May 2011 - Illuminating Engineering Society

OUT OF THE ARCHIVE
May
1991
Volume 21/No. 5
» Project: The cover features the Keith W. Johnson Zoo Center at
the Bronx Zoo in New York City—known as the “Elephant House.”
The structure, designed in 1908 by architects Heins & LaFarge in
the Beaux-Arts tradition, laid claim to having been designed so
beautifully it could have been a church or a museum, as opposed
to a home for really large mammals, such as elephants, rhinoceroses
or hippopotamuses (hence the story’s title “Pachyderm
Palace”). The building however, was quite dark, with only some
natural light entering from windows and skylights. The new
lighting achieved better color rendering from a mixture of metal
halide, high-pressure sodium and quartz floodlights mounted on
the arched beams. The rotunda was illuminated by narrow-beam
metal halide floodlights through the skylights and five 100-W,
narrow-beam quartz floodlights with dimming capabilities above
and around the perimeter of the large central skylight. Hidden
HPS floodlights washed the rotunda ceilings and three incandescent
recessed downlights washed a wall niche.
» Education: An “Industry News” item announced that Cooper
Lighting had opened the doors of its state-of-the-art demonstration
center, The Source Cooper Lighting Center in Elk Grove, IL.
The half-acre working laboratory was designed to “meet the needs
of the full spectrum of the industry professionals, advancing their
skills through hands-on examination, the use of classrooms, application
areas, showrooms and lecture areas.” The Source is still
going strong today but is now located in Peachtree City, GA.
» Views on the Visual Environment: Legendary and longtime LD+A
contributor Louis Erhardt was known for his charming verbosity.
This month’s column, entitled “In a Nutshell,” contained some of
his favorite quotes; he led with one called “Brevity” from Dr. Seuss:
“It has often been said there’s so much to be read, you never
can cram all those words in your head. That’s why my belief is the
briefer the brief is the greater the sigh of the reader’s relief is.”
128 May 2011 | LD+A www.ies.org