Wellesley Hotel

Located just south of Hyde Park in the swish London neighborhood of Knightsbridge, the Wellesley was a 1920s townhouse until recent renovations turned it into a 6-star boutique hotel. Interior designer Fox Linton drew on the house's history to create its Art Deco stylings and fashion its restaurant, bar and cigar lounge after jazz clubs of the roaring ‘20s. Lighting designer Lorraine Calcott of It Does Lighting was hired to create a lighting scheme for both the exteriors and interiors, using Lumenpulse's Lumenfacade Horizontal Color Changing fixtures to light the posh building's outdoor façade.

"The façade needed to have the option of color-change for special occasions and white for normal use," says Calcott. "The luminaires were installed on ledges on the small balconies that ran along the front of the hotel, at roof level to highlight the height of the building, and in-between the windows with a tight beam angle to contain the light and to draw the eye upwards when viewing the façade."

For the client, it was important that the exterior lighting fit it elegantly with its environment, and for the fixtures to be as controllable, functional and as energy-efficient as possible. "LED allowed for a long life installation without frequent lamp changes," Calcott explains. "If it could be done on budget, they were happy to embrace the technology."

Because of the Lumenfacade Horizontal's repositioned driver chamber and slim profile, the fixtures are barely discernible on the façade. Instead, the light invigorates the exteriors, which went unnoticed before the Wellesley repurposed the space. "The façade was lost before the new lighting went in," Calcott points out. "Now, the lighting highlights the position and status of the hotel beautifully."

Equipment Specified
28 x Lumenfacade Horizontal Color Changing (1', 30° x 60°)
4 x Lumenfacade Horizontal Color Changing (2', 30° x 60°)
4 x Lumenfacade Horizontal Color Changing (1', 10° x 60°)