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The renovation of one of Honolulu's largest shopping