1201 3RD AVE PUBLIC SPACES RENOVATION, Seattle

Designers: Erica Voss, Kimberly Taylor, CJ Brockway - NBBJ

Photos: Sean Airhart

A commercial tower’s entryway and lobby, defined by dark, rich wood and stone finishes, has been relighted to attract new tenants. The building’s original single height entry doors were enlarged to double height for enhanced daylight penetration, and the dark stone entryways are now illuminated by glowing portals made from thin marble slabs, which are backlit by dimmable LED panels controlled via a DMX system. The illuminated portals are preset to run on a program that balances lighting levels with changing interior and exterior light throughout the day. Marble panels are removable, which makes the LED panels easily accessible for maintenance.

Inside, a few carefully placed downlights result in a contemporary design that meets energy codes. Custom decorative LED fixtures supplement daylight and illumination from downlights, and bring out the warmth of original wooden finishes. To eliminate the need for additional downlighting, task lighting was integrated into reception desks. A custom LED pendant over the main reception desk draws attention and assists in way finding as visitors head toward the elevator lobbies, now energized by long-life linear LEDs.

BLUE BARN, Omaha, NE

Designers: Andrew Lang, Steve Gollehon - Morrissey Engineering; Jeffrey Day - Min | Day

Photos: Tom Kessler

The mission statement for the Blue Barn Theatre proclaims that it “exists to enhance the cultural life of Omaha, NE, by producing professionally executed, boundary-breaking Dr. plays that ignite a passion for the art form.” The lighting design concept carried forth this message of igniting passion. Warm CCT lighting illuminates the weathered, corten steel façade, giving the warm-hued material a tone resembling candlelight. All lighting is controlled through a dimming system with timeclock allowing light levels to be fine tuned and automated. Internally adjustable recessed luminaires were used underneath the multi-faceted, uneven front canopy allowing light to be directed where needed regardless of the canopy’s angle.

For a back porch, where free outdoor performances are held, blue uplighting creates a beacon that expresses the spirit of the Blue Barn to the neighborhood. The cool hue of the blue lighting is in sharp contrast to the warm lighting used for the rest of the building. All sources were LED due to quality of light color, reduced energy use and low maintenance. Luminaires with precise optics were selected and carefully aimed to minimize spill light and preserve the night sky.

NARITA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT SECOND PASSENGER TERMINAL BUILDING, Narita, Japan

Designers: Yoichi Takaoka - Narita International Airport Corporation; Shinji Kaneuchi, Hiroaki Miwa - Nikken Sekkei Ltd.; Kouhei Hashiguchi, Saki Miyai, Ken Katayama - Nikken Space Design Ltd.; Kazou Kobayashi, Taisuke Ueda - Panasonic Corporation; Takashi Maeda - Azusa Sekkei

Photos: Taku Hata, SS Tokyo Okamoto, Shinkenchiku-sha, Nacasa & Partners Inc., Takeshi Nakasa

In preparation for the 2020 Olympic Games, an international airport has been redesigned to accommodate more visitors. Now, as guests travel from the arrival concourse to the second terminal’s main building, a window offers an uninterrupted view of the destination. Indirect fixtures close to the floor, integrated into a curved spandrel wall that functions as a reflector, illuminate the concourse ceiling, which guides passengers without detracting from the view. In the lounge, skylights containing Japanese paper-like panels and full-color LED fixtures do not block natural light during the day, but illuminate curtain panels uniformly at night, changing colors slowly depending on season and time. White LED fixtures supplement natural light and dimming controls enhance energy savings. The satellite-side departure concourse leaves a final impression as well: fixtures embedded in the ceiling illuminate a relief wall evoking traditional soil walls, while custom directional fixtures, arranged along the sides of the concourse, emphasize the wall’s shadows.

