Posted by Kerri Galgano on Tue, Sep 22, 2009 @ 02:02 PM
In the past, when a building was looking past its best, architects and planners might have preferred to pull it down and start again. But increasingly, they are looking at these buildings with a fresh eye and realizing that, if done with vision and careful lighting, they can be brought into the 21
st century and made to look stunning once again.
Three museums have been involved with such renovations, including the Kahn Building at Yale University Art Gallery, Royal Ontario Museum and the National Museum of Singapore.
The 1953 Louis Kahn building at Yale University Art Gallery has been restored not only to its original beauty and grandeur, but also to its original function as a place for the display and study of works of art. Entering the building, visitors are now struck by the remarkable qualities of light, materials and space, all of which reflect Kahn's original vision.
The three year renovation by architect Polshek Partnership included the updating of the original lighting system, which had been designed by pioneering lighting designer Richard Kelly and was arguably the first use of track lighting in a museum context. That original system followed the flexibility of the architecture and lighting designers Fisher Marantz Stone (FMS)were tasked with formulating a master plan for the renovation. The primary issue was one of access, as the original electric busways had been sandwiched between the poured-in-place concrete floor/ceiling slabs. To update the track, FMS had to thread segmented flexible track through the ceiling in 32 inch sections. The new system, a standard modified track realized the original concept of providing architectural integration while providing maximum flexibility for the exhibit design lighting, which was carried out by Hefferan Partnership Inc.
In Canada, the Royal Ontario Museum, which originally opened its doors in 1914, gained 175,000 square feet with the addition of the aluminum-and-glass-covered Michael Lee-Chin Crystal which houses seven galleries overlooking Bloor Street West as well as a graceful new main entrance and two soaring interior spaces - Hyacinth Gloria Chen Crystal Court and the Spirit House. An extraordinary structure of interlocking prismatic forms, the Crystal, designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind and Bregman + Hamann Architects, simultaneously restores one of Canada's historic landmarks while creating a new signature building for the city of Toronto.
D
esigning the lighting for the Crystal was challenging, as Joe Berardi of Mulvey + Banani International Inc of Toronto, explains: "The biggest challenge was the fact that there are very few vertical or horizontal walls in the Crystal and we needed to establish a system that would not only satisfy the needs of, and provide adequate lighting for the initial display, but also to respond to the changing needs for the future. The lighting system needed to be flexible and, at the same time, invisible." The track system proved to be ideal, with various versions of recessed track being used, depending on which type of track responded best to the architectural detailing. Various lighting fixtures, both metal halide and 12-volt PAR36 and AR111 lamps, were specified. The design of these cylinder fixtures make them ideal for architectural lighting, the 12-volt models particularly producing brilliant shafts of light, from narrow to wide beams, ideal for lighting small objects, accenting details on larger objects and creating low-level flood lighting.
Further afield, the National Museum of Singapore has undergone a major renovation in recent years. Originally built as the Raffles library and museum in 1887, this iconic neo-classical building is also now seamlessly integrated with a modernist extension of glass and metal. The lighting for the permanent exhibits in both the old and new galleries has been designed by François Roupinian, the founder and principal of Lightemotion in Montreal, working with exhibit designers GSM Design.
The two main exhibits are Singapore Living Galleries, a group of exhibits in the old part of the museum which cover food, fashion, film and photography, and the Singapore History Gallery, which tells the story of Singapore from its beginnings in the 14th century to the modern period.
François used a theatrical approach to his lighting for the museum, ensuring that "all the exhibits talk the same language. However, the main challenge of the project was that, in the new building, the exhibit design was evolving at the same as the architectural design. This necessitated us working closely with the engineers and, with their help, we developed a system which enabled us to integrate the lighting into the architecture. I like to hide the lighting fixtures, particularly in multi-media exhibits such as these."
To view the lighting fixtures used in these installations, please click the links below:
Yale University Art Gallery, Royal Ontario Museum, National Museum of Singapore.