The Park - Shade Structures

The lights of the Las Vegas Strip are an institution. A bold, frenzy comes to mind when we picture it, whether we've been there or not. MGM Resorts International's placement of the first recreational park within the hustle of the Strip, however, needed to blend with the frenzy but offer a suave salve for the weary.

The Park's landscape architectural firm, !Melk, placed the lighting design of their sixteen, sixty-foot high, trumpeting steel sculptures in the hands of Arup. "Each shape is unique," said Leni Schwendinger, Associate Principal of Arup, "and required an organic understanding as well as a scientific one." The concept was to create a 15-minute long program of rhythmically fueled illumination that required a number of color changes.

"Right away, I knew I wanted the sculptures to be lit internally, and make a rhythm of light using the perforations," continued Schwendinger, "but there were some physical constraints. The luminaires would have to be placed in the confined space at the base of the flare of the sculptures." Schwendinger's previous experience with Lumenpulse led her to our luminaires. "The customer service, reputation amongst the lighting community, performance, as well as their sizes and beam spreads, made them an easy choice," Schwendinger added.

The DMX controlled internal RGB Lumenbeam fixtures bleed through the perforations in the large petal-like sculptures that tower over the trees, but they are also illuminated by exterior, pole-mounted Lumenbeams, which come alive every fifteen minutes, as a kind of visual chime. The cross-lighting for the perforations, the colored accent lighting, grouped with the exterior accenting, not only enlivens the cantilevered flare of the sculptures, it can also harmonize them with, or counterpoint them off of, the Park's other lighting.

The sculptures awash in fluid color create an oasis of transforming light along the often-manic Strip. The integration of the Lumenbeam RGBs into the sculptures gives the metal breath, as the storied program of colors washes over them, they grow and become desert blooms.