NOAA INOUYE REGIONAL CENTER, Honolulu

Designers: Jay Wratten, Nicole Hammer, Heather Mabley - WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff

Photos: Alan Karchmer

The 350,000-sq ft research campus features two repurposed historic airplane hangars linked by a modern building. The design embraces the owner’s core values of “science, service and stewardship,” while addressing a diverse range of space types that range from laboratories, a library and offices, to collaboration and conference facilities, dining, and public exhibit space. First, the atrium lobby connects both airplane hangars and includes accent lighting for public exhibits. Auditorium lighting includes preset architectural dimming with A/V interface. Ambient and accent light fixtures are concealed between wood ceiling slats to focus observer attention on the speaker. The dining hall, meanwhile, includes flexible overhead lighting for informal presentations and features custom acrylic “jellyfish” chandeliers internally illuminated by blue LED grazers. A mesh of skylights was inserted into the historic hangar ceilings to provide daylight autonomy in office areas.

The project is LEED-Gold certified with energy use from lighting measuring 30 percent below the IES/ASHRAE 90.1 baseline. Site lighting design minimizes light trespass and focuses user attention out at the adjacent ocean and mountain views.

UBC STUDENT UNION BUILDING, Vancouver, British Columbia

Designers: Sunny Ghataurah, Andy Su, Doug McMillan, Amir Tavakoli - AES Engineering

Photos: Ema Peter

Designers played on the idea of “illuminance vs. luminance” by highlighting architectural elements in a large, open space with full-height windows and clean ceilings. Warm, 3000K luminaires light the atrium’s exposed wood, while the egress path and stairs are illuminated at 4000K to draw the eye to the exit. High contrast ratios create visual separation, add drama and provide wayfinding. An anti-glare, side-mounted, recessed continuous LED channel with an accessible driver, integrated into the staircase, illuminates the space underneath it. Behind the scenes, a corridor with four-story boomerang-shaped wood columns that support metal panels is illuminated by 400W metal halide fixtures located at the top and bottom of the boomerang, which graze the metal panel with light. Glare shields on luminaires balance high wattage for visual comfort, sustaining the clean, open feeling despite multi-directional pathways throughout. Dimmers, controls and daylight controls optimize lighting levels, which helped the project achieve LEED Platinum certification.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SAN DIEGO WARREN COLLEGE DOUGLAS HALL PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE REPLACEMENT, San Diego

Designers: Diane Borys, Barth Ballard - ArtSci Lighting Design Studio; Steve Kurtzman - Michael Wall Engineering

Photos: Bryan Wayne, Kevin deFreitas

The project site was an aged campus dorm community. The original lighting circa 1984 consisted of low-and high-pressure sodium—some non-functional—which barely illuminated a main pedestrian thoroughfare. The new lighting concept brings the space to life by promoting function, identity, a sense of security and wayfinding to an otherwise dark maze of dorm buildings. Layers of light provide vertical and indirect illuminance and accents to increase visual interest and promote a sense of safety. Uniform levels and accents of white light create an open, welcoming courtyard for students. With that, glare is kept to a minimum and perceived brightness has increased in comparison to neighboring poles that still house low-pressure sodium fixtures. The all-LED project provides higher light levels but uses less energy than the original luminaires, while beating California’s Title 24 requirements by 10 percent.

MINNA NO MORI GIFU MEDIA COSMOS, Gifu, Japan

Designers: Kaoru Mende, Mari Kubota, Mikine Yamamoto, Misuzu Nakamura - Lighting Planners Associates

Photos: Toshio Kaneko

Through a balance of natural and artificial lighting, a two-floor library, gallery and multi-use center is transformed into a peaceful “forest” setting with a connection to nature. The second-floor open-plan reading room is defined by 11 large, translucent, umbrella-shaped “globes” suspended from an undulating wooden ceiling. The globes divide the different reading spaces and circulation areas and filter daylight into each. Natural light is supplemented by sphere-, ring- and disc-shaped pendants underneath the globes, as well as task lighting. When the sky is overcast, sensors activate the ring-shaped pendant uplights, which combine with manual task lighting for a consistent 400 lux on tabletops.

