The Lighting Control Innovation Award was created in 2011 as part of the Illuminating Engineering Society’s Illumination Awards program, which recognizes professionalism, ingenuity and originality in lighting design. LCA is proud to sponsor the Lighting Control Innovation Award, which recognizes projects that exemplify the effective use of lighting controls in nonresidential applications.
This month, we will explore an innovative installation of lighting controls at The Clock at the Irvine Spectrum Center in Irvine, California. Design by First Circle Design Inc. Photography by Galina Zubatov. Lighting controls by ETC.
The design team’s goal was to innovate a lighting icon that embraces a three-story tall tree and surrounding shops without defacing perimeter buildings. The Clock is an engaging sculpture of light that invites social play and dining.
To bring The Clock to life, a playback control system is utilized to illustrate real time through the use of color and intensity. The Clock consumes only thirty-two Amps of power at full capacity.
The Clock not only demonstrates real time via an astronomical clock, it is also pre-programmed to track seasonal and holiday periods. The Clock’s hands each promote two colors to differentiate a progressive movement of time seasonally and during holidays.
The color palette is inspired by seasonal and holiday themes which encourage a naturally-evolving feeling of time and community connection. To manage the color palettes and for quick future edits, a timeline has been created for each element per season/holiday: hour, minute, and second hands; umbrellas and tree. Simulations were created within the playback device’s software and submitted to the design team as proof of concept.
The twelve umbrellas coincide with the hour hand providing a vertical awareness to the plaza at night from afar. The integrated RGB LED tape indirectly stimulate glow under the umbrellas with the progression of time and seasonal palette.
This dynamic innovation stimulates visual inspiration and is the prized benchmark at The Irvine Spectrum Center. The project remained within budget and on schedule. The design success was extensively praised and has set the precedence for the property’s future lighting vernacular.
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