PHILADELPHA, PENNSYLVANIA – Christensen Lighting has had its status as one of the country’s leading lighting-design companies reaffirmed once again, with an Illuminating Engineering Society’s 2022 IES Illumination Award in the category of Interior Lighting Design. The Award of Excellence, presented August 18, 2022 at the IES Annual Conference in New Orleans and which recognizes professionalism, ingenuity, and originality in lighting design, acknowledges Christensen Lighting’s innovative work on the newly renovated “Hall of Ancient Egypt” at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.Christensen Lighting’s IES Award is one of fewer than 10 chosen from over 600 entries each year, in a blind evaluation by industry-veteran judges.
Acclaimed by the Houston Chronicle as “a must-see” event, the “Hall of Ancient Egypt”takes visitors on a journey back through Egypt’s fascinating royal history, through a 12,500-square-foot, eight-room space filled with over 125 display cases of objects and artifacts covering topics including fashion, religious practices, and mummification. The work of Christensen Lighting Founder, President, and Principal Lighting Designer Donald G. Christensen, and Project Manager Buddy Taylor, assured that visitors would visually experience this immersive exhibit as clearly and vividly as possible. Each exhibit case has its lighting precisely tuned to its contents, illuminating their architectural, design, and artistic nuances authentically and naturally, while still meeting the museum’s 5- to 30-foot-candle curatorial requirements. Christensen Lighting’s team performed dozens of photometric and design studies to complete this project.
“The Hall of Ancient Egypt is what we call an interpretive exhibition, which we light very differently from the kind of museum spaces — an art gallery, for example — where everything is evenly washed in white light,” explains Christensen, who earned a BFA degree in Lighting Design at DePaul University’s renowned Theatre School. “Instead, we illuminate the interpretive exhibition as a theatrical production, where every exhibit is a cue that has its own timing and emotion. We use color, contrast, texture, and animation to strengthen the visitor experience. It is precisely orchestrated and intentionally sensory-rich. The intent is to give visitors a sense of ‘You are there,’ rather than highlighting each artifact as a star of a show. We sought to evoke a sense of time and place of ancient Egypt — the angle of the sun, the warmth of the desert, the moonlit sky and stars — to transport the visitors away from the present, using a combination of the finest lighting technologies and our years of expertise and experience.”
The artifacts are displayed in two case formats: open and closed tops. CL’s lighting-design team retrofit the closed-top cases’ light attics with sections of individually dimmed, low-voltage DMX-controlled lighting tracks hidden from visitor’s view. Over 400 miniature, custom, 90+ CRI, 3500k, four-degree low-voltage LED track fixtures are placed in strategic locations. Using spread and color correction filters, the designers artistically shaped the beams of light and highlight the artifacts’ original vibrant colors and intricate textures. The open-top clear cases are illuminated from the ceiling with over 350 low-profile, tunable-white DMX-controlled LED framing projectors.
Each case is illuminated from at least two asymmetric angles, to accentuate various details on the artifacts. For the visitors’ comfort, every light in the exhibition is carefully angled and shielded to prevent glare. More than 150 DMX-controlled theatrical lighting fixtures, focused down between cases, immerse visitors with floor color washes and projected textures. Wall-wash fixtures concealed in headers create subtle color gradations of animated linear LED lights. During commissioning, the designers collaborated with the curators to adjust each case’s lighting levels and color temperatures in real time using a DMX control system custom designed to be controlled via a tablet. The robustness and flexibility of the system allowed the team to efficiently make artistic and responsible decisions on how each precious artifact was illuminated.
“We’re extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished for the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and grateful for the IES’s recognition of that,” says Christensen.
About Christensen Lighting
Christensen Lighting, an award-winning lighting-design firm, was founded in 2013 and established in Philadelphia in 2015 by Donald G. Christensen, Associate IALD, IES, the company’s Principal Lighting Designer. Christensen Lighting is the recipient of numerous national and regional awards, including the 2019 IES Award of Merit for Lighting Control Innovation & Interior Lighting Design, (Wiess Energy Hall), Live Design Excellence In Installation Award for Museum Lighting (Wiess Energy Hall), and the 2021 Gold Muse Award in AR/VR/MR (Reinventing Reality). Contact Christensen Lighting at http://christensenlighting.com.
Photo Credits: Houston Museum of Natural Science, Mike Rathke, Erika Reyes
Donald G Christensen, IES, Assoc. IALD, Christensen Lighting
220 Geiger Rd Ste 203
Philadelphia, PA 19115
christensenlighting.com
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