A heart-pounding mixed reality experience created for the Cambridge Crossing Groundbreaking, inviting attendees to step onto a virtual steel beam high above the future Cambridge skyline.
CLIENT
DivCo West
Immersive Event Experience | Mixed Reality
Cambridge Crossing
Groundbreaking
Challenge
Cambridge Crossing marked a major moment for DivcoWest. The groundbreaking needed to do more than announce a development. It had to communicate the scale, ambition, and future impact of a 45-acre mixed-use neighborhood in a way people would actually remember.
Insight
Groundbreaking events usually show the future through renders and videos. But if people could physically feel what Cambridge Crossing would become, the vision would land more powerfully and stick longer.
Our Solution
We created an immersive mixed reality experience that placed attendees high above the future site, allowing them to step onto a virtual beam 30 stories in the air and experience Cambridge Crossing from a bold new perspective.
Cambridge Crossing is one of the largest developments to break ground in Greater Boston, representing a long-term transformation of the city’s skyline, infrastructure, and community. The groundbreaking event brought together civic leaders, partners, press, and prospective tenants, all there to witness the beginning of something ambitious.
Traditionally, these moments rely on architectural boards, videos, and fly-through renders to show what a project will become years down the line. DivcoWest wanted to move beyond static visuals and create a moment that felt alive, emotional, and unmistakably forward-looking.
Rather than asking attendees to imagine the future, the goal was to let them experience it firsthand.
Background
INPHANTRY designed and built a custom mixed reality experience using Unity and high-fidelity 3D assets to recreate Cambridge Crossing as it would appear once fully realized. Participants entered the experience by putting on a VR headset and riding a virtual elevator up the side of a future skyscraper. At the top, they were invited to step onto a real, physical beam precisely mapped to a virtual steel plank suspended high above the city.
As users carefully walked the beam, they could look out across Cambridge Crossing ten years into the future, taking in the completed development, surrounding neighborhoods, and skyline from an impossible vantage point. The experience was intentionally designed to be thrilling and performative. Onlookers gathered to watch participants laugh, hesitate, and steady themselves, turning the activation into a shared spectacle rather than a private demo.
At the end of the experience, each participant received a mixed reality photo capturing them standing on the beam above the future city. The image served as both a keepsake and a tangible reminder of the moment.
Development
The activation quickly became the focal point of the groundbreaking event. Crowds formed around the experience as attendees encouraged, joked with, and reacted to one another stepping out onto the beam. The mix of suspense, humor, and spectacle created a shared moment that extended beyond the headset itself.
Participants walked away not just understanding the scale of Cambridge Crossing, but feeling emotionally connected to it. The photo takeaways were shared, saved, and talked about long after the event. Following the groundbreaking, DivcoWest continued to incorporate the experience into sales conversations and presentations, using it as a powerful storytelling tool to communicate the bold vision behind Cambridge Crossing.
Reception
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Contact
BOSTON
144 Lincoln St
Boston, MA 02111
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