Lights, Camera, WALK: A Night Walking Guide to the Most Spectacular Lighting Designs of New York City
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Boutique shopping, a celebrated park and NYC’s grandest performance landmarks define the uptown walking experience. Start in Central Park for a spectacular panoramic view, then to Broadway for Alice Tully Hall and Lincoln Center. Stop at Rosa Mexicana before continuing to Columbus Circle where you find the Time Warner Center (P2) with the Prow Sculpture among many other treasures. Stroll east along 59th Street to the newly renovated Plaza Hotel and The Oak Room. The Apple Store and FAO Schwartz are across the street. View the boutique storefronts on 5th Avenue and along 57th Street, head north on Lexington Avenue for other wonders of light together with Steve Madden and Capitol One around the Bloomberg Tower (P3).
1. Rose Center for Earth and Science (L) – American Museum of Natural History: Central Park West at 79th Street. Lighting: Fisher Marantz Stone
2. Fossil & Biodiversity Halls – American Museum of Natural History: Central Park West at 79th Street. Lighting: Brandston Partnership
3. Hall of Ocean Life – American Museum of Natural History: Central Park West at 79th Street. Lighting: Brandston Partnership
and American Museum of Natural History
2004 Lumen Award of Excellence
The grandeur of the hall from the early 1920's is restored with the renovation of the existing laylight. Programmed sequences of multi-zoned fluorescent fixtures create abstract “underwater shadows” that randomly move across the ceiling. Metal halide projectors broadcast a “water shimmer” effect onto custom glass laylight panels with integral rear screen projection film.
Architect: Polshek Partnership Architects
Owner: American Museum of Natural History
4. School of American Ballet Inc – 165 West 65th Street. Lighting: Tillotson Design Associates
2008 Lumen Award of Excellence
Linear ribbons of light are used to accomplish the difficult task of illuminating these stacked dance studios. The upper studio floats above the lower, while containing within the same double height volume. The lighting scheme manipulates light and view through a milky translucent glass wall with a 4 foot band of electrified glass that changes to clear.
Photography: Iwan Baan Portsmuiden
5. Alice Tully Hall – Broadway and West 65th Street. Lighting: L’Observatoire International
6. Lincoln Center – Columbus Avenue at 65th Street. Lighting: Richard Kelly and Syska & Hennessy (orig) Avery Fisher Hall and New York State Theater – Lincoln Center: Columbus Avenue at 65th Street. Lighting: Richard Kelly
7. Rosa Mexicano – 61 Columbus Avenue at Lincoln Center. Lighting: Focus Lighting
8. Fordham University – 113 W 60th Street at Columbus Avenue
9. Columbus Circle – Columbus Circle and 59th Street. Lighting: L’Observatoire International
10. Prow Sculpture – Time Warner Center, Columbus Circle and 59th Street. Lighting: Ted Mather Lighting Design
11. Museum of Art and Design – 2 Columbus Circle. Lighting: Arup Lighting
12. Amalia Dream Hotel - 210 West 55th Street between Broadway and 7th Avenue. Lighting: Focus Lighting
Photography: Peter Paige
13. Plaza Hotel – 5th Avenue at 59th. Lighting: Cosentini/One Lux The Oak Room: Lighting: Renfro Design Group
14. Apple Store 5th Avenue – 767 Fifth Avenue at 59th Street. Lighting: Kugler Ning Lighting Design
15. FAO Schwarz Flagship Store (L i) - 767 Fifth Avenue at 59th Street. Lighting: Focus Lighting
2005 Lumen Award of Merit
The concept for this newly redesigned toy store was to create a dynamic and colorful ceiling display that would draw people in, while using crisp white light to accent the store’s many products. Almost 80,000 LED’s are mounted on the ceiling above the main atrium space. Each cluster of LED’s is individually addressable allowing for an endless amount programming possibilities. To keep the ceiling clean, all product lighting was mounted to either columns or one of the atrium’s two “Urban Treehouses.” Track-mounted Metal Halide PAR fixtures are integrated into the arms of the treehouses, hiding the ballast and track within.
Architect: The Rockwell Group
Owner: FAO Schwarz
Photography: Fred Charles
16. Brasserie 8-1/2 – 9 West 57th Street at 5th. Lighting: Fisher Marantz Stone
17. Chambers Hotel (L) – 15 West 56th Street at 5th Avenue. Lighting: Focus Lighting
18. The Crown Building – 57th Street and 5th Avenue. Lighting: Douglas Leigh Organization
19. Elizabeth Arden – 691 5th Avenue at 55th. Lighting: RS Lighting Design
20. Louis Vuitton Headquarters – 21 East 57th at Madison. Lighting: Fisher Marantz Stone
21. The Fuller Building – 57th Street and Madison
22. Central Synagogue – 123 E 55th Street between Lexington and Park Avenues. Lighting: Fisher Marantz Stone
2004 Lumen Award of Merit
The schematic design of the Sanctuary reveals the lighting concepts that combined decorative period fixtures and other supplementary fixtures concealed in the architecture. The final lighting scheme consists of: uplighting of the center ceiling by projector sources in the top of the chandeliers, downlighting of the center seated area by fixtures recessed in the ceiling, a ring of light on the Bimah from a concealed cove, and highlighting of the ark from other hidden fixtures.
Architect: Hardy Holtzman Pfeiffer Associates
Owner: Central Synagogue
23. Steve Maden – Lexington Avenue and 58th Street. Lighting: Lido Lighting
24. Capital One – 991 Third Ave at 59th Street. Lighting: Tillotson Design Associates
25. Temple Emanu-El – East 65th Street and 5th Avenue. Lighting: Sachs Morgan Studio
2007 Lumen Award of Merit
Our charge in lighting the historic Temple Emanu-El was to honor the 1927 attributes of the building. The dark physical space meant that the exquisite polychrome ceiling and tile could not be seen. The owner and architect established the following rules: enhance the space, increase lighting levels, use no foreign objects, and provide dramatic results. Our design illuminates the space, highlights the historic features, and provides lighting for modern day use.
Architect: Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners
Project Owner: Temple Emanu-El
Photography: Samuel Morgan
26. Saint Vincent Ferrer Church – Lexington Avenue and 66th Street
27. Boutique Giorgio Armani NY – 760 Madison Avenue at 67th Street. Lighting: Focus Lighting
28. Issey Miyake USA – Madison and 68th Street. Lighting: Lightfield
2008 Award of Merit
Lighting plays an essential role in the store’s austere minimalism. The syncopated rhythm of alternating fluorescent light-boxes and black voids sets up an “Op Art” plane - attracting the attention of the passers-by.
Architect: Gordon Kipping, Nora Peyer, Maria Stefanidis, Brooks Atwood, Syliani Daouti, G TECTS
Photography: Mikiko Kikuyama
29. The Fragonard at the Frick Collection – 5th Avenue and 70th Street. Lighting: Renfro Design Group
2008 Lumen Citation for Integration of NewTechnology into an Historic Restoration
The Fragonard Room, located at The Frick Collection, houses Jean-Honore Fragonard’s famous ensemble of paintings, Progression of Love, and an extraordinary group of 18th-century furniture. The 2007 renovation’s lighting goal was to light the paintings more uniformly and preserve the original domestic setting of a sunlit room.
Photography: Michael Bodycomb
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