The National Museum of the American Indian - Museum Exhibit Lighting
Posted by Kerri Galgano on Tue, Sep 15, 2009 @ 09:20 AM
The National Museum of the American Indian is a five-story, 250,000 sq ft. curvilinear building that was built on the last open space available on Washington's National Mall, between the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and the U.S. Capitol.
Dedicated to the Native peoples of North, South and Central America, the Museum was chartered by Congress in 1989 as the 16th museum of the Smithsonian Institution and has one of the largest and most extensive collections of Native American art and artifacts in the world: approximately 800,000 objects representing over 10,000 years of history.
A striking addition to the National Mall, the building is clad in Kasota limestone and evokes natural rock formations shaped by wind and water over thousands of years. Set in a 4.25-acre landscaped site with wetlands and 40 boulders known as "grandfather rocks," the museum is a sharp contrast to neighboring Washington buildings. Its special features-an entrance facing east toward the rising sun, a prism window and a 120-foot-high atrium called the Potomac-were designed in consultation with Native Americans over a four-year period.
The architects had a strong sense of space, which was refined throughout the project, and it was essential that the lighting for the many spaces of the museum was in harmony with this. One of the most experienced lighting designers for museum spaces, Brandston Partnership Inc (BPI), was asked to design and specify the lighting for temporary exhibits, study cases and the public spaces which will host many special events.
Chou Lien, a partner at BPI, said: "Our aim was to create a sense of place in all of its details - to fulfill the vision of the architect's sense of the space. The functional requirements of the lighting were very few. However, the exhibit lighting is oriented towards a learning experience, and had to be sensitive to the technical requirements for preserving materials as well as balancing brightness for good visibility for visitors."
He continued: "However, we believe that maintenance issues are an equally important part of the design because otherwise, over time, the integrity of the lighting is compromised. For this reason, we utilized long-life halogen sources that are on a dimmer to extend lamp life, and located to be easily accessible from catwalks integrated into the architectural shell." The halogen sources also have excellent color rendering qualities, enabling visitors to the Museum to see the various exhibits in their true colors, while providing lamp life of up to 6,000 hours.
Conservation was an important factor in the choice of lighting fixtures, with some of the artifacts limited to 3-5 footcandle illuminance, and many different solutions were employed, including the architectural solution of using storage drawers, so that the artifacts are only exposed to light when the drawers are open.
For the many open spaces in the museum, where events will be held on a regular basis, the lighting design had to resolve some unique lighting conditions. This applied particularly to the Potomac space, where full theatrical lighting capability and an architectural lighting system are integrated via a control system, to provide the ability to alter the mood of the space as appropriate for many different functions.
Flexibility was also important for certain areas and all the lighting fixtures, whether spotlights, wall wash or projectors, are track-mounted, to enable different configurations of the fixtures, depending on the exhibits or event. Track lighting also enables BPI to have complete flexibility over their choice of light sources for the exhibits. With literally thousands of masterworks in its care, the exhibits at the Museum can range from intricate wood and stone carvings to feather bonnets, elegantly painted and quilled hides to basketry, weavings and much, much more. Such variety presents its own challenges, and track lighting enabled BPI to concentrate on the design of the lighting without having to worry about the more technical aspects of the fixtures.
Please click here to view the lighting fixtures installed in the National Museum of the American Indian.