions remained unanswered. I was hired in May of 2005 and the first task was to redefine how the structure was to be constructed, sectioned, handled and trucked, and to redesign and redirect construction accordingly. There were some complex video issues to be resolved, involving projectors buried within the structure that bounced images off mirrors and onto the underside of the ‘bridge’. The structure needed to be built from the top down beneath 54 rigging points arrayed all over the 50’ x 30’ booth footprint. Every section of the sculpture was sized to fit through trailer doors and was mounted on sets of custom built rolling carts from which the set-pieces could be directly flown. The structure was reused at Comic-Con in both 2006 & 2007.
Client: Nike
Date: May 2012
Location: Times Square, NY
Project Type: Engineering, Scenic
Jeremy Thom Role: Production Designer
Build a football field in the middle of Times Sq. on one overnight call? Yeah, we can do that!
As a part of Nike's 'Fast is Faster' launch a celebrity football demonstration game was planned for the 42-43 St block in Times Sq. This needed a structure to support tensioned netting, a custom logo-ed Regrind turf field with padding underneath, fully padded side walls, bleachers for invited guests at one end (with arrival area, reception tent and bathrooms), a huge video screen at the other (with players area, dressing rooms & more bathrooms), and with public viewing on the two long sides. ... and a built time of a little over 12 hours!
Careful planning, a big crane and a great crew, and almost anything is possible.
CLIENT: Band Aid
DATE: July 13, 1985
LOCATION: New York City
PROJECT TYPE: Rock & Roll
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE: Project Designer, London; Associate Designer, Philadelphia
In late 1984 I was approached and asked to design a proposed charity event the following year. I happily agreed since it was with Bob Geldof with whom I had spent 18 months on a world tour in 1979-80 with the Boomtown Rats, and thought that it would be a relatively small and simple affair. However the project grew and grew until the event was confirmed for Wembley Stadium and for Philadelphia in July. Work on the the two events occupied a huge amount of the intervening six months, requiring vast resources from Plumbline Designs. We built one of our largest and most detailed physical models of the Wembley stage (seen here with Jon Laurie, my assistant, who built most of it), which was presented to Prince Charles and Lady Diana, the Royal sponsors for the event.
The show raised more money than any previous musical charity event and entered rock & roll history. None of the vendors participating in the London event charged either fees or expenses and donated time, equipment and personnel to minimize expenses to the Charity.
I designed the stage with the three-way split of the revolving stage so that change-overs between bands could be achieved with minimum time off-air and so that timings of switches between the London and Philadelphia shows could be precise. The same designs were sent to Philadelphia and changed slightly for their event.
The event also provided what was, to me, the greatest live performance I have ever witnessed – Freddie Mercury & Queen’s finest 17 minutes.
Client: UNICEF & Scott Mauro Prods.
Date: December 3, 2013
Location: Cipriani, Wall St, NYC
Project Type: Scenic
Jeremy Thom Role: Production Designer
UNICEF's Snowflake Ball at Cipriani Downtown, NY highlighted the 19000 children who die per day of treatable diseases worldwide. This was reflected as 19000 mirrored plexiglass snowflakes suspended above the guests. ... These, and their method for rigging were designed to be simple, inexpensive and rigged in one overnight crew call. ... The 'snowflakes were purchased online, the suspension 'ribbons' were standard vinyl banner mesh cut into 3/4" strips and the method of attachment between the two was garment tags inserted with a $20 tag gun. Everything came together in a pre-build in workshop. ... All this, and quite a lot of Home Depot orange buckets made for a swift and efficient rig and an overall look which encompassed the entire room with twinkling reflections to remind guests of those lost children.
Sometimes the simplest and most cost effective solutions are what works best.
Client: CBGB
Date: August 2013
Location: Broadway, between 46th - 55th St., NYC
Project Type: Scenic, Engineering
Jeremy Thom Role: Production Designer
For two years running CBGB had taken over a closed-off length of Broadway in Manhattan for a street fair with music, sponsor branding and vendor sites throughout it's length. There was a stage at either end with large scaffold-built bleacher seating for invited guests. The build was a 24 hour window.
