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DETAILS
Pic: Juan Pablo Lira
Pic: Alexis Villarin
Pic: Paul Warchol
Pic: Eric Laignel
Pic: Jean Francois Jassud
Clockwise from top The Focus Lighting Office, Harlem, New York, NY; Frye Company flagship store, New York, NY - “Our objective was to provide customers with a rustic, and at the same time, chic environment that coincides with Frye’s design aesthetic.”; Semiramis Hotel, Athens, Greece; Bar Americain, New York, NY; Carlos Miele, New York, NY.
A visitor to the new Focus Lighting head- quarters building in the Harlem section of New York City will notice a sign with the same message posted throughout the two-level building: ‘Why is this project going to be great?’ “It’s in my office and on every studio wall,” says founder and chief designer Paul Gregory.
“Abe Feder and I were friends for almost 20 years. He once told me, ‘Never fear heroic failure’.’’ Paul Gregory admits he keeps this in mind as he continues to pursue the application of a mix of art and physics to lighting. Neither fear nor heroic failure has surfaced in Focus Lighting’s 25-year history. Trained in theatrical lighting at the Goodman Theater School, part of the Art Institute of Chicago, his instructors empha- sized that lighting for a stage performance heightens the emotion that the actors were creating.
“When the clock strikes eight, the lighting better be ready to contribute to the experi- ence that audience is there for—to the emotions each will feel and take home with them. Every live performance is an opportu- nity to create something wonderful. It’s the same thing with architectural lighting: How can it be wonderful, special, great? It’s a big challenge,” Gregory admits.
He compares the basis of an audience’s emotional response to a theatrical event to that of a shopper in a retail store or a museum visitor. “The store owners and architects are responsible for the design, traffic patterns and the use of the space. It is up to the lighting designer to reveal the beauty of the space and its contents,” he says. “Imagine a person’s emotional reaction to the beauty surrounding them as they stand in a forest with the light hitting the trees and the sound of a waterfall in the background. They will always remem- ber that image. It’s the same thing with lighting the built environment—how does it contribute to the emotions that users feel when experiencing the exterior or interior of a structure? What are they going to see? What will they remember? When an image is linked to an emotion it makes the memory that much stronger.”
“The question is: how do we, as lighting designers, help create a successful project by creating emotions?” he asks. “At Focus Lighting, our planning process involves con- siderable analysis, identifying the emotions we want to create in the user.” He believes that all members of the design team must articulate and agree upon what emotions the space will evoke and which
moods will be created. “When the archi- tect, interior designer, owner, and lighting designer all work together to create one feeling in the viewer, that’s the recipe for success,” Gregory explains. “Specifi- cally, the lighting design must support and enhance this vision by controlling the light that is reflected off the surfaces and forms. With light, we reveal—i.e., paint with light—what the viewer ultimately sees,” he says.
Gregory recounts three examples of ap- plying his insights into creating moods and human emotions to three projects: Toys ‘R’ Us and the Frye Company stores in New York, and the Science Storms exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. “For the Times Square Toys ‘R’ Us in Manhattan, the store front serves as a big billboard to clearly communicate the store’s message of fun and excitement. The interior light from the full-height glass windows has to draw shoppers into the store, to freeze- frame the image when they are deciding to go inside. What would move them to enter? To see for ourselves, the design team got into a cab and rode down Broadway to the intersection where the store would be located. The effect was similar to looking at an ad in a magazine; we had three to four
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