Featured in LiveDesign's Special Report by Meghan Perkins, May 9th, 2015

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After teaming up for SXSW and Lollapalooza, C3 Presents approached Solomon Group for yet another high profile primetime event, the NFL Draft. This year was different. NFL eschewed Radio City Music Hall for Grant Park in Chicago, taking footprint and fan engagement to a massive new scale. Site planning proved complex and tedious with high client aspirations, and Solomon Group delivered.

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I first tackled site planning and structural design congruently to determine what size AG Light & Sound tents could fit in the space, and how it would affect outside-in sightlines and attendee flow. The structures implemented were rare in scale, with Draft Town’s tent footprint outsizing a full regulation football field, installed directly on the park’s railyard crossover bridge. Selection Square came in not far behind, with both structures reaching over 80’ in height. Once the structures were in, my focus turned to complex grading and leveling including fabrication to ensure safety while reflecting the prestige of the event. From there, I assisted in determining truss placement and fixtures and large format graphics affixed to the inside tent spans to minimize deflection. Finally, I designed a giant dimensional NFL Draft Town sign and developed the custom tent skin graphics, and designed VIP spaces and their scenery and graphic properties.

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Production Design

Structural Design

Large Format Graphics

Exposition Design

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I contributed to this project as an employee of Solomon Group

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