Toys "R" Us in Times Square lights up with color inside and out

John Eyler, Chairman and CEO of Toys "R" Us, Inc., faced the battery of reporters and camera operators at the mid-November press opening of the world's largest toy store, the 110,000-sq.-ft. Toys "R" Us flagship store in Manhattan's Times Square. Eyler had the beaming countenance of a new father whose offspring had just been introduced to the world bearing an itinerary for a lifetime of large-scale successes.

"We're bringing the energy of the toy industry to life in this store," Eyler said. "This store is twice as large as any toy store now or in the past, and much more fun," he emphasized. "With our designers and consultants, we've created a fantasy toy world. Without a doubt, it's the center of the toy universe, an amusement and theme park in one. Tell your friends!," Eyler enthused as he stood in front of the 60-ft.-high neon-spoked Ferris wheel.

In the audience and sharing in Eyler's pride of accomplishment were representatives from the project's multidisciplinary design team: principal Paul Gregory and senior designer Diana Ades of Focus Lighting; store designer Joanne Newbold of J. Newbold Associates, Inc.; architects from Gensler; and A/V and technical specialists from Show and Tell Productions, Inc. How well their efforts have been received by the buying public is evident by the number of visitors to Toys "R" Us in the first month. Over one million people walked through the front doors in the four-week period following the opening, making it one of the city's top attractions for tourists and locals alike.

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Focus Lighting and Gensler agreed that the lighting design would project a new sleeker Toys "R" Us image within the awesome visual environment of the cacophony of Times Square. "We decided not to compete with the flash and glitter of the Square's LED signs," Gregory says. "Instead, the concept was to make the wraparound glass facades into huge advertising elements that physically changed from transparent to opaque at regular intervals," he points out.

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