Reinventing Westfield
Community engagement for a town’s new vision
- 300+ sign-ups during initial opening of Preview Center
- Helped aligned diverse constituents in the public/private sectors with new development
- Invited residents to play an active role in the next chapter of their town’s history
- Orchestrated launch of Preview Center, website and development materials
MBLM worked with Streetworks Development to create a compelling brand experience for their mixed use development in Westfield, New Jersey. Centered on repurposing a Lord & Taylor store and reinvigorating the town’s downtown, One Westfield Place features a variety of residential options, new offices, community-scale retail and public spaces, parks and programming designed to activate the heart of the town.
Developing a brand whose focus is building community involvement and engagement resulted in a brand promise inviting participation on making a great town even greater. The modern identity and design system leverage a series of elegant lines, signifying the town’s rich history woven throughout its streets. This graphic symbology also suggests connection, collaboration, and outreach, networking with the town’s diverse residents to discover a range of perspectives and ideas.
The MBLM team then focused on creating inspiring and informative materials including lifelike 3-D renderings composited with real drone footage, a custom photoshoot and brand video for use in the Preview Center and on the website.
The Preview Center, a 9,000 square foot informational showroom, is meant to foster community engagement and provide a physical experience of One Westfield Place. MBLM helped design a visitor journey through an interactive and informative physical space, and created and executed content and informational displays for all of the rooms and key areas. This included detailing the town’s history, the new development proposal, and the anticipated economic and social implications.
Most notably, through MBLM’s platform, PresentationOS, visitors can experience an interactive video wall controlled with a remote iPad, featuring in-depth information, renders, key maps and statistics for each part of the masterplan, and synced with the lighting of a 14-foot physical model of the development. Visitors can scan QR codes inviting feedback, and leave responses on the community participation wall.
The website features animations, scheduling features for the Preview Center, a community survey, and provides a development overview as well sustainability considerations. Creating a convenient way for Streetworks to keep this content up to date for the community, the website and video wall experiences are built on the same platforms to enable simple and simultaneous updates.
Within two weeks of launching, the One Westfield Place website garnered over 3,000 visitors. Of those visitors, 56% explored the website on a mobile device, which is 20% above industry average. The scheduling software tool was used to book 300+ tours within 14 days of launching, meaning 10% of the site’s visitors booked a tour to discover the Presentation Center. Most notably, the site resonated with its intended audience, Westfield residents, as demonstrated by the fact that users located in the Westfield area spent more time on the site and visited more pages than any other audience segment.
