“THIS FAÇADE IS ABSOLUTELY STUNNING”


SPERONE WESTWATER GALLERY


NEW YORK, NY USA


LIGHTING DESIGN GABE GUILLIAMS DAVID SMITH, DESIGN IALD CRAIG DANTON BURO HAPPOLD


ADDITIONAL CREDITS DESIGN ARCHITECT FOSTER + PARTNERS


EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT ADAMSON ASSOCIATES


GENERAL CONTRACTOR SCIAME


ELECTRICIANS PLATINUM ELECTRIC


PHOTOGRAPHY © GABE GUILLIAMS, BURO HAPPOLD


a concealed location for the fixtures. At the highest position of the room, 60’ of shaft wall are exposed. The design team specified a high-output, dimmable linear LED fixture with a six-degree beam capable of grazing down the surfaces from less than 9” away. With the moving room at its lowest position,


light output on the top of the room is at its peak. The side shaft walls receive a similar LED grazing treatment as below, but access requirements precluded use of a grazing fixture at the rear wall. Linear asymmetric LED fixtures wash the rear surface, while two rows of wide beam symmetric LED fixtures provide ambient light to the ceiling.


When positioned at intermediate floors, the challenge was to dim the zones above and below the moving room to match the upper façade’s intensity. Because the upper and lower façades are inherently different, the designers located an easily accessible row of asymmetric color-sleeved fluorescent luminaires to illuminate the upper façade.


The Sperone Westwater Gallery design is a response to the Bowery’s raw, urban dynamic. Central to its bold street appearance is a Ferrari-red moving room, partially obscured through the milled glass façade. The room carries visitors between gallery floors, with its gentle movement a stark contrast to the fast-moving traffic outside the gallery.


Bringing the gallery to life at night required an


analytical study of the milled glazing, a dynamically responsive dimming system to address the moving room’s transience in the lower façade and a flexible lighting strategy for the upper façade that harmonizes the building’s overall appearance. “An animated street treatment and project identity that comes to life at night, this façade is absolutely stunning,” stated one IALD judge. “The fact that the intensity of light changes on


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the top and bottom of the red box as it moves shows the level of detail the design team was concerned with.” A direct view to downward facing luminaires


through the milled glass façade would create undesirable striations on the glazing, compromising the dramatic nighttime visual. Deep, narrow pockets were carefully designed into the densely occupied perimeter of the moving room, creating


AWARD OF EXCELLENCE


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