LOVE SCULPTURE AT SAKURA LAKE SPORT PARK, Weihai, China

Designers: Bian Qingming – Enlighten Projects, Mo Xiaojian – YD Illumination, Theresa Li – cBright Lighting

Photos: Yu Dongjie

Sixteen-hundred meters of RGB LED lights transform Sakura Lake's torus-shaped LoveSculpture into a circle of colors that can be manipulated by 12 nearby bicycles. At 42 meters high, the sculpture generates 12 lines of light around its circumference–one for each bicycle connected to the lighting platform. Each bike can affect the speed of light via three different modes: cooperative mode, single competitive mode and group competitive mode. In cooperative move, the overall speed of all of the bikes controls the animation of the lights–the faster people ride, the quicker the lights move around the sculpture. When the riders reach the highest level of speed, the light shows its full range of colors for 10 seconds before returning to its starting state. In single competitive mode, each bike controls one band of light with a specific color. The faster the rider, the faster the band of light moves around circle. The first rider to achieve the highest speed wins, causing each band of light to change to the winner's color. Group competitive mode consists of dividing the bikes into two teams of six. One group's light moves clockwise while the other's moves counterclockwise. Once the two sets of light meet, the sculpture will display the color of the fastest group.

PHOENIX SKY HARBOR AIRPORT TERMINAL 3 RENOVATION, Phoenix

Designers: Leland Curtis, Reinhardt, Jeff Gerwing – SmithGroupJJR

Photos: Bill Timmerman

An airport terminal has been transformed from a Brutalist relic into a bright ambassador to the business-friendly city of Phoenix. The goal was to create an uplifting experience, support wayfinding and reduce energy consumption, while balancing renovation-related constraints and a lighting budget of $7.70 per sq ft. The solution melds place and purpose by embracing daylight and views, while alluding to flight by emphasizing lift, velocity and lightness. In the passenger hall,curving skylights blend with electric lighting to create a canopy of brightness with a 10:1 contrast ratio emphasizing an upward gaze. Coves and spotlights selected to avoid pilot-distracting uplight, extend the effect through the glazing. The asymmetric skylight form balances aesthetics, sky-well efficiency and daylight distribution within the limitations of a single structural slab. The curving profile maximizes daylight efficiency and sky-view while delivering a soft gradient of brightness reminiscent of natural sky patterns. Straight edges of recessed linear LEDs juxtapose the curves and emphasize the velocity of flight, a motif that reappears in transition corridors. Column-mounted multi-head LED spots with hex-cell glare shields provide additional illumination, and glare-free indirect pendants identify destinations.

MUSEUM OF THE BIBLE, Washington, D.C.

Designers: Luke Renwick, Rodrigo Manriquez, Patrick MacBride – SmithGroupJJR

Photos: Alan Karchmer, Alex Fradkin

The architectural concept of washed/scraped and reused parchment expresses this 1920s' warehouse-to-museum adaptive reuse project. The solution hinges on light to guide the visitor's experience by encouraging movement, reflection and curiosity. At the entry, lighting highlights bronze panels with texturized Gutenberg printing-press components and a 32-ft tall glass art piece displaying Psalm 19 in Greek sandblasted text. DMX-controlled louvered fixtures anchor the art piece's top and bottom, while narrow-beam floodlights make engraved translations appear and disappear. Column highlights, window reveals and backlit cavities inform the lobby arcade experience, where a dynamic ceiling reflected in the polished floor encourages movement toward the atrium. Ambient brightness increases in the atrium as guests use the staircase, filled with natural light complemented by repeating concealed cove fixtures. Real-time thermal and glare information from annual solar data was leveraged for the atrium and roof addition. Ambient light minimizes reflections, allowing skyline views, while rhythmic "rib" accents offer a dynamic nighttime environment suitable for the adjacent after-hour event spaces.

UNDERGROUND FOREST IN ONEPARK GUBEI, Shanghai

Designers: Chenlu Zhang – Gradient Lighting-Design, Shuojiong Zhang – ArchUnits, Ting Yu – Wutopia Lab

Photos: Qing Ai, CreatAR Images

A community center built around the concept of a forest uses lighting to gently wrap visitors in a warm, soft environment. The entire project is underground, with daylight entering only at the entrance on the upper of two levels. Inside, a ceiling of curved wood-finish aluminum plates seems to softly rise and fall. Indirect LED strips hidden in the arch structure illuminate exposed white surfaces to mimic daylight, and are complemented by suspended cloud-like chandeliers. Daylight from the entry flows like a waterfall down the steps into the lower level, a quieter dual-function space with black interior finishes. In the wings, focused lighting and clean beam patterns create more private and theatrical spaces for concentration or meditation, while zoomable track lights provide flexibility for display items. After sunset, the interior's warmth and uniformity offer an inviting scene from outside.

