Lighting Design + Application • October 2003 - Illuminating ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PROFILEFusionTheoryARCHITECTURE,MUSIC, WATER,MOTION AND,YES, LIGHT,CONVERGETO HELPILLUMINATINGCONCEPTS’RON HARWOODCREATE THEULTIMATE‘IMMERSIONEXPERIENCE’By Paul TarriconeAt the Village Courtyard of theChandler (Az.) Fashion Center two musicalperformance fountains work in tandem toproduce hourly shows throughout the day.Once the sun has set, the shows becomeeven more spectacular with supportinglight shows and gobo projectionscast over the crowds, engulfing them insaturated color and motion. A number ofthe intelligent lights were specificallypositioned to catch the mist createdby the fountain, creating a third andholographic dimension. The project alsorepresents Harwood’s focus on “scripting”a design scheme based on demographicssupplied by the client.PHOTO: SCOTT STEPHENS, ILLUMINATING CONCEPTSFusion is all the rage. Fusion of politics and entertainment, sports andpolitics, entertainment and sports, news and entertainment. WitnessCalifornia, where Arnold Schwarzenegger deftly managed to merge allof the above. Not to be outdone, the architectural and design world boasts itsown guru of fusion.Enter Ron Harwood, president and founder of Illuminating Concepts,Farmington Hills, MI., who is combining elements such as light, motion andwater (not to mention Earth, Wind and Fire) to create what his firm calls a“complete multimedia immersion experience” in studio stores, stadiums,malls, museums, airports and even zoos worldwide.Fusion of engineering, lighting design and entertainment has been a longrunningtheme in Harwood’s career. In 1972, while working full-time as anelectrical contractor and engineer—“I knew something about watts, ampsand volts from my father, uncle and grandfather who had electrical businesses”—Harwood,who had studied folk-blues music and taught himself to playguitar at 13, began touring with performers including Bonnie Raitt, SippieWallace and John Lee Hooker. “I wreaked havoc with the lighting designers,telling them how to light the artists and stage.” At this point, though, hiscareer was still running on parallel tracks, engineering and music, “like twotrunks of a tree,” he says. “It was five days contracting and Friday throughMonday morning playing at the festivals,” he says. But when his larger clients(commercial property developers like Nederlander) explained that they wantedto continue working with him as a designer but couldn’t guarantee that hewould win the contracting bid on their projects, he stopped contracting andstarted Illuminating Concepts in 1981 as a lighting design firm.Today, IC positions itself as a one-stop “turnkey” provider offering a broad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . November . . . . . 2003 . . . LD+A . . . . 34. . www.iesna.org. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PROFILEWarner Bros.’ Arndale Center location in Manchester, England(one of 164 designed by IC), provided Illuminating Conceptswith its first opportunity to create an “immersion experience.”The show system integrated a performance water feature,animatronics, vibrant audio and ceiling lighting effects andfilm sequences spanning 120 ft across. Complexities withcoordinating and integrating these elements led to develop anown all-encompassing control solution—MediamorFX.PHOTO: COURTESY of JGA, INC. (PROJECT DESIGNERS/ARCHITECTS)scope of services that include concept design and development;special effects; project management; audio systemsdesign, water feature design; fixture design and fabrication;and the all-encompassing immersion experiencedesign. The company has some 30 employees and isactive in markets ranging from retail to casinos, malls,restaurants and airports. Recently, IC has been focusingspecifically on urban redevelopment projects and hasbeen named the lighting and entertainment strategy specialistliaison to the City of Detroit.Along the way, Harwood has claimed more than 50 internationalawards, including three IIDA awards (one in 2003for the Paterna Leisure Entertainment Center in Spain), is afrequent author and guest speaker at conferences and hasmore than a dozen product patents to his name.But don’t be fooled by all the glitz. Ironically, for a guywho has created whiz-bang designs for entertainmentgiants such as Disney and Warner Bros., Harwood is distinctlyunderstated—perhaps a reflection of a speak-softlyand-carry-a-bigstick design philosophy. “He’s down toearth, which is great,” says Bruce Fabel, president of ButterflyLife, a women’s fitness and lifestyle chain, who earliercollaborated with Harwood as development directorfor the Warner Bros. and Nike store roll-outs. “He can workwith people like Donald Trump on the New York Nike project,and still come across as a real human being fromDetroit who you can have a cup of coffee with.”“Ron and his team understand how to work effectivelywith project designers to support, enhance and enlivenproject themes,” adds Jay Liese, principal-in-charge of theNew York office of architects Corgan Associates, whichrecently collaborated with Harwood and IC on the BritishAirways Terminal project (LD+A, August 2003).That’s EntertainmentA turning point for the firm occurred in 1988 when IClanded Disney as a client. That’s the moment at whicharchitectural lighting and theatrical design began to converge.The key component? “One word: color,” says Har-At Aston Martin Jaguar of Tampa, Fl., IC’s design team soughtto bring the atmosphere and excitement associated with largeauto shows into the retail environment. The outcome was a lightingand audio system that provides vibrant product illumination,subtle effects and brand logo projection across the interior duringbusiness hours and a full scale light show after 8 pm, whichbrings passing traffic to a standstill. The MediamorFX softwareallows for fully automatic operation of the entire lighting and audioinstallation. Metal mesh screens were selected to partition thecars, giving them their own “showroom”; the mesh also provideda brilliant surface on which to project, both day and night.PHOTO: LASZLO REGOS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.iesna.org . . . . . . . . 35. . LD+A . . . November . . . . . 2003 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 6 and 7: financial institution will have the
Page 8 and 9: so that the ratio of their luminanc
Page 10 and 11: office, we have a major deadline to
Page 12 and 13: GREEN IDEASTaking the LEED in Light
Page 14 and 15: ENERGY ADVISORWillard L.Warren,PE,
Page 16 and 17: tainment portion planned for 2006an
Page 18 and 19: VOLUME 33, NUMBER 11 • NOVEMBER 2
Page 20 and 21: IIDA Program To Include Energy andE
Page 22 and 23: Members in the Newscontinued from p
Page 24 and 25: • applications & solutionsPHOTOS:
Page 28 and 29: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 30 and 31: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 32 and 33: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 34 and 35: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 36 and 37: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 38 and 39: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 40 and 41: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 42 and 43: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 44 and 45: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 46 and 47: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 48 and 49: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 50 and 51: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 52 and 53: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 54 and 55: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 56 and 57: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 58 and 59: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 60 and 61: LIGHTING UPDATESPAPER CLASSIFICATIO
Page 62 and 63: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lighting Design + Application • October 2003 - Illuminating ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?