Calgary Historic City Hall

The City of Calgary recently undertook a major rehabilitation of the exterior heritage fabric of its Historic City Hall. The goal of the lighting portion of the project was to celebrate the importance of this landmark and help it stand out in a busy downtown streetscape. The lighting had to authentically render the limestone facade. The original heritage lighting design had no façade lighting prior to the rehabilitation — only area lighting on ground mounted posts and newel posts. The new lighting design raises the City Hall's position in the nightscape of the city.

The subtle lighting design, with its many layers of light, reveals and enhances the heritage characteristics of the City Hall. A warm colour temperature (3000K) was used to highlight the richness of the structure's stonework while helping to distinguish the building from surrounding architecture.

The integration of layers of modern infrastructure into the building's heritage fabric was a major project challenge. Mounting locations and details were carefully coordinated to minimize penetrations to the historic materials. Fixtures are used to highlight character defining elements from in-grade, bollard, post mounted, and building mounted locations.

Lumenpulse's solutions are designed to facilitate the flexibility needed for such projects. Various fixture distributions (from Asymmetrical Wallwash to Narrow Spot 10°) are used for grazing, washing, and floodlighting surfaces and details.

"We chose Lumenpulse products because of their ability to provide the excellent colour quality that we needed for this project. This, alongside the range of optical distributions, and the variety of luminaire finishes, helped us to illuminate the building consistently from many different types of locations," said Raivo Nommik, Senior Designer at Gabriel Mackinnon Lighting Design. Raivo adds that "Lumenpulse also offers good local support through the partner agent Optics Lighting Agency, in Calgary, which is particularly important for a project with dynamic lighting."

Initial feedback on the building illumination has been very positive. Many have noted that the design is respectful of the historic structure, helping to invigorate a key landmark in the centre of the city of Calgary. 

EQUIPMENT SPECIFIED
30 x Lumenfacade Inground RGBW (48", 3000K, Wallwash)
42 x Lumenfacade RGBW (48", 3000K, Asymmetric Wallwash)
18 x Lumenfacade Horizontal RGBW (48", 3000K, 10° x 10°)
108 x Lumenfacade Horizontal RGBW (48", 3000K, 60° x 60°)
92 x Lumenfacade Horizontal RGBW (48", 3000K, Wallwash)
8 x Lumenbeam Grande (3000K, Very Narrow 6°) 
8 x Lumenbeam Grande (3000K, Narrow Flood 20°) 
44 x Lumenbeam Grande (3000K, Flood 40°) 
28 x Lumenbeam Large RGBW (3000K, Flood 40°) 
24 x Lumenbeam Large RGBW (3000K, Very Narrow 6°) 
24 x Lumenbeam Medium RGBW (3000K, Very Narrow 6°) 
4 x Lumenbeam Medium RGBW (3000K, Flood 40°) 
32 x Lumenbeam Medium RGBW (3000K, Asymmetric Wallwash)
8 x Lumenbeam Medium RGBW (3000K, Narrow Spot 40°)