Smaller book shelves and task lights, as well as a sized-down globe with a 1.6-meter spherical pendant lamp suspended from the center, make the children’s area accessible and inviting. One level below, in the first-floor work area, spotlights, pendants and task lighting supplement ambient light and add aesthetic sharpness. A minimalist outdoor space uses the interior lighting as a decorative backdrop, while faint light illuminates the exterior roof and mirrors the surrounding foothills.

LINCOLN SQUARE SYNAGOGUE, New York City

Designers: Suzan Tillotson, Ellen Sears, David Burya - Tillotson Design Associates; John Cetra, Nancy J. Ruddy, Theresa Genovese - CetraRuddy

Photos: Emile Dubuisson, Studio Dubuisson; David Sundberg, Esto Photographics

The synagogue’s east façade, comprised of undulating glass ribbons that represent Torah scrolls, welcomes visitors. Inner layers of sheer, bronze-colored pleated fabric and a white translucent frit are lighted by more than 500 LEDs integrated into each facet’s top and bottom extrusions. The fixtures are hidden from sight, with wiring running horizontally through the extrusions to 50 drivers in the north and south ceiling areas.

The façade is multi-functional—it provides worshippers with privacy, and its interior serves as a backdrop for the synagogue’s focal point, the Torah ark, which is surrounded by 613 1¾-in. (diameter) LED downlights. The fixtures are recessed into a convex ceiling, creating a star-like atmosphere above in-the-round seating, and zoned to offer varying light levels. LED wall coves with resin diffusers spill softš light onto wooden wall panels enclosing the worship area. Narrow coves continue in the main lobby, where the façade’s lowest glass ribbon extends inside, forming the synagogue’s south wall and sculptural stair. Opposite the façade, a single fluorescent uplight on a stone wall adds a finishing touch.

STEEL STACKS CAMPUS, Bethlehem, PA

Designers: Herve Descottes, Wei Jien, Jessica Jiesoo Tchah, Kristy Philip, Oliver Huang - L'Observatoire International

Photos: Halkin Mason Photography

The site of the former Bethlehem Steel Plant has been transformed into a dynamic arts and cultural campus to benefit the local community. The redevelopment features 10 acres of performance venues, plazas and parks, along with the sculpturally angular Levitt Pavilion, an open-air stage graced by the spectacular backdrop of Bethlehem’s iconic blast furnaces, as well as an elevated railway trestle once used for carrying raw materials.

Dynamic lighting using saturated colors gives a visceral sense of the action that once took place within the furnaces of the steel factory. Sequenced lighting called for the elements closest to visitors to be lighted first, then a layer further back, and so on until all of the elements of the factory are visible. The first sequence at sundown uses red lighting, the second a deeper red, and following sequences gradually turn to blue, echoing the fires of the furnaces being lit and then cooling down. At the end of each one-hour sequence, there is a dynamic “sparkle” effect where the lights flicker. All of the lighting is LED, except for the colored metal halide spotlights on the furnaces.

BROAD MUSEUM, Los Angeles

Designers: Suzan Tillotson, Erin Dreyfous, Megan Trimarchi - Tillotson Design Associates; Elizabeth Diller, Kevin Rice, Andrea Schelly - Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Photos: Iwan Baan - Iwan Baan Photography; John Muggenborg - John Muggenborg Photography

The Broad’s lighting design draws on its architectural theme of “the veil and the vault”—a reference to both the museum’s public exhibition space and its storage area for archived items. After dark, the cellular exoskeleton—the veil—is illuminated by optically customized in-grade LEDs that accentuate each compartment of the façade. The opaque gray building—the vault—appears to hover inside the enclosure, which lifts up at the corners where lobby entrances are located.

Accent lights on the vault’s exterior soffit continue inside, creating transparency between the façade and the interior. Electrified ports, recessed into the gray ceiling, provide additional exhibit lighting. In-grade uplights along the perimeter of the first-floor interior reinforce the vault’s cantilevered shape, while perimeter stair coves and continuous traces of light entice visitors to the third-floor gallery space and archive rooms, where fixtures are suspended around storage system tracks. Lighting levels are balanced by controls that prevent overexposure for susceptible art pieces.