CLIENT: Radisson Hotels
DATE: September 2004
LOCATION: London, UK
PROJECT TYPE: Architectural, Engineering
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE: Overall Project Designer
The newly constructed Radisson Hotel at Stansted, London’s third airport, has an airy triangular glass-walled atrium with three adjoining restaurants and a large bar, within which the client wished to place an iconic centrepiece. A 40’ tall wine storage tower, with capacity for 2800 bottles, staffed by flying wine waitresses (‘Angels’ – all trained aerialists in acrobatic harnesses) to ascend the tower’s four faces on sophisticated remotely controlled hoists to collect the bottles of wine.
Each face of the tower is constructed of clear acrylic wine cases, stacked to 30’ tall by 4’6” wide, with cooled air, at specific temperatures, blown into the back of the white wine and champagne cases whilst the red wine is maintained at room temperature.
The tower is surrounded by a glass enclosure with a pyramid cap that maintains a higher internal pressure within it. Each wine case of a dozen bottles has, on its rear face, an independently programmed blue-green electroluminescent light panel, normally set at 50% brightness. This is triggered by each order from the cash register in the bar to illuminate the selected case at 100% which indicates to the Angels the case to fly to and the bottle of wine to retrieve.
The tower is still operating to this day.
CLIENT: Doha Film Institute
DATE: October 2010
LOCATION: Doha, Qatar
PROJECT TYPE: Architectural, Engineering, Scenic
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE: Overall Project Designer
The 2010 Doha Film Festival was the first event held at Katara Village, a newly constructed facsimile of an Arab village, albeit a rather opulent one, with the Royal Opera House and a white marble amphitheatre in the Greek style for an audience of a couple of thousand. This latter had never been inaugurated and we were unable to use it other than a centrepiece with fabulous architectural lighting.
I designed another amphitheatre, built from the ground up, for 2000 people as both an outdoor cinema and fully functioning stage space. The stage in front of the screen was adaptable to accommodate a full orchestra which accompanied the premier of a silent movie on opening night. Additionally there were multiple tented and built structures created as screening rooms for upwards of 200 people arrayed throughout the site. There was also a red carpet area at the main entrance to Katara which led to the Opera House.
CLIENT: Momentum
DATE: 2008-2010
LOCATION: USA tour
PROJECT TYPE: Music tour
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE: Project designer
"How Sweet the Sound" was a televised national touring Gospel competition which traveled to arenas nationwide and pitted up to a dozen local church choirs against each other in a variety of different size categories with the winners re-convening at a 'final' show at the end of the tour. The choirs varied from less than 10 members up to about 80 and the stage was designed accordingly. Each choir had a band who occupied a downstage pit with a d/s thrust with stairs into the audience. The panel of judges were at stage left on a revolving dais. All softgoods were tensile vinyl 'sails' to provide a surface for wide screen projection across the backdrops. This imagery was the visual mainstay of the event and became increasingly complex and inventive as the years moved forward. The stage was built as a rolling deck constructed at the far end of the arena floor whilst the trusses and softgoods were rigged. The entire stage build took approximately 3 hours.
CLIENT: Vanity Fair
DATE: October 21, 2008
LOCATION: LA, California
PROJECT TYPE: Special event
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE: Production Management & Design Execution
The launch event for Vanity Fair Magazine's "Portraits" book, a huge, glossy collection of photographs from the magazine's archives of Hollywood stars, was co-hosted by Burberry and staged in the central courtyard of the Los Angeles Centre for Modern Art (LACMA). Designed by Basil Walter Architects, it consisted of enormous back-lit images from the book in a variety of formats from negatives printed onto clear vinyl suspended over the sidewalk and entrance area; a portal of printed fabric entirely filling the 50' tall entrance archway from the street; to printed perimeter flats and free-standing internally illuminated lightboxes. I co-ordinated the workshop build, and oversaw the onsite install, along with the regular VF production team.
Client: Obscura Digital
Date: February 2015
Location: Dubai
Project Type: Structural Design
Jeremy Thom Role: Production Designer
Obscura created a 360º immersive video experience inside a geodesic sphere for the Dubai 360 website which projected a video, shot over, under and around the city and it's environs, across the entire interior projection surface.
However to witness this video experience the audience needed to walk across a bridge running through the middle of the sphere. This could not touch the structure of the sphere otherwise the vibrations caused by 50 people at a time walking across it would oscillate the projectors which were also rigged from the geodesic structure.
I designed a bridge system to resolve this which was supported on stair landings at each side, and which free-spanned across the void of the sphere.
The structure was built by Consultanzee, and test erected in an aircraft hangar in California before being shipped to Dubai to be constructed in the central court of a shopping mall in the city. Obscura's Sphere is the world’s largest interactive city tour in the world’s biggest mall—and the first of its kind in the Middle East.
