Wrapping the Waterfront

WHEN 21,000 SQUARE feet of print must transform a raw industrial venue into an immersive art destination — in under three weeks — there is no room for hesitation or error.

Commissioned by Starvox Entertainment, GetWrapped.ca was tasked with designing, producing, and installing interior and exterior graphics for the New York run of the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit at Pier 36 in Manhattan. The 75,000-square-foot venue overlooking the East River required approximately 9,000 square feet of interior wall, stair, and architectural graphics, plus a 31-foot-high by 400-foot-long exterior riverside wall wrap totaling roughly 12,400 square feet. Brick, painted wood, glass, siding, and fiberglass all demanded different performance characteristics — yet the color had to remain uniform and the branding unmistakable from passing boats and pedestrian traffic.

“We’re already in an industry where everything happens fast, but this one was super fast — maybe just under a three-week lead time,” says Niek Ermes, owner, GetWrapped.ca. Unlike typical large corporate projects, the team handled everything from design through installation. “We took it all the way from design to install,” he says. “Visibility from the riverside was very important.”

Instead of templating every door, window, and surface change — a process that could have consumed a week alone — the team devised a hybrid material strategy. Installers preblocked complex areas using Drytac films, effectively converting a fragmented façade into “one big rectangle” printable on Polar Grip. The move eliminated multiple color profiles and compressed production time without sacrificing precision.

Then came a late request: make it glow in the dark. With no time to source specialty inks, the team tested materials in-house and discovered that SpotOn White M50 delivered the desired pop when left unprinted. “We thought in reverse,” says Ermes. “Show more white so it would glow.”

With the installation finishing the day before opening, the project proves how strategic material selection and decisive problem-solving can elevate wide-format print into experiential architecture.

PROJECT GALLERY (11 IMAGES AND 4 VIDEOS)