Bergdorf Goodman holiday windows fabricated and animated by Spaeth Design

THE
STUDIO

Eighty years of building the spectacle, by hand.

A scenic shop turned the gold standard for animated windows — designers, fabricators and animators working side by side in one Queens studio since 1945.

Read our story

Since 1945

We've spent eight decades turning paper into the kind of spectacle a city gathers around.

Spaeth Design was founded in 1945 and has been building scenery, fabrication and animation by hand ever since. What began as a scenic shop has become the gold standard for animated windows — the studio the world's great houses call when a moment has to feel like magic.

From our 20,000-square-foot studio in Woodside, Queens, our wood, metal, paint and prop shops work side by side. Designers, fabricators and animators sit within steps of one another, so an idea sketched in the morning can be a moving mechanism by the afternoon.

We've animated Macy's flagship windows every year since 1999, and built moments for Saks, Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdale's, Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Google — installed here and rolled out across Tokyo, Shanghai, Dubai, London and Paris.

We call what we do Crowd Building: blending scenic design, technology and story until strangers stop, point, and pull out their phones. Eight decades on, that's still the whole job.

Woodside, Queens · 20,000 sq ft · Macy's windows since 1999

Spaeth Design scenic production studio floor with large-scale sets under construction and overhead rigging

For over sixty years we've blended scenic design, technology and story to create moments people gather around. We call it Crowd Building.

1945

Crafting magic since

20,000 ft²

Studio in Woodside, Queens

Since 1999

Macy's animated windows, every year

Worldwide

Tokyo · Shanghai · Dubai · London · Paris

Under one roof

Every craft the work demands.

Glowing animated holiday window display on a grand storefront at night

Window Displays

Animated feature windows that turn a sidewalk into an audience.

Artisans fabricating an oversized prop in a scenic workshop

Custom Fabrication

Wood, metal, paint and prop shops under one 20,000 sq ft roof.

Close-up of a brass mechanical animation movement driving a painted figure

Technical Animation

Mechanisms and motion built for reliability and reveal.

Custom-fabricated archway installation under theatrical lighting in a dark gallery

Installations & Roll-Outs

We handle logistics and install — here or across the globe.

Bring us the weird brief.

Let's build something the street stops for.

Window display, custom fabrication, technical animation, retail activation, or some inadvisable hybrid of all four — tell us what you're imagining and we'll bring it to the real world.

Start a projectinfo@spaethdesign.com