(Video credit & photos from Dubai: Obscura)
CLIENT: Elvis Costello
DATE: May 24, 2011
LOCATION: New York City
PROJECT TYPE: Rock and Roll
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE:
In 1983, whilst a partner at Plumbline Designs in London, I designed for Elvis Costello a 12'ø spinning Ferris wheel, arrayed with 40 song titles, printed onto fabric which could be swapped out at every show. Audience members were invited up onto the stage to spin the wheel. When the wheel stopped spinning the '12 o'clock' indicator showed which song Elvis would perform next, whilst the audience member relaxed at a bar with a cocktail or danced in a Go-go cage. ... 27 years later my phone rang with a request to build the same wheel again for Elvis's 2011 US Tour. He said it was his favourite stage set ever! I did a bit of updating but fundamentally this version was identical to it's predecessor - except this time the cocktails at the bar weren't alcoholic!
The first two images are of the original wheel shown in 1983 just before being packed up at the workshop at the start of the European tour. This was packaged into a single roadcase that doubled as the base unit, and was sized specifically to fit into the production manager's van.
The other images are of the new version, shown both in workshop and at New York's Beacon Theater in 2011.
Client: US Ski Association & Fenway Park Management
Date: February 2016
Location: Fenway Park, Boston
Project Type: Architectural, Engineering, Scenic
Jeremy Thom Role: Production Designer - Atomic Design
Since the recent introduction of Big Air as a competitive Olympic sport there have been more events promoted with jumps built in non-mountain venues with capacity for large audiences. This project in Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, had both the ski jump and a music stage for this televised event, which ran over a four day period. The structure needed to provide jump geometry suitable for both skiing and snowboarding, and for both men's and women's events. The competition was for preliminary Olympic qualification and was overseen by the Federation International de Ski.
In association with Mike Zorena, who's company Consultanzee built this ski jump, I designed a structure which could be built faster, more efficiently and with fewer crew than previous Big Air jumps. The geometry of the structure and it's upper snow surface was designed by Snow Park Technologies to fit the exact angles of the diagonal patterns of Layher system scaffolding, to remove the need for any customization to the structural elements.
The surface onto which snow was to be laid was a newly designed interlocking decking system with lateral ribs to prevent snow slippage. The decks were located onto the scaffold diagonals, made load-bearing with the addition of structural lumber supports. A custom elevator was designed to fit within the scaffold system to take competitors to the start deck 140' above the field.
(Video credits: 309 Productions, Red Sox Productions, Kellan Reck, Stacey Lamboni & Andrew Fewsmith
CLIENT: Hangman Productions & ConsultantZee
DATE: Feb 2019
LOCATION: Fenway Park, Boston
PROJECT TYPE: Sports Event
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE: Structure Designer
Red Bull’s Crashed Ice events are races between four skaters on an undulating course of ice, across a series of downhills, uphills, bumps, curves and drops to a finish line approx 1000 feet from the start gate. The scaffolding structure for this course was built, for the first time ever, to incorporate curved radius sections, rather than the usual straight facets to create the contours of the track. This design minimized the custom elements and infill woodwork of previous build methods and saved three days off the original schedule.
The ice was created by spraying water constantly over glycol filled hoses laid as a mat on top of the decking and bordered by dasher walls. Lighting was installed into the dasher walls to create a spectacular race course for the two day event.
CLIENT: US Ski & Snowboard Association
DATE: Dec 2019
LOCATION: Sun Trust Stadium, Atlanta, GA
PROJECT TYPE: Structure Design
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE:
Working with ConsultantZee, who built the structure, I designed a radically different structure to that last built for USSA at Fenway in 2016. … The entire snow surface comprised specifically radiused pipes to form a smooth run, unlike the faceted flats of the Fenway ramp. … The In-run was steeper and narrower. … The snow was made onsite by mixing liquid nitrogen, water and compressed air. … The ramp deck was entirely steel decking and was fully insulated and covered with Enka-drain to prevent slippage and facilitate drainage. … The entire upper part of the structure was built at ground level and craned into place with the Start deck at 134’ and a top point set at 152’. … The structure, being longer than the length of the baseball field, required the upper portions of the start gate, green room and elevator decks to be cantilevered backwards from the stair tower by over 12’. … The standard construction elevator’s attachment detail was entirely redesigned to attach to scaffolding simply and swiftly, such that the full height of the elevator was rigged in one day. … And … The whole build was completed two days ahead of schedule and was praised by athletes as one of the best jumps they had ever performed upon.
