Georgia Dome, Atlanta
TEAM: Owner: State of Georgia // Operations Manager: Georgia World Congress Center Authority, Atlanta, www.gadome.com // Architect: tvsdesign, Atlanta, www.tvsa.com // Lighting Designers: tvsdesign and Conway & Owen Inc., Alpharetta, Ga., www.conway-owen.com // Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing Engineer: Conway & Owen // General Contractor: Holder Construction, Atlanta, www.holderconstruction.com
Located in the heart of Atlanta, the Georgia Dome, home to the Atlanta Falcons, is the world’s largest cable-supported dome stadium.
In 2007, Georgia World Congress Center Authority, the dome’s operator, which was established by the state, and the owner of the Falcons engaged architectural firm tvsdesign to design the renovation of the 1.6 million-square-foot building, which had been built in 1992. The renovation included a new look for the space — with the red and black colors of the Falcons serving as a prominent motif — and new amenities, such as additional suites and lounge areas, LED video boards, concession kiosks and more than 350 flat-screen televisions.
The dramatic redesign called for a dramatic lighting scheme, says Robert O’Keefe, AIA, LEED AP, senior associate and project architect for tvsdesign. “The existing lighting was utilitarian and inadequate and needed a complete overhaul,” he says. “You can have an extremely dramatic effect on a space just by updating the lighting.”
The lighting design team saw the solution in the unique geometry of the building, which created a suspended continuous luminaire wrapping around the building’s interior. “The concept of the lighting was to create implied movement through the concourse,” O’Keefe explains. “We created a continuous track of light that would wrap around the entire dome and draw your eye around the concourse. In a way, the lighting pulls you through the space.”
The challenge in creating this never-ending lighting design was that the actual luminaires are straight while the connectors between the luminaires are subtly curved to ensure a continuous curved string.
“The transition units that link the luminaires together was the tricky part,” recalls Jeff Wierenga, AIA, NCIDQ, senior associate and project manager for tvsdesign. “The solution involved custom brackets. However, once the geometry of the building was broken down, we found that only five custom transition pieces were needed. The manufacturer worked out the details.”
The luminaires were modified to eliminate uplight per the client’s specifications, and all components arrived at the jobsite clearly labeled to facilitate an on-time installation to coincide with the Georgia Dome’s event calendar. On the main concourse two rows of lighting, representing 452 two-lamp T5 luminaires, were installed. In the mezzanine, two rows of lighting, featuring 228 luminaires, were placed in the end-zone areas. On the upper concourse, a single row of 228 three-lamp T5 luminaires was installed.
“The dome today is a night and day difference,” O’Keefe points out. “Before the renovation, the concourses were dark and cluttered with visual chaos. Today, as you enter the concourses, the spaces are bright and have a more energetic feel.” (Photo courtesy of Peerless Lighting)
David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, New York
TEAM: Owner: Lincoln Center, New York, www.lincolncenter.org // Designer: Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York, www.dsrny.com // Architect: Tillotson Design Associates, New York, www.tillotsondesign.com // Installer: Evans and Paul, Plainview, N.Y., www.evansandpaul.com // Manufacturer: Traxon Technologies | e:cue, Hong Kong, www.traxontechnologies.com (Products: 1PXL Board Warm White (lighting); Butler and Butler XT (lighting controls))
Located in New York’ s historic Lincoln Center, the lobby of the David H. Koch Theater was brought to a new, vibrant life in October 2009. The ticket windows feature a wall glowing with white light; this clean and crisp installation is surfaced with a custom-cut DuPont Corian diffusion panel that tells the theatre’s story with images of theatrical performance. New York’s Tillotson Design Associates combined more than 560 units of a slim-profile LED module designed for backlighting installations of walls, floors, ceilings and other flat surfaces. The modules illuminate the interior of the corrugated façade, enhancing a panel cut precisely to give the illusion of an opera scene when viewed from one angle and a ballet scene when viewed from the other, both in photographic grey scale. (Photo courtesy of Traxon | e:cue)