The custom fixtures utilized were a response for an in-grade luminaire that could accommodate the rooftop's unique portable paver system. Foreground: Aristide Maillol's Printemps (1911).

A total of twenty-five custom stainless steel in-grades were installed at Yale's Art Gallery. The renovation was completed in December of 2012 and revealed a modern art institution set to compete with some of the nation's largest and most respected museums. The project was headed by Ennead Architects and took three existing buildings, the modern Kahn building, the old Art Gallery and the 1866 Street Hall, and unified them into a single continuous space. This unifying plan nearly doubled the available interior exhibition space from 40,266 square feet to a comfortable 69,975 square feet while preserving the historical architecture of each facade. The gallery's transformation can be viewed at Yale's Flickr account.

Steven Hefferan, of Hefferan Partnership Lighting, offered his explanation on the design and intent of the custom luminaire B-K Lighting created for the project:

The fixture was modified with a larger trim ring so that it could sit in a raised paver system installed on the 4th floor sculpture terrace. The design intent of the system is to allow these fixtures to be moved around to any paver location to respond to the changing locations of sculptures in the exhibit area.

To make it easier on the museum staff we devised a system of distributed junction boxes under the raised paving system to accommodate this flexibility.

Remote transformers feed the distributed j-boxes which are fitted with wet label, quick connections that mate with the quick connect leads on the fixtures. The museum staff (not electricians) can move the fixtures to where they are needed and connect to the nearest j-box under the pavers. B-K Lighting not only modified the trim, so it would allow the fixture to be supported by the paver, but also provided the custom length feeds and wet label quick connect gear.

Once the sculptures were in place [on the terrace] I was able to identify the pavers needing lights and the staff was able to place the lighting with relative ease.

The custom stainless steel HP2 luminaires provide dramatic uplight on the sculpture terrace. Foreground: Henry Moore's "Draped Seated Woman" (1957-1958); Background:Aristide Maillol's "L'Air" (1938).

PROJECT DETAILS:

Product(s) Used: c1383-76

Architect: Ennead Architects

Lighting Specifier: Hefferan Partnership Inc

Sales Representative: Apex Lighting Solutions

Photo Credit: © Michael Marsland

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