Show Time: Delivering high-performance lighting for world-class museums

Exhibition designers and architects may create designs that call for novel or unexpected techniques to achieve results. Some may include traditional incandescent sources, or use of LED strips or tape lights, as well as window lighting, and other indoor/outdoor exterior lighting methods. At the children’s science museum, for example, a blue uplight was employed on a ceiling surface to create the illusion of distant outer space. An effective way to mark the entry points of an exhibit space is to place decorative pendants that can have either color-changing lights or thematically derived forms that fit the exhibit content and messaging.

Specialty and decorative fixtures can enhance the exhibit themes. For example, actual work lights used for mining and cave exploration add a particular touch of realism to the museum’s underground exhibit environment. Period cage-style lights provide a retro look, while new style LED work lights suggest a more contemporary workspace. Muzeiko also features industrial ‘jelly jar’ work light fixtures, as well as oil lanterns custom fitted with LED lamps, pendant mounted from an archaeologist’s field tent structure to provide dramatic, high-contrast lighting. Other decorative fixtures and lamps may include pendants with:

• conductors, cables, and ballasts;
• raceway, boxes, and connections; and
• low-voltage distribution systems.

Local controllers such as occupancy sensors may be integral to wall-mounted switches, but in museums, switches are typically hidden from use by the visiting public. Occupancy sensors for special effects are common, but increasingly museum operators are using ‘instant-on’ exhibits that help save energy.

In locations such as admissions counters, foodservice, and information areas, good general illumination is needed, which may be fluorescent or LED pendants, recessed fixtures, or sconces. Museum shops employ best-practice retail lighting technology, with several layers of light to ensure a comfortable environment for shoppers to browse.

Pendant or surface-mounted electrified lighting tracks host LED or HID track fixtures. Attributes like fixture-position locking, optical beam-shaping lenses, and also glare control accessories help ensure a glare-free experience for the visitor. The potential exists for small-scale LED lighting to be integrated into the millwork, increasing prominence in the retail space.

The trickiest areas for specifiers, however, are the exhibitions.

“These environments and venues are out of the norm,” says Lee H. Skolnick, FAIA, who has designed more than 50 exhibits or museums for children and is the author of What Is Exhibition Design? “They’re not typical white-box galleries that are used for art and the like. However, there is really less mystery in them than most architects and designers think.”

Still, Skolnick cautions even experienced contractors and installers might need extra guidance on today’s lighting and control systems. Engaging the services of a theatrical lighting integrator can save enormous amounts of time, money, and grief. Coordination and planning may be complex and require several mockups for proof of concept. Long-lead items can include specialty and high-performance electrical fixtures, making proper scheduling essential. Additionally, project commissioning and handoff to the museum’s operators is a critical process.

In all cases, early involvement of lighting designer and exhibition fabricator is encouraged. Typically, exhibit lighting designers are best engaged early in the design process at the schematic design (SD) or design development (DD) phase. Although a large part of the lighting designer’s responsibilities is technical in nature, an equal part of the design equation is the creative input a lighting designer can provide as part of the architectural or exhibit designer’s creative team. Use of mockups for some challenging exhibits will also smooth the design and construction process.

Particularly for international projects like Muzeiko, a U.S. design team may have a limited role, working only through the DD phase. However, in all cases, the construction documentation (CDs) and well-crafted specifications are the key to communicating desired design concepts and applications of the electrical and lighting products. Downstream substitutions, ‘value-engineering,’ and change orders are a challenge in all projects, but the best museum exhibitions are places where the specifier team stood firm and held the specs.

Scott W. Briggs, AIA, is a senior associate in Museum Services with Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership (LHSA+DP), a multidisciplinary firm based in New York City that specializes in education, museum and corporate facilities, exhibits, interactive experiences, and graphic identity. He can be contacted via e-mail at sbriggs@skolnick.com.

Steven Rosen, FIALD, IES, is president and creative director of Available Light, a lighting design firm specializing in museum exhibitions, architecture, trade shows, and special events. Since its founding in 1990, the firm has designed lighting for such diverse projects as medical centers, marine museums, five-star hotels, and fashion industry events. He can be reached at steven@availablelight.com.