New light for Texas: ERCO wallwashing a winner in the Ruby City galleries

Lighting concept with three levels

Despite its rugged exterior, the building has a bright and inviting appeal on the inside despite the few windows – in accordance with the social approach of the free cultural platform. The lighting concept of the New York lighting design studio Tillotson Design, which leads organically through the building, adopts a key role. It's based on three levels: Daylight, uniform general lighting from wallwashing, and accents of light. Visitors entering the foyer of the museum from the intense Texas daylight are greeted by diffuse ambient light which emphasises the colour nuances and surface structures of the red concrete walls. Accent lighting above the reception provides orientation.

ERCO wallwashers selected from the Parscan range guide visitors via a narrow staircase to the exhibition rooms on the first floor. The wallwashing gives the canyon-like corridor a deeper appearance and offers the option of extending exhibitions into the stairwell area.

The open exhibition spaces consist of three high galleries which seem like a fusion between factory loft and white cube. Diffuse daylight enters through one skylight in each space. The installation is complemented by 24W LED Parscan wallwashers in warm white, creating contemplative ambient lighting even at room heights of up to 4.6 metres. Accentuating light which can be simply modified according to the temporary exhibitions on view additionally highlights individual works of art.
"The diversity of the Parscan spotlights with their unique interchangeable lenses gave us the flexibility we needed with a consistent form factor, “said Megan Pfeiffer Trimarchi, Senior Associate at Tillotson Design. ERCO track embedded in the ceilings emphasises the sloping nature of the latter by providing them with a discreet linear structure.

Point-precise light beams from a ceiling height of 4.6 metres

„The complex geometry of the ceilings made even wallwashing very challenging technically, requiring several rounds of 3D calculation studies, mock-ups, and on-site focusing after installation,” stated Megan Pfeiffer Trimarchi about the challenges facing the designers.

The Tillotson Design team accurately aligned the luminaires with the help of a lifting platform. Depending on the ceiling height, spotlights were individually dimmed and the Spherolit lenses singly equipped with different light distributions according to the format of the artwork displayed. Despite the inclined high ceilings, Tillotson Design succeeded in creating uniform general lighting that is interrupted merely by targeted accent lighting.

The dimmable ERCO LED spotlights comply with both the briefing for energy-efficient lighting and the stringent conservation requirements for material-protecting museum lighting. The high quality of the ERCO LED optoelectronics guarantees a long service life for the luminaires – even, as intended by the lighting designers' concept, with continuous use at night. In this way, the lighting, which enables the art centre to illuminate from within at night, blends the new architectural landmark with the San Antonio landscape.