NYC window sparkle lifting gloomy spirits

At a time when so many people are out of work, New York City's holiday window display designers are safely employed - and happy to give a gloomy public a respite.

Design work on the elaborate creations at the city's biggest department stores often begins a year in advance and pays off in oohs and ahhs.

"At a time when the economy is hurting so much, you need to have some joy," said Patti Solomon, who recently flew in from Atlanta for some holiday sightseeing.

"You can look at those windows and remember childhood memories," she said as she stood in front of Saks Fifth Avenue's windows, which show a fashion-conscious girl's journey in stunning, one-of-a-kind dresses in vignettes.

Many of the city's shop fronts sparkle this time of year, but Saks, Macy's and Bloomingdale's draw the largest crowds. The creations range from highly stylized installation art pieces to more idealized scenes of days gone by. But they grace the windows for only four to six weeks.

Animatronics provide an abridged visual version of "Miracle on 34th Street" at Macy's, the department store whose Santa Claus was the basis for the classic film.

As people pass by on Seventh Avenue, scenes from the movie are revealed through sets that collapse or slide. They are made of laser- and hand-cut paper in more than 100 colors combined with mechanically controlled, animated figures. The project required 7,084 hours of work from 14 paper artisans.

Designer Paul Olszewski worked with an animation company to give his windows a "more cinematic and theatrical feel." "I always push technology, but I also wanted to combine an artistry with it, too," he said.

Macy's window displays are assembled off site and then installed as finished pieces by forklift, he said. But Saks, whose window design team is led by Julio Gomez, assembles its displays on site, piece by piece.

Working in a confined window space can be challenging, especially when the materials include tree branches, wood paneling, linoleum, garland and paper.

"My background is very much hands-on sculptural, welding, carpentry, painting, and all of those things have pretty much come in handy doing this," Gomez said.

Bloomingdale's and Macy's spokespeople declined to comment on the cost of their holiday displays; a call to Saks was not returned.

The artistry that window designers put into their displays is dedicated to all the people who walk by every day, Gomez said.

"It's a very unselfish thing that we are doing here," he said.

Bloomingdale's decided to go all out this year and produce holiday windows using more than 100 LCD screens created by a team of computer graphic artists, lead designer Jack Hruska said. It shows a stylized winter scene in which a bird decorates trees magically as it flies past.