A FACELIFT FOR DOWNTOWN LA
The new Downtown LA glows in the night and teems with visitors and residents. An impressive number of WE-EF luminaires light up the vast entertainment complex of LA Live, aiding the economic renewal of downtown Los Angeles.
The 1920s American writer Dorothy Parker once said that Los Angeles is “seventy-two suburbs in search of a city.” A sprawling metropolitan area with a diverse population and geography, LA now has a downtown area that knits together its disparate parts. LA’s adaptive reuse ordinance of 1999 and developments such as the Staples Center and LA Live kick-started the downtown renaissance. As of 2011, the residential population of the city’s center was 45,000 and since then has continued to grow.
In a city united by the entertainment industry, visitors and residents (10 million annually) need a place to be entertained; since 2007, LA Live has provided just such a place. It is a multi-phase, mixed-use entertainment district that surrounds the Nokia Theatre and Staples Center. This 27-acre site features restaurants, cinemas, clubs, sports and music venues, and hotels. LA Live has transformed the downtown area and infused it with the glamour that Los Angeles is known for.
Impressive lighting is essential to the LA Live project, and act as a reminder of the glitter of Hollywood. WE-EF’s FLC200 projector series play a leading role in the stunning light display. More than 400 projectors are used throughout the project. In the Nokia Plaza, the heart of LA Live, FLC250 projectors with symmetric medium beam distribution provide general illumination for everyday entertainment and special events. The luminaires are mounted at the top of the Plaza’s six iconic steel towers and are fitted with interchangeable color filters, providing numerous lighting scenarios.
FLC240 projectors provide effective lighting solutions for the many different sizes of dynamic billboards that characterize LA Live. The projectors – with both symmetric very narrow and medium distribution beams, and 70 W metal halide lamps – are arranged to achieve ideal lighting levels. The superior performance of WE-EF’s IOS Innovative Optical System ensures uniform illumination across large surface areas with greater mounting distances between the luminaires.
The mounting yoke component of the projector allows easy adaptation to facilitate the various requirements and arrangements throughout the project.
WE-EF LTM440 lighting columns provide pedestrian-scale lighting to the pavements and side streets.
Architects: RTKL
Lighting Designer: Francis Krahe and Associates, Inc.