Client: Academy of Country Music
Date: April 3, 2016
Location: MGM Grand Arena, Las Vegas
Project Type: Scenic, Engineering
Jeremy Thom Role: Production designer - Atomic Design
Atomic Design was tasked with creating a "different type of Red Carpet experience" for the ACM Awards show, outdoors on the forecourt parking lot of the MGM Grand Arena, which could build swiftly and within very tight budget constraints.
Atomic's rental product, a system of 3D 22.5" interlocking panels, lent itself extremely well to these requirements so I designed a 'step & repeat' wall over 200' long arrayed with ACM and partner printed logos, in a multitude of background colours, applied to the panels. The carpet was entered beneath a old-style movie house marquee surrounded with chasing lights. This had a supporting buttress which served to mask guest entrances, onto the carpet, from the press until they were beneath the marquee sign. The wall also made a turn at the far end to mask the guest's exit from the carpet area as they progressed towards the venue doors, thus segregating the active press area to within these two scenic 'obstacles'.
Atomic's Production Services, Design, Rental and Scenic departments all partnered in a very quick pre-production period to execute this one-of-a-kind Red Carpet experience.
Client: Patek Philippe Watches
Date: July 2017
Location: Cipriani on 42nd St. New York
Project Type: Production design, Engineering, Code compliance
Jeremy Thom Role: Production Designer
In July of 2017 Patek Philippe opened their Grand Exhibition, the Art of Watches, in a two level structure constructed inside Cipriani on 42nd St in New York. The structure was built to resemble a French Chateau and contained nine exquisitely finished rooms within which the watches and clocks were displayed in museum quality vitrines. The architectural shells of four of these rooms already existed from previous Exhibitions in London, Geneva and Dubai, and were in storage in Switzerland. The exterior of the 'chateau' was completely finished to a very high standard in both solid architecture and rear illuminated printed vinyl walls.
The exhibit was designed by Philippe Delatraz, Patek's long standing architect. He, and the Canadian structures company were already contracted before Tangram, my client, was hired. I was brought in by them to be Production Designer and occupy the middle of the triangle of these three vendors to ensure that all geometry was compatible, and that building methods and concepts would provide a smooth interface between existing and new structure. I also was tasked with making sure that all parts of the exhibit would fit together onsite and would build in the swiftest and simplest manner, given that the build period of 10 days onsite was very ambitious. I worked with Tangram's production team to ensure that all logistics and schedules were optimized onsite, at the pre-production builds and in the workshop. I also oversaw all structural analyses and code compliance issues.
The estimated visitor counts of 20,000 for the 12 day run of the exhibition were exceeded by 8000, making for a very successful event for both client and production.
CLIENT: Nike & Tangram
DATE: October 2014
LOCATION: NikeTown, NYC
PROJECT TYPE: Corporate Product Launch
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE: Production Designer
Nike planned two week-long, back-to-back product launches of running apparel at their NikeTown store in New York, Tangram asked me to interpret the Nike design brief to come up with methods for a simple rigging system which would enable there to be a changeover between the events which could be executed overnight.
The solution was for tensioned, printed sheer fabric walls behind store mannequins, which were rigged into grooved extrusions through which the Keder-edged fabric could be pulled by a system of yachting rigging & ropes.
The lime green Zoom-Fit set-up had hard CNC-ed walls of hexagonal Sintra which was rigged from the top edge and had additional panels attached as the wall was flown to a top height of approx 35'. These hexagon walls were removed at the changeover and Marathon had no hard-wall behind the sheer black & white printed fabric, which had additional sewn appliques of reflective lettering.
CLIENT: IKEA
DATE: May 2018
LOCATION: Harvard Sports Field, Boston
PROJECT TYPE: Corporate Activation at Music Festival
JEREMY THOM DESIGNS ROLE:
Production Designer - IKEA had wanted to provide a “hang out” space at the Boston Calling Festival which was central between the two main stages where festival goers could sit, eat & relax, away from the music, or on their way from one stage to another. The design brief was for a light and airy space which occupied three tennis courts and was slightly industrial, used a maximum of IKEA products for furnishings and fittings, had a small “club” within, and provided food and drinks.
PROJECT LIST: Below Each Image
PROJECT LIST (Alphabetical): Below each image
