A Broad Street AR experience brings underwater fun to Philly without the shore traffic

If you see a giant octopus on North Broad Street this summer, the heat wave isn’t causing you to hallucinate. It’s just augmented reality.

The North Broad Renaissance is launching a new feature next week on its Lights of North Broad app for the summer called Sea ABroad, an AR feature that makes users feel like they are in an underwater landscape. The Lights of North Broad app started in 2022 as a partnership with Fairmount-based AR and VR design agency Dream Syndicate. Sea ABroad will go live on June 28.

“It’s a fun thing for kids, primarily, and just anybody who likes augmented reality,” Howard McCabe, executive creative director for Dream Syndicate, told Technical.ly. “But really, it’s just [to] engage the community.”

The idea for Sea ABroad came from the event Beach on North Broad, a pop-up beach on the lawn of the Leon H. Sullivan Human Services Center. In 2018 and 2019, organizers shipped in sand for a giant sandbox and provided beach chairs, umbrellas, hammocks and games for the neighborhood to enjoy, Shalimar Thomas, executive director of the North Broad Renaissance, said.

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