Times Square

USA Network wanted Main Street USA physically recreated in Times Square for the launch of America's Big Deal, a live show that introduced viewers to entrepreneurs and let them support featured products in real time. The activation had to feel like a complete American town at miniature scale, survive a public plaza, and go up in a single overnight window.

Tenure hired me to translate its visual concept into a practical fabrication system. Starting from the inspiration deck, I worked through how each idea could be sourced, manufactured, illuminated, finished, and handed off to the warehouse team for assembly. The role functioned like a high-pressure R&D department: test the possibilities, solve the unfamiliar parts, establish a workable method.

The build went far beyond conventional 3D printing. I produced the printed components, completed the CAD work, and developed the laser-cutting and engraving files; Tenure bought a laser specifically for this build, and it ran off-site on my production files. Brickwork was cast at custom scale in molds pulled from printed masters. Lamp posts were designed around battery LED modules so they actually lit the street. Hydrants, mailboxes, newsstands, a gazebo: printed, cut, engraved, adapted, or sourced, whichever produced the strongest result inside the deadline.

Each of the 23 unique storefronts had a furnished interior with a QR code pedestrians could scan to learn about the show's contestants. I pulled existing scale models where they fit and fabricated what couldn't be found. Tenure's warehouse team handled the large-scale construction, graphics, and finishing while I refined parts and solved production problems as they emerged.

The city was fabricated across several locations, consolidated at Tenure's New Jersey warehouse, and installed in Times Square between midnight and 7 a.m., ready for the 8 a.m. debut.