86 'Lighting Design' posts:

August 6, 2014

Actors’ Equity Moves Into New NoHo Home

Congratulations to The Actors’ Equity Association for opening their first audition center on the West Coast! Oculus was commissioned to design the lighting for the converted warehouse in the North Hollywood Arts District where the union representing stage actors, as reported by the LA Times, now has warm-up and audition rooms, mirrored and ballet-barred dance floors, and private changing rooms in its 18,700 square foot space.

Built in 1948, the warehouse which was once used as as bus depot, has 30-ft high bow truss ceilings with skylights. While the skylights provided a generous amount of light, they became concentrated points of light in the ceiling that made the rest of the space feel dark in contrast. New suspended linear fluorescent fixtures help reduce this contrast and bridge the gap between the lower and higher lighting levels of the warehouse, making a more visually comfortable and enjoyable environment.

May 10, 2014

I’m a Lighting Designer

“I make the invisible visible. I give rooms their own soul. Light transforms the building into architecture brought to life.”

There are many such gems in the “I’m a Lighting Designer” film produced by international luminaire manufacturer Erco. While we certainly are a more diverse group, and do have a slightly different accent, we do agree with the general idea.

continued→

April 7, 2014

St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Opens

By Scott Hatton

Today is the St. Louis Cardinals home opener and as part of the festivities they opened up their new Hall of Fame!

We designed the lighting for the Cardinals Hall of Fame in collaboration with PGAV Architects and the Cardinal’s Organization.   Adjustable LED track lighting built into the casework and concealed in the black ceiling grid is carefully aimed at artifacts that bring the history of the Cardinals to life.  In a few of the galleries the lighting is programmed to change along with the audio visual program.  In these pictures, you can see a replica of the old Busch stadium roof with uplights that change from Anaheuser-Busch blue to Cardinals red when the highlight reel starts.

continued→

March 25, 2014

Pirch Glendale Wins Another Outstanding Award

Our project, Pirch Glendale has been selected as the A.R.E. Design Awards 2014 Grand Prize winner in the category of Hardline Specialty Store (7,501-25,000 square feet). The project was described as “smart, modern and fresh, from the refined elegance of ceiling elements and linear trough lighting  to a white porcelain main floor… ” While we designed the lighting, the overall design was by FITCH, and this is the second top prize for Pirch, which won First Place in a similar category in the Retail Store of the Year competition.

continued→

March 20, 2014

LAC-USC Wellness Center Grand Opening

We recently worked with Chu+Gooding Architects on the LAC-USC Wellness Center, which had its grand opening ceremony this past Saturday.

The Wellness Center is an adaptive re-use project located on the bottom floor of the existing General Hospital in the Boyle Heights area of East Los Angeles. First District Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina spearheaded the project with support from The California Endowment and other sponsors. The Wellness Center provides a home for nonprofit organizations dedicated to providing social services consisting of preventative healthcare and culturally sensitive wellness education.
continued→

March 18, 2014

March 5, 2014

AKA Beverly Hills in Interior Design Magazine

AKA Beverly Hills received an honorary mention in Interior Design’s “Best of Year” issue, and our lighting design was noted as its “standout” quality: “Perforations in the concrete facade are echoed in the lobby by the constellation of LED-lit oculi hovering over the oak floor.”

February 15, 2014

February 1, 2014

January 25, 2014

January 17, 2014

Lido Marina Village in Newport Beach

We will be working with SMS Architects on the renovation of the Lido Marina Village in Newport Beach, California. The site, which recently has been mostly vacant, has already garnered much interest from restaurants and retail vendors based on the proposed re-design, which will upgrade the Lido Marina Village into a contemporary, upscale shopping and dining center.

December 30, 2013

Lighting Today features YouTube Amphitheatre

Our design for YouTube’s outdoor “Moonlit Theater” has been featured in the landscape lighting segment of Lighting Today’s newest issue. Lighting Today is an architectural lighting magazine based in Singapore and our project appears on page 75 of the latest issue.

The full text of the article is available here.

December 18, 2013

Westlake Plaza and Center

We are happy to be partnering with Callison again on a new project. This time we will be working together on the renovation of The Westlake Plaza and Center in Thousand Oaks, CA. The ideally located neighborhood plaza has been a key area for lifestyle shopping and dining, and we are excited to update the charming plaza with a fresh look.

continued→

December 17, 2013

A Good Sign for YouTube

“Can you specify some floodlights to light our sign?” That was the directive given to us to light the YouTube sign located on the side of their office/sound stage complex in Playa Vista, CA.   We looked at the sign and thought that floodlighting would not be a great solution, because the sign was offset from the wall and that the shadows would be distracting. We felt that halo-lighting would be a better solution and make it easier to read at nighttime.

continued→

November 10, 2013

Beware, The New Title 24 2013 Requirements Are Upon Us! (Updated*)

*Or not, since on December 11, 2013, the California Energy Commission has decided to postpone the implementation until July 1st 2014.

While the new standards are estimated to reduce energy consumption by 25% for residential and 30% for commercial buildings, the impacts design are pretty significant. Lighting is said to currently account for approximately 30% of California’s electricity use. So, you know this will affect your project’s lighting design, but how?

continued→

October 15, 2013

Lighting Design at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport

By Archit Jain

Passing by New Delhi’s HOK designed new (or somewhat new at least) Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal 3, I was struck again by how different the concourses of this this airport “feel” when compared to other airports in other cities.  I’ve flown through Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London Terminal 5, Seoul, Bangkok, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo and the just opened Tom Bradley International Terminal in Los Angles and somehow the Delhi airport is still different.  So what is the difference?
continued→

October 10, 2013

Pirch Glendale Galleria Opens

26,000+ sft, 1000+ luminaires, 1.5 years of design and construction, metal halide, LED and fluorescent, heartburn at times—it’s all done and The Pirch Store (formerly Fixtures Living) is now open.  Scott and David spent a collective 28 hours on ladders to aim the lighting in the store, and it looks great.

So  if you’re looking to build a new home, or even redo your existing one, and want to make home fixture shopping a fun experience, head on over.  They’ll even serve you a handcrafted espresso while you do so.

September 19, 2013

Goodsill in the News!

Oculus’ project, The Law Offices of Goodsill, Anderson, Quinn & Stifel, was in the news as Callison’s entry to the IIDA Northern Pacific Chapter People’s Choice Award.  We enjoyed working with Callison’s team on this project, and Goodsill is clearly happy with the design of their space, as it appears prominently on their website.

Good luck to Callison on this entry!

The full entry for all projects is available here.

July 20, 2013

Designing a “Moonlit Theater” for YouTube

With its ever-expanding base of creative content producers and viewership, YouTube has built three production facilities—in Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo—specifically dedicated to their most consistently prolific YouTube content generators. In each of these spaces, those exceptional YouTube channel stars can collaborate in studio space with audio-visual and filming equipment, all free of charge. Aside from its indoor sound stages and screening room, the Los Angeles YouTube Space also boasts of an impressive outdoor theater, seating up to 200 at a time, with a 1080p resolution projection screen and 5.1 surround sound.
continued→

April 4, 2013

Consumer LED Lighting in Japan

By Archit Jain

As Lighting Designers we cannot escape looking at lighting everywhere. Instinctively we look at the ceilings and critique lighting in any place we go to (just ask my wife). We also appreciate when lighting is done well, and welcome thoughtful lighting design as it raises the bar for all of us.

The same applies to products. While in a train in Tokyo recently (JR Yamanote Line in case you are familiar with Tokyo and are interested)—I came across an ad panel for a consumer grade color temperature changing LED surface mounted fixture.

continued→