Busy Bees: A Live Look at the Durst Hives Atop One Bryant Park

Busy Bees: A Live Look at the Durst Hives Atop One Bryant Park

  • 01/20/2020
  • DVS Project
No one in New York City is working harder than the bees of One Bryant Park, where the seventh-floor rooftop is a living example of how beautiful and fascinating sustainability can be.

The Durst Organization, which owns the building and many others throughout the city, set up the hives in boxes spelling the words, “DURST HIVES.” Untapped Cities wrote:
“The beehives went live in 2013, starting with just two boxes. Now, there are ten boxes on a seventh-floor rooftop, which start with about 12,000 bees in each box at the beginning of the season and ending at about 50,000. This means each year at the peak, there are about 500,000 bees pollinating at One Bryant Park.”

Better yet, the buzz is captured 24/7 on Durst’s live bee cam shown online and on a big screen in 151 W 42nd, also owned by Durst. The honey is used in the cafeterias of both buildings and packaged in sweet little gift jars. Let's look in and see what the bees are up to, shall we?



Duggal Visual Solutions created the custom enclosure for the screen from laser-engraved natural bamboo, as well as incorporated an IP-based web camera and deployed a small RTMP relay server to feed into the live public display. It was a collaboration between Durst IT and Duggal’s Inno Lab and Fabrication Team to transform the simple idea of showing Durst’s bee hives live in a common area into a very strong design.

“We made something that got celebrated and looks stunning. With a little bit of collaboration, it became a more engaging user experience than what was originally intended” adds Dan Seeley, Duggal’s Director of Multimedia Solutions.

More importantly, we applaud Durst’s creative, sustainable thinking in the concrete jungle. The bees are only the beginning of the company’s green initiatives.

“We were green before it was a thing,” Durst says. “From the first LEED Platinum skyscraper in the US, to innovative waste management initiatives, environmental responsibility has been the Durst Organization’s ethos since its inception.”

Read more on the bees of One Bryant Park in the New York Times.