LED Testing & Application  

Park and Ride

The oldest light source in the world—and one of the newest—helped turn a parking garage and roadway median into infrastructure art

BY PAUL TARRICONE

Sunlight by day and LEDs by night were instrumental in transforming two public works into works of art in Fort Worth, TX. The infrastructure projects were completed as part of Fort Worth Public Art (FWPA)—a city program established in 2001 that seeks to create an enhanced visual environment for residents; commemorate the city’s cultural and ethnic diversity; integrate the design work of artists into capital infrastructure improvements; and promote tourism and economic growth. Since 2005, FWPA has commissioned dozens of pieces of old and new artwork for a wide range of infrastructure, including City Hall, several fire stations and a botanical garden.
   Two of the most recent examples of infrastructure-as-artwork make particularly good use of light.

PARKING IN COLOR
   An 11-story parking garage at the Fort Worth Convention Center doubles as large-scale artwork. Named “Parking in Color,” the façade and pedestrian lighting were designed by architect/artist Christopher Janney of PhenomenArts, Lexington, MA. Janney was selected by the city after participating in an invitation-only design competition. Janney and architect Brent Byers of Jacobs, Inc., had free rein on the design. There were no constraints, other than “the mayor said, ‘I just don’t want it to look like a parking garage’, ” says Janney. The garage opened on April 2.
   The essential building material was transparent multi-colored glass, a Janney trademark. The glass was installed on each corner of the garage; on a canopy directly above the sidewalk on one side of the building; and in the center of one façade in the form of five “fins,” producing what Janney calls “21st- Century Art Deco.” Rather than relying on light, alone, to wash the exterior, Janney exploited the use of shadows. During the day, the glass fins cast blue, plum, teal, salmon and other colored shadows over the façade, allowing the sunlight to paint the building surface.
   The glass used for the five fins is 48-in. deep and hangs perpendicular to the facade. At night, the fins are lighted by low-energy LED fixtures. Janney estimates the Philips Color Kinetics luminaires use only 10 percent of the energy that other sources would require on an installation of this type. A total of 32 color-changing luminaires—mounted on 24-in. poles protruding from the façade—uplight the fins. The colors move slowly across the façade.
   Meanwhile, five LED fixtures installed above the glass canopy provide slowly changing, blue-togreen pedestrian lighting. “The façade is the macro, but we also wanted to bring the building down to a micro scale for pedestrians,” says Janney.
   The final result is round-the-clock, illuminated artwork. “It’s not so hard to make a dramatic state- LED Testing & Application ment at night with light. The trick is how to pull it off during the day,” says Janney. “If you can’t beat Mother Nature, why not get it on your team?”

AVENUE OF LIGHT
   Six soaring stainless steel sculptures on Fort Worth’s Lancaster Avenue are more than just an artist’s handiwork. They’re a linear beacon beckoning commerce and residents back to the south part of the city. Cliff Garten Studio, Los Angeles, designed the 36-ft-high sculptures, along a ½-mile section of the median now called “Avenue of Light.” The sculptures are situated 250 ft to 800 ft apart along this corridor, depending on the curve of the median and traffic requirements at each point.
   The project required moving part of the I-30 freeway to reintegrate this section of the city into Fort Worth. After a dedication ceremony in June, the lighted sculptures officially give notice that the neighborhood is once again open for business.
   Garten received the commission after winning a national invitational competition administered by FWPA. “I was impressed that Fort Worth recognized the need for a big urban gesture,” he says. “The challenge was to use the median design and the sculptures as the entry and civic spine of the new Lancaster District.”
   The design of the sculptures was inspired by the Art Deco architectural details found in the grand lobby of the Texas & Pacific Terminal railroad station. Many of those shapes are the basis for the 100 laser-cut stainless steel plates that comprise each sculpture. The sculptures sit on concrete pedestals amongst a palette of native trees and grass.
   The sculptures are essentially chameleons, constantly changing in appearance, depending on the viewer’s position and the time of day. “They’re transparent from a distance and become solid as you get closer,” says Garten. Martha Peters, director of public art for the Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, describes the subtle impact of the sculptures. “They don’t shout at you—what is at first transparent comes together as you approach. How they look at dusk is different than at midday. For pedestrians, they are objects of contemplation; for those traveling in a car, it’s a kinetic experience.” The combination of surface material and light creates the effect. The stainless steel of the sculptures provides the maximum interaction between surface and light, its brushed surface acting like a prism.
   During the day, the transparent vs. opaque dichotomy is the product of sunlight that enters the sculptures. At night, color-changing LEDs provide the illumination. Each sculpture is equipped with nine LED units: four at grade in the pavement; four in the top corners of the concrete base; and one in the center of the sculpture, itself. Each unit has 36 diodes. The energy usage for the entire installation is just $20 per month.
   Not a bad price for high-end art.

September 09