Lighting Design dot NYC

2015 Award of Merit

Lighting Designer: Focus Lighting: Paul Gregory, Christine Hope, Brett Andersen, Hilary Manners, Valentina Doro, Dan Nichols, Andrew Balmer

Architect: Richard Lewis Architects: Richard Lewis, Susan Armsby

Owner: Jim Caiola and David Salama

Inspired by the restaurant’s famed Crystal

Room, the lighting design treats the courtyard as an extension of the interior, using multiple layers of light to give dimension to the outdoor space. Classic architecture meets modern influences in the custom-designed cylindrical lanterns with frosted glass, gradient shades that radiate a soft, warm light. Steel-blue LED accents wash the slate roof, while 4200K pattern projectors mimic dappled moonlight. 500 “chandeliers” in varying sizes float above the courtyard in delicate swags. 3.5W, 2400K LED medium screw-base lamps provide an 86% reduction in energy use and 10% additional lumen output compared to regular 25W lamps, while adding the same feeling of incandescent sparkle within the canopy above.

Photography: Ryan Fischer, Focus Lighting

2019 Award of Merit

Lighting Designer: Focus Lighting: Brett Andersen, Juan Pablo Lira, Asier Mateo, and Justin Keenan Miller

Architect: Studio Libeskind

Owner: National Capital Commission

The National Holocaust Monument comprises six triangular, castconcrete volumes configured into a Star of David. The lighting concept enhances the architecture’s proportions and raw materials to create an emotional visual journey encouraging contemplation and reflection. To meet budget requirements, the lighting prioritizes the monument’s feature walls, which are embedded with monochromatic images of Holocaust sites, leaving the remaining walls darker in contrast. Working with large concrete voids with no ceilings led the Focus Lighting team to create custom armatures designed to marry with the architecture’s angular vocabulary. Tightly spaced blade louvers block nearly all views of the internal 3000K fixtures during the day and eliminate glare at night, allowing the armatures to disappear into the dark sky beyond. The monument’s tallest wall is illuminated using two rows of linear LEDs mounted inside a trough at the wall’s base. The trough is covered by a metal grill, precisely aligned with each LED to eliminate shadows, protect fixtures from harsh winter weather, and act as a louver to reduce glare. Each visit culminates by ascending the monument’s Stair of Hope, flanked by linear LEDs hidden within the railings, gently ushering visitors to a final viewing platform with views of the Peace Tower.

Photography: JP Lira

2019 Citation for Kinetic Facade Treatment

Lighting Designer: Focus Lighting: Paul Gregory, Brett Andersen, Christine Hope, Hilary Manners, and Kenneth Schutz

Architectural Design: The Portico Group (now MIG | Portico)

Owner: Wildlife Conservation Society

Much like a real ocean dive, a visitor’s journey through the New York Aquarium’s new 57,000 sqft Ocean Wonders: Sharks! exhibit begins outside, where artist Ned Kahn’s shimmering wall uses wind and light to create a mesmerizing visual, reminiscent of ocean waves. Each night, a curated 5 hour lighting display triggers automatically as sunset approaches over the beach, with bright cyans and undulating whites painted dramatically against a pink- and orange-streaked sky. As night falls, deep blues and purples slowly replace the pastels, ebbing and flowing in a rhythm of bioluminescent tides. When wind ripples through the sculpture, flashes of white backlight dance through like a school of iridescent fish. A 20 by 20 ft mock-up built on the Coney Island Boardwalk confirmed the team’s decision to use two rows of linear LEDs at the wall’s base. White uplights behind the wall bounce off its 33,000 swinging panels and directly into viewers’ eyes as a quick sparkle, while LEDs in front paint the surface with colored light. Visible for miles up and down the boardwalk, the shimmer wall serves as a public display of light and art that captures the curiosity of everyone who sees it.

Photography: Ryan Fischer