A Giant Illuminated Soccer Ball for FIFA at One World Observatory

With the FIFA World Cup coming to New York, the marketing team at One World Observatory commissioned a soccer installation for the top of One World Trade Center: a centerpiece that would own the observation floor, photograph against the night skyline, and give visitors a reason to stop, sit and shoot.

The site is 100 floors up with a freight elevator, a public venue open every day, and a finished terrazzo floor that could not be drilled or marked. The piece had to arrive in parts, assemble in an overnight window, stand on its own without fixings, and hold up to weeks of visitors and their cameras.

We designed and fabricated the installation around one hero object and built the scene to sit under the observatory’s circular ceiling oculus so the architecture frames it.

The ball. A giant soccer ball, built as a self-supporting sphere with the classic black-and-white panel pattern and internal LED lighting so it glows from within against the darkened windows. It was engineered in sections to fit the freight elevator and assembled on the floor.

The pitch. A circular turf island edged with a polished metal ring, sized to the oculus above it, with a custom bench at the center so visitors can sit in front of the ball for photos. The island is weighted and freestanding; nothing touches the building.

The dressing. A field of regulation soccer balls scattered across the turf and a match ball on the bench, so the scene reads from every angle of the floor and from the windows behind it.

Scenic carpentry, lighting and scenic finishing were done in our shop; our team delivered, assembled and lit the piece overnight as a single brand activation, the same event fabrication process we used for the observatory’s Pride installation.