With its new interior lighting tree design, the Broadway Lounge in the New York Marriott Marquis creates a relaxing yet vibrant atmosphere for guests to enjoy the spirit of Manhattan with views of Broadway and Times Square.
As part of the Broadway Lounge’s revitalization effort, the Marriott Marquis chose to create two 15-ft. “trees” with branches reaching out from 21 ft. to more than 46 ft. using an inlay of linear light. The challenge of bringing this vision to life was finding a vibrant, flexible, direct-view, low-voltage, luminaire with consistent color temperature that was appropriate for a recessed application and could be easily cleaned and maintained. Due to exposure to direct sunlight most of the year, the linear luminaire also had to be UV-stabilized for long-term performance.
The hotel chose Reveal Design Group for the project. Led by design director Sam Zarn and senior designers Ashton Allin and Joshua Klein, the team established the following lighting criteria for the Broadway Lounge:
- Direct View | Neon replacement
- Flexible for precise placement
- IP67-rated for wet locations
- Easily maintained
- UV stabilized (no yellowing or cracking)
- Consistence of CCT | 1 Bin, 1.5 step color consistency
- Deliver more than 200 lumens per ft.
- Low voltage 24V DC
“Having the opportunity to help create a stunning visual element that can be seen from the heart of Times Square is one that doesn’t’ come up often,” Klein said. “Being able to work closely with the rest of the design team to make the lighting such an essential and integral part of the overall design, rather than just playing a supporting role, was an exciting and rewarding process.”
The goal of the design team was to find a lighting fixture that would match the organic form of the sculptural piece without any visible seams. They also wanted a manufacturer that was willing and able to work with them to help achieve the final polished look. After a lengthy search, the Reveal Design Group team selected Tivoli Lighting because its standard offerings provide a wide range of tools that allow for creative expression and design flexibility.
Following multiple sample tests, it was decided the best solution was the Trace Vertical linear LED because it met or exceeded all the requirements of this unique, extremely high-profile design application. This linear LED system designed for straight and curved interior and exterior applications is constructed using flexible SMD LEDs with zero voltage drop to provide reliable uniformity of light.
Tivoli Lighting worked closely with David Wallace, operations manager, and Jennifer Mason, specification sales manager, both from O’Blaney Rinker Associates, a Manhattan-based manufacturer representative agency specializing in architectural lighting, to implement the lighting solution.
“The way the lighting was integrated into the architecture of the ‘tree’ created not only visual interest, but also produced an additional dimension in the space,” said Mason. “The rounded attributes of the tree required a vertical bend in the Trace material. As a result, the Trace Vertical linear LED sits flush into detail, becoming part of the tree branches.”
As with many projects that were undertaken in 2020, the largest obstacle the lighting team faced was the impact of the pandemic. It affected scheduling, material availability and product lead times, as well as the design team’s ability to get to the site and review mock-ups in real time with the rest of the project team. Ultimately, the design team was able to overcome these challenges and still achieve a great end-product through a series of video-conferenced mockup reviews made possible by material samples shipped directly to the designers’ homes.
The team received the help of Christopher DiMarco from Turner & Townsend, Anthony Scotto from OMNIBUILD and their teams to coordinate all trades for a complex installation to meet the construction timeline.