CHICAGO RIVERWALK, Chicago

Designers: Jim Baney, Guilio Pedota - Schuler Shook; Carol Ross Barney - Ross Barney Architects; Sasaki Architects

Photos: Kate Joyce Studios; Christian Philips Photography; Schuler Shook

Once abandoned, plagued by crime and characterized by stark security-style lighting, the renovated Riverwalk has brought vitality and excitement back to the area with its playful, welcoming and interactive lighting. To delineate the path and provide safety and comfort, 3000K linear LED fixtures were deployed. To uplight the trees, 12-W LED in-grade fixtures with glare-shields were specified. Fixtures were integrated within stairs, at a safe distance away from the trees to avoid damage to the roots. In addition, patterns of projected tree-branches are achieved with ceramic metal halide 150-W/T6, weatherproof, theatrical fixtures fitted with glass gobos and pole-mounted at street level. The piers’ ornamental capitals are illuminated with in-grade fixtures housing CMH lamps. Illuminated handrails were fitted with 3000K, IP68 LED tape, while a channel and frosted lens were provided to protect and diffuse the source.

Among other challenges, the site is located in a flood zone, requiring that all fixtures be robust, submersible and low maintenance. The submersible lighting and wiring solutions provided were “field tested” days after the grand opening, when the site completely flooded.

HARBIN GRAND THEATRE BUILDING LIGHTING, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China

Designers: Dongliang Xu, Guoqiang Zhang, Nailiang Shi - TORYO International Lighting Design Center; Zhongbin Xu - Bejing Oriental Fuhai Lighting Engineering Design Co., Ltd.

Photos: Dongliang Xu

The concept for the architectural form of this theater conjures up the image of a snowdrift. The materials of the outside façade consist of silver arc aluminum sheets and transparent glass curtain walls. The design objective was to minimize light to the surrounding natural environment, while emphasizing the characteristics of the building. The light transmitted from inside shows the concave-convex nature of the diamond-shaped glass, while hidden strip lights are arranged in the handrails of the viewing corridor and overhanging eaves to form a streamlined light band to match the contours of the building. In addition, LED spotlights hidden in the overhanging eaves of the first floor shine light on the ground to produce a floating and poetic sensation.

IMAX SHERIDAN PARK REDEVELOPMENT, Mississauga, Ontario

Designers: Rob Dyson, Caroline Robbie - Quadrangle Architects Limited; Simon Bright - Carol Electric; Randy King - Noran Industries, Ltd.; Michael Lonergan - Lonergan Engineering Inc.

Photos: Karl Smith, IMAX

Hand crafting a solution on-site was the only way designers could achieve the level of accuracy and precision required for the lighting in this IMAX theater. To attain the sharp, bold aesthetic, a slim, trim-less LED system was fitted directly into the building’s millwork. Obtuse, acute and intersecting LED segments measuring 387 ‰ft were crafted with satin lenses, hand-cut in tandem with the framing that carpenters field-measured and installed into extruded aluminum. The result is a sleek appearance with no visible effects from the voltage drop along the micro-strip lines of the substrate.

Behind reception, an LED array backlights frosted acrylic panels, causing the desk to pop and serve as a focal point amidst the surrounding linear design. The theater’s fixtures are fully dimmable and zoned, so different areas receive tailored lighting levels, and natural light from the southeast adds an organic vibe to the modern space. Daylight harvesting, occupancy sensors and time clocks tie the system together, enabling complete control and scalability.

JUSTFAB HEADQUARTERS, El Segundo, CA

Designers: Erin Erdman, Landon Roberts - eSquared Lighting

Photos: Terrance Williams - Wunder Studio

A 120,000-sq ftš, high-ceiling building is transformed into a fashion retailer’s headquarters via lighting that references the company’s branding, creates intimacy and provides flexibility. Hot pink uplighting that matches the retailer’s colors washes the ceiling above stand-alone architectural elements within the open space, such as a repurposed shipping container housing the cafeteria’s seating area. Inside the container, mirror-finished downlights add sparkle and integrated linear banquet LEDs accent corrugated walls. Outside, the 14-ft ceiling’s exposed concrete glows from a curved linear LED covelight located in a round cutout, while oversized fabric pendants add intimacy.

