[citywatch]

lawa.org

Light Takes Flight

Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design teams up with AECOM to give LAX a contemporary lighting treatment.

By Deane Madsen

The lights of Los Angeles are visible as far east as Palm Springs, Calif., with a brightness that builds in a steady crescendo with your proximity to the Pacific coast. On approach into Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), a cluster of color-changing, illuminated pylons marks arrival at the airport. These pylons, which were installed in 2000 to coincide with the Democratic National Convention, have become an identifying feature of the airport and are, in part, serving as design inspiration for a new series of improvement projects that are currently underway.



Credit: Thomas McConville

The current effort, dubbed the Central Terminal Area (CTA) Curbside Appeal Project, aims to extend the iconography of the gateway pylons through the rest of the airport using a light ribbon—LED strips mounted behind a glass fascia that sits at the edge of the upper roadway bulkhead and the canopy—that syncs with the changing colors of the entry pylons to create a cohesive lighting experience.

Light Poles
Along the roadway itself, 91 new light poles, lit with LEDs, replace the existing high-pressure sodium fixtures. These light poles—inspired by the ’60s style of the Theme Building and taking their sculptural form from airplane propellers—illuminate both the lower departures level and the upper arrivals level to create what designer Carlos Madrid calls “a celebratory procession moving through the airport.” HLB senior principal Teal Brogden describes the design process as emanating from “an aesthetic desire to create something that feels uplifting or upward-reaching, but also speaks in the vocabulary of the Theme Building.”



Credit: Courtesy AECOM


Light Ribbon
Expanding on that metaphor of the ocean, the light ribbon—synced to the gateway light pylons—will also feature color shifts that mimic waves. The HLB team captured video of the beach at sunset and fed it into a scrambler for the DMX control system, which abstracts the images across the broad pixels of the light ribbon to emulate an understated sense of motion.



Credit: Courtesy AECOM

In addition, from the same earlier project that brought the entrance’s gateway pylons came a roadside planter installed along the upper roadway edge. “That’s just been a maintenance issue for them … and it was never very lush with plants,” Madrid says. “So that is coming down, and will be replaced with the light ribbon that runs through the whole CTA on the edge of the roadway.” The light ribbon, now installed along the upper roadway bulkhead, will also be extended to both ends of the terminal roadways in upcoming phases, merging the experience with the gateway pylons.



Credit: Courtesy AECOM