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Lighting the Palace04-01-03 | News
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The soft landscape lighting and interior lighting of the Palace was complete, but the architectural exterior and hard landscape lighting were not. Two lighting designers had already been brought in and dismissed. The Palace was scheduled to open in four months. The Palace of the Lost City is a 352-room luxury hotel located two hours northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa in the city of Bophuthatswana. With four months left before the opening, Jerry Allison of Palace architects Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo (WATG) saw an advertisement that GE Lighting ran publicizing the Edison Award and a project called the Palace of the Fine Arts, a project Ross De Alessi received the GE Edison Award for. Allison immediately called De Alessi and said he had another palace that needed some light. ?EUR??,,????'??The owner was on his second lighting designer, a local guy, who wanted to submerge high pressure sodium uplights in the surrounding moat and backlight open parapet walls with the same source,?EUR??,,????'?? De Alessi said. ?EUR??,,????'??This is a disaster waiting to happen. We performed a mock-up in August on once center section of fa??? 1/4 ade, the owner was pleased, socked me in the arm and said, ?EUR??,,????'??Where in the hell were you when I needed you??EUR??,,????'????EUR??,,????'?? De Alessi discussed goals for the project with the owner and he centered his design on several concepts. ?EUR??,,????'??The theme was established by Allison that a nomadic tribe settled in this lovely valley and built a palace and surrounding city and gardens to honor its king, queen and people,?EUR??,,????'?? De Alessi said. ?EUR??,,????'??The city was destroyed by an earthquake, the tribe moved on and the Palace became engulfed in creeper and weed only to be discovered one day by an Indiana Jones type person. It was ?EUR??,,????'??rebuilt?EUR??,,????'??? into the glorious resort it is today.?EUR??,,????'?? De Alessi quickly began working on a design and mock-up as they were due two days after he arrived. The mock-up was approved, but according to De Alessi the conduit and outlets that were previously installed were in the wrong places for the new plan. The power points were installed in front of columns and De Alessi needed them between columns. The migrant labor force of nearly 5,000 working on the project began the task of removing tiles by hand so pipe could be rerouted to the new power points. ?EUR??,,????'??The gritty methods of construction were fascinating,?EUR??,,????'?? De Alessi said. ?EUR??,,????'??Cement products are mixed on the floor like ladling gravy into mashed potatoes and concrete was chipped rather than sawcut. What makes this so interesting is that when you tour pump rooms for immense water features, the system is state-of-the-art and perfectly maintained yet just outside men move dirt with wheelbarrows not backhoes and D9s. The beauty of this is it keeps many people employed for years.?EUR??,,????'?? Because of import duties, De Alessi held the use of American equipment to a minimum-mostly asymmetric and fountain lighting fixtures. Most of the lights used were modified South African PAR and fluorescent lampholders. ?EUR??,,????'??Exchange rates were lousy and the importation of sophisticated equipment was limited,?EUR??,,????'?? De Alessi said. ?EUR??,,????'??The biggest challenge was working with local manufacturers to get desired effects. They worked hard and so did we. In this situation, you make compromises for the overall effect.?EUR??,,????'?? Because a lot of guests arrive to the Palace late at night, De Alessi wanted it to look like somebody was always home, living in the unoccupied parts of the towers. What he did was use modern equipment to simulate ancient forms of illumination such as flames from burning torches. The towers are the first thing travelers notice on the road. The tallest tower is distinguished by a flame burning within its dome. To provide balance with the other solely lit tower domes and to enhance the effect of the torch burning the large dome has been uplit with MR 16s. Due to the tower?EUR??,,????'???s large size the walls on the outside of it were lit differently than the other two towers. Asymmetric 120-volt quartz 350/500-watt floodlights have been used with transformers that provide the needed lumen output within the energy constraints. The exterior walls of the other towers are lit with 300-watt quartz floodlights positioned against the tower wall so that it bounces light off a reflector built into the balustrade and back onto the wall to create a soft glow. According to De Alessi the deck behind the balustrade also glows and creates the illusion that there?EUR??,,????'???s a burning brazier out on the deck, accompanied by guests enjoying the night air even though those decks are uninhabited. The domes and external walls are controlled separately to reach to 100 percent brightness at dusk, and dim to 60 percent over one hour. Most of the control switches are housed in each of the towers. The Rotunda The Rotunda dome is illuminated with a multi-tiered. The base is surrounded with 1500mm cool white fluorescent lamps in lensed uplight fixtures that complement the color of the large leaves on the dome. The center is lit by roof-mounted, dimmed PAR 56 heads outfitted with snoots and luvers. The finial is lit with two 12-volt, 5-degree pinspots. The lions on either side of the dome are uplit with lensed, louvered and snooted MR 16s. All the fixtures are positioned so that they are concealed from viewing by guests, whose rooms go around the Rotunda. In front of the Rotunda is a kudu fountain where water shoots from the horns of the animals. The water is lit with a white non-filtered, submersible niche-mounted MR 16s with linear spread lenses. De Alessi said that with South Africa?EUR??,,????'???s 240-volt, 50 Hz line voltage, filament sizes of lamps must be quite large. He said using the 12-volt MR 16 fixtures is a must for critical focal lighting. A Cheetah fountain sits outside the entry drive. The fountain is 1 1/3 scale of cheetahs and impalas. They are sidelit for waterproof MR 16 fixtures that feature glass duffusion and color filters under water in the fountains. The porte cochere features leopards, the symbol of Bophuthatswana, at the top, and are crosslit with frosted lensed and snooted MR 16s to separate them from the background. The exterior of the lobby lounge is uplit with dimmed 300-watt, PAR 56 narrow spot submersible fixtures. The cables here and in other outdoor areas are concealed in rockwork and other precast elements. The pool bar pavilions are uplit with sconces that use A-lamps and PAR 38s. Tall columns are highlighted with 8-, 120 and 150-watt quartz PAR, and incandescent PAR 38s. The decorative aspects of the columns wire designed specifically to hold light fixtures. PAR 38s and 56s highlight archways in various wattages ranging from 60 to 300 watts. Twenty-six watt fluorescent lamps and custom bollards are used to light the pathways. Roadways are lit by 70-150-watt, deluxe high-pressure sodium custom luminaries. Though time wasn?EUR??,,????'???t on their side, De Alessi and his team, transformed a new resort into a centuries-old palace in only four months time. Not bad for a rush job.
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