Large pendants are also visible in the entry, complemented by LED downlights highlighting concrete columns. Rotating display areas are set apart by a combination of high CRI linear-and point-source LEDs that blend into the ceiling. The color theme comes full circle with the boardroom’s backdrop of hot-pink built-in seating, grazed by high-output LEDs concealed in a cove.

MAPPARIUM, Boston

Designers: Brett Andersen, Ryan Fischer, Jon Blitstein - Focus Lighting

Photos: Ryan Fischer

An exhibit located inside a three-story, 26-ft (diameter) stained-glass globe, displaying a three-dimensional view of the world circa 1935, is upgraded with a brighter and wider range of color, as well as programming controls. RGBAW LED technology provides the new backlighting for the globe, which surrounds visitors standing on a central glass bridge during the exhibit’s 10-minute light-and-sound-guided tour of the world. The new system consists of 177 LED floodlights mounted on six rings that wrap around the globe’s exterior. Each ring holds 24 to 36 fixtures directed outward at the walls, ceiling and floor of an all-white room, which reflects the projected light. The fixtures’ 10-deg beam, combined with slip-in spread lenses, provides the desired amount of coverage, beam orientation and brightness. Beam patterns also enable presentation scenes with isolated geographic regions, while individual LED colors separate groups of countries. Finally, exhibit staff has the ability to create new presentations to suit future needs.

NBCUNIVERSAL LOBBY AND MEZZANINE RESTORATION, New York City

Designers: Renée Cooley, Adam Kroll, Natalia Lesniak - Cooley Monato Studio

Photos: Paul Warchol

A renovated lobby and grand staircase, and new audience lounge, recall the elegance and warmth of a historic building’s original Art Deco design, while embracing a lively, modern aesthetic. Visitors now enter into a calming space with a gold ceiling cove that reflects softš uplight before arriving at the project’s centerpiece: a custom chandelier of bronze rings located above the staircase. The fixture and its multiple circular LED coves entice visitors up the steps and provide functional illumination along the way. Additional perimeter coves highlight surrounding satin, bronze mirror-walls without creating reflections on built-in video screens.

As the space transitions from rotunda to lounge, coves take on a rectangular shape, forming floating planes within the glossy metal-leaf ceiling. Recessed downlights, accents and wall washers—all using the same LED module to ensure color matching and ease maintenance and retrofits—add ambient illumination. The new lounge features LED backlit glass columns that double as wayfinding. A second staircase reinforces the project’s whimsical side, with a chandelier of aluminum rods, coated in colorful acrylic, lighted by LEDs integrated into the tips.

PAGE AT DCA, Arlington, VA

Designers: Renée Joosten, Patricia Vallejo - ICRAVE LIGHTING

Photos: Giulio Calisse

A flower-shaped sculpture transforms a dim, uninviting airport terminal into an uplifting focal point for travelers. The sculpture’s base sits below an existing speaker dome, and its 10 petals extend up and around it. Each of the petals, arranged in a circular pattern and aligned with existing ceiling fins, holds six custom 4-channel LED fixtures that uplight the ceiling. Tighter beam optics near the petals’ tips throw light far across the ceiling, while wider beam optics at the petals’ centers soften the light and eliminate hotspots. Baffling ensures diodes are not reflected in the terminal’s glass.

The speaker dome is separately illuminated by five additional uplights mounted just below it. Custom frosted lenses, baffles and three-sided barndoors prevent spill and shadows on the ceiling. The fixtures respond to an astronomic time-clock, automatically adjusting channels (amber, 2200K, 2700K and 4000K) based on daylight levels. Just before sunrise, the scene is saturated with a rich amber hue, resulting in a dramatic and energetic atmosphere. To balance daylight around noon, the lighting transitions to 4000K, offering a crisp and comfortable lunch environment. As the sun sets, the light gradually warms for a cozy and inviting dinner finale.