McKIM, MEAD & WHITE – DINING ROOM RESTORATION, New York City

Designers: Jerry Kugler, Burr Rutledge, Junrui Wang, Jackson Ning – Kugler Ning Lighting

Photos: Private Club, Kugler Ning Lighting, Jeff Goldberg/Esto

The wood-walled dining room for this private club was designed by McKim, Mead & White in 1899, and today hosts daily meals and events. The space was characteristically dark and gloomy for over 100 years, despite the addition of theatrical lighting and halogen uplights in original sconces in the 1990s. The 2017 renovation introduced a multi-layered design with concealed LED fixtures highlighting important features such as walls, ceilings and décor, without disturbing the character of the room. Rigorous mock-ups were preformed to determine aiming angles and optical distribution, and were instrumental in color matching the many layers of 2700K LED. Restored historical fixtures continue to provide scale but are no longer necessary for ambient illumination and therefore shrouded. Opaque shades control brightness and improve visibility. From the musician's gallery, well-shielded narrow-beam LED track heads highlight frequently used displays and podium positions. With careful budgeting and one year of planning, the room was offline for just six weeks to complete construction.

SHANGPING VILLAGE REGENERATION, Xiyuan Town, Jianning County, Sanming City, Fujian Province, China

Designers: Zhang Xin, Han Xiaowei, Zhao Xuanyu, Niu Bentian – X Studio, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University

Photos: Jin Weiqi, Zhou Meng

An ancient village's abandoned agricultural facilities and infrastructure have been transformed to enrich nightlife, complement tourism, provide new sources of economic growth and improve the quality of life. Lighting protects the natural and simple dark environment of the village, and creates interesting, artistic surprises in a traditional atmosphere. The tobacco-curing house is now an ode to farming civilization, enhanced by an art installation with a skylight device refracting sunlight through colorful acrylic plates. The fantastical, romantic atmosphere will allow visitors to ponder the relationship between people and nature. In a debris shed-turned café, direct and indirect lighting illuminates colored, wooden window plates, resulting in a soft, warm environment. Cowsheds have become the village's bookstore, with sunlight penetrating a gap between connected structures during the day, and upper-level interior lighting luring visitors at night. Finally, linear lights along the counter at the new bar–once a deserted pig sty–as well as RGBW LED linear lights under a black-metal floor grille make the space exciting and modern.

HSBC CAFETERIA, Dusseldorf, Germany

Designers: Isabel Sternkopf, Andreas Schultz - Licht Kunst Licht AG

Photos: Johannes Roloff

An essential part of renovating this 1970s employee restaurant and kitchen was to construct a light well, in accordance with the German government's new building guidelines requiring daylight and a visual relation to the exterior. For structural reasons, only a confined shaft with small windows could be built. The resulting daylight intake would be minimal and the positive effects of natural light and views to the exterior unnoticeable. As a result, the added value of daylight for users was only attainable through electric light imitating daylight to support the occupant's circadian rhythm. To that end, the team designed a floor-to-ceiling, 20-plus-meter (65-plus-ft) long artificial panorama window wall showing a folded image of the River Rhine. Linear RGBW LED luminaires with 2700K-6000K color-temperature spectrum, concealed in the floor and ceiling behind the glazing, automatically adapt intensity and color to the time of day. The transition is imperceptible to the occupant. The color temperature of the aisle access illumination and the lighting in the adjacent open kitchen is equally variable and controlled in sync with the luminous wall.

JACQUES CARTIER BRIDGE, Montréal

Designers: Moment Factory, Réalisations, Ambiances Design Productions, ATOMIC3, Ombrages, Lucion Média and UDO Design

Photos: Moment Factory

A team of seven local partners collaborated to make the "world's most connected bridge" with lighting activated by real-time social media activity and "big urban data." A combination of projectors and tube lighting illuminate the structure and reflect the activity of the city. The bridge's exterior lighting changes with the seasons thanks to a 365-day color calendar. Soft lighting is directed inward toward the "heart" of the structure to minimize light loss and distraction to vehicles. The aesthetic of the bridge's exterior lighting is driven by real-time social media that tags Montreal. The intensity, speed and density of the light display changes in relation to how often Montreal-related hashtags are being liked and shared. Data regarding the city's weather, traffic and news also affects the exterior lighting. To gather bridge-specific data, sensors track vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian traffic, as well as wind speed, direction and precipitation levels. Eight-minute animations appear on the hour at night, creating a data-driven show that projects the mood of the city.

WILSHIRE GRAND CENTER, Los Angeles

Designers: Joshua VanBlankenship, Brian Parisi, Derek Warrick – StandardVision, Chip Israel, Andrew Powell, Panitkwan (Arex) Soontharuch – Lighting Design Alliance

Photos: Ethan Coco, Hunter Kerhart, German Lopez, Lisa Israel

A prominent figure on the Los Angeles skyline, the Wilshire Grand Center uses lighting to accentuate three of the building's key architectural features: the courtyard, the spine and the crown. The courtyard display consists of a dynamic high-resolution media platform set behind unitized façade panels, allowing for 70% transparency inside with bespoke mullion integration. The complexity of the building's spine required a modular fixture design capable of 220 distinct length variations. Pre-installation of more than 13,000 ft of fixtures and of cables in panels helped mitigate costly exterior installation. Along with the accent fixtures, integrated media displays are synchronized across the façade to help define the architectural volumes of the building's spine and crown. The oval-shaped crown serves as a platform to broadcast tenant logos and identification, as well as synchronized lighting programs.

HENDRIX BRIDGE, Zagreb, Croatia

Designers: Dean Skira, Godvin Poropat – Skira

Photos: Danijel Bartolic, Damil Kalodjera

Written in graffiti on the 300-meter Green Bridge in Zagreb, Croatia, is the name HENDRIX–a tribute to the rock icon Jimi Hendrix. Since the name appeared, this railway bridge has been known as the Hendrix Bridge and like its namesake, the structure is recognized for its art. The initial plan called for upgrading the bridge's functional road lighting and adding a touch of feature lighting as deemed appropriate. To draw attention to the bridge at night, linear white light follows the form of the bridge's steel beams and enhances its green color. To emphasize the bridge's railroad traffic, radar registers oncoming trains and the white lights shut down–causing the bridge to "disappear"–as they approach. RGB reflectors switch on and illuminate both sides of crossing trains with colored light that follows them across the length of the bridge. White light illuminated the bridge again after the trains have passed, bringing the attention back to the structure. LED lights create the appropriate decorative effect while conserving energy.

INTELLIGENT STREETLIGHT, Lloydminster, Alberta, CA

Designers: Amro Alansari – ATCO

Photos: Vasya Omelchuk Photography

This intelligent streetlight project along a major roadway called for converting HPS fixtures to LED while combining motion sensing technology with integrated wireless lighting controls. With that, it delivers dynamic "light on demand" rather than traditional adaptive dimming. A roadway system consists of many dynamic "moving" pieces–vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. Any drastic change in lighting, however, can have significant safety implications. This project aimed to reduce energy and the environmental impact of roadway lighting, while maintaining the safety of everyone on the road. With the motion-sensing technology, streetlights dim during off-peak hours and automatically brighten when the presence of any traffic is detected. Streetlights no longer shine through the night at full capacity when no one is present. Early reports show the system has yielded an 80% reduction in energy use, as the streetlights are dimmed 70% for more than half the time during off-peak hours.

ASID HEADQUARTERS, Washington, D.C.

Designers: James Benya, Deborah Burnett – Benya Burnett Consultancy

Photos: Eric Laignel, Perkins+Will

In 2016, ASID challenged its design team to become the world's first to achieve both LEED and WELL Platinum status for its 8,000-sq ft office, which occupies a portion of a top floor in downtown Washington. The architectural team readily addressed the normal challenges of tenant improvement work, including 8-ft 4-in. ceilings, existing windows and limited budget. The greatest challenge, however, was achieving the lighting credits and optional "optimizers" specified by the WELL certification. Both LEED and WELL are points-based systems awarding the same achievements, including the use of daylight, preservation of view, and automated control for lighting and shading systems. The WELL (v1) lighting requirements, however, often conflict with the energy saving requirements of LEED (v3). Specifically, WELL circadian lighting requires exceptional color quality, and exacting Melanopic and vertical surface light levels, which often require additional energy. Given the costs and color limitations of 2016 LED technology, the designers succeeded by specifying a combination of legacy light sources, modern LEDs, providing peer review for color reflectivity contribution values, and specifying lighting and controls to protect occupant sleep and encourage occupant workplace engagement. Employee workplace surveys, occupant interviews and educational sessions informed tuning control set points. Project results include 19% absenteeism reduction, while 25% of occupants report enhanced sleep quality, complemented by daily lighting energy savings of 82%. The ASID HQ became the world's first double Platinum project in 2017.

CAPITAL CASCADES CONNECTOR BRIDGE, Tallahassee, FL

Designers: Randy Burkett, Rich Fisher – Randy Burkett Lighting Design, Inc.

Photos: Adam Cohen

The mission for the design team was to use light to enhance the bridge structure at night and as a visual acknowledgement of the surrounding stakeholder entities. Bridge columns spring from grade at unique angels to support organically inspired sunshade elements that suggest a contemporary interpretation of the city's renowned tree canopy roads. Just south of downtown, the bridge is viewed from above and below by vehicular traffic, obliquely from passersby and first-hand by those crossing on foot or bike. Ground-mounted 50-W white-light-only LED luminaires accent each column. Thoughtful aiming minimizes distractions for drivers and muffles stray light. Mounted to the interior column surfaces and incorporating glare shields, dynamic RGB uplights produce indirect lighting effects that envelop pedestrians, making them part of the bridge environment. The design includes assimilation of cutting-edge, flexible solar collectors atop the sunshades. The solar fabric provides 100% of total bridge lighting power throughout the year; 6,400 kWh/per annum is projected. Connected lighting is 1.6kW, while tiered curfew settings dim luminaires at off-peak hours to trim energy use. Color-changing effects on the canopies signify holidays, "cause" awareness and celebrate occasions for nearby Florida State and Florida A&M Universities, all centrally choreographed through a computer.