Jim Baney

Alexander Calder’s steel stabile ​“Flamingo” was the first work of art commissioned under the General Service Administration’s Art in Architecture Program in 1974. The sculpture’s vermilion colour and 53-foot tall organic form serves as a counterfoil to the surrounding three prominent Mies Van der Rohe federal office buildings in Chicago’s Federal Plaza. In its initial installation, it was not lighted for viewing after dark.

The lighting of the ​“Flamingo” was implemented as part of a program to improve the plaza and increase security. The primary challenge was to illuminate as many surfaces and facets as possible using a reasonable quantity of fixtures. All lighting fixtures are buried in the plaza pavers and are identical: PAR38 adjustable uplights with positive locking mechanisms. Schuler Shook performed site testing to test and select the incident lighting angles, source colour, and fixture locations and quantities. All of the lighting emanates from the plaza, shining up on the sculpture, which reinforces the weightless nature of the sculpture and suggests that the sculpture floats above the plaza, barely touching the ground.

The initial renovation project won an IALD Award of Merit and an IES International Illumination Design Award. IALD judges remarked that, ​“The graceful and beautiful pattern of the form comes alive…”

The original design used 150 watt halogen PAR lamps with spot and flood distributions. In the second renovation of the plaza, Schuler Shook replaced the lights with more energy efficient ceramic metal halide.

The Langham Chicago is the international luxury brand’s third hotel in the United States and the first to be built within a Mies van der Rohe skyscraper. The Langham Chicago was named #1 in the continental US by Travel + Leisure magazine’s 2014 ​“World’s Best” awards.

The hotel is located on 13 floors of the protected structure, originally known as IBM Plaza. Architects at Goettsch Partners collaborated with Interior Designers Richmond International to create new, two-story volumes, lending height and daylight to the primary public spaces.

Guest rooms and suites feature warm indirect LED light coves, dedicated reading lights, glowing built-in vanity fixtures, and a guest-friendly control system that allows users to easily control individual zones, or all fixtures at once.

Our lighting scope included the hotel entry canopy, ground floor entry lobby, hotel reception lobby, lobby lounge, hotel guest rooms and suites, ballroom and meeting facilities, Pavilion tea lounge, Chuan Spa and the Health Club with special pool lighting.

The entry canopy and first floor lobby were designed in collaboration with Lohan Associates, and included a full scale canopy mockup that was reviewed and approved by the Landmarks Commission. Long life and energy efficient LED sources were used to create a rigorously ordered marquee announcing the main entry into the hotel.

Schuler Shook provided lighting design services on this fast-tracked project at the historic Hilton Chicago. The hotel’s restaurant, the bar/lounge area, and the grab-and-go retail space were renovated or entirely re-concepted, requiring new lighting designs as part of the brand and ambience for each of the three food and beverage areas.