Miami Herald
Posted on Fri, Sep. 21, 2012
Miami Tower changes colors instantly with new LED lights
By ELAINE WALKER
[email protected]
EMILY MICHOT / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
A new LED lighting system on the Miami Tower at 100 SE 2nd St. in downtown Miami lets the building change colors quickly and display multiple, changing patterns on the building. Already Miami’s most distinctive skyscraper, the Miami Tower can now illuminate the night with a rainbow-colored lightshow.
All it takes is a few seconds on a smartphone to switch the 47-story tower from looking like a virtual American flag to a rippling whirlpool in varying shades of turquoise and green, or a dynamic sunrise of red, orange and yellow. The color changes can spread from the center of the building out like a starburst or float vertically across like a wave crashing on the shore.
The dramatic new statement on the downtown skyline is the result of a $1.5 million, state-of-the-art LED lighting system that has been installed on the tower’s exterior during the last nine months. It’s believed to be the biggest installation of LED lights on a building exterior anywhere in the U.S. The Empire State Building is finishing a similar upgrade, but only on a small portion of the building.
“We want to reinforce the tower’s position as the premier building in the Miami skyline,” said Tom Matese, general manager of the building. “It can be an evolving piece of art on the Miami skyline. The possibilities are really endless. It’s all about what your mind can create.”
The Miami Tower, designed by architect I.M. Pei and built in 1987 as the CenTrust Tower (named for the defunct savings and loan), has always had the capability of lighting the sky in a static presentation. That notoriety made it a signature shot in the old Miami Vice television show, as well as movies like the James Bond flick Casino Royale and almost every television shot of the Miami skyline. Usually the building was bathed in one of a handful of solid colors or basic combinations like red, white and blue for July 4th. Because the previous changing system was slow and labor intensive, colors rarely changed more than about once a month.
This takes the presentation to a new level — and is better for the environment. The new lights reduce energy usage by 92 percent, saving $260,000 a year and reducing CO2 emissions by more than 1.2 million . The installation replaced 382 1,000-watt lights with 216 lights that average 180 watts per fixture.
“The technology was old and very expensive to operate, but we didn’t want to eliminate the lighting because it’s such an iconic building on the Miami skyline,” said Ty Spearing, managing director at LaSalle Investment Management, the building’s Chicago-based owner. “We needed to bring the lighting into the current century.”
Gone are the days when someone had to manually change the colored gels on each of the 382 lights. That took 12 man hours of work and involved visiting the rooftops of neighboring skyscrapers. The cost savings in time, gels and leases on other buildings amounts to an additional $130,000 a year.
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http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/21/v-...nges-colors-instantly.html#storylink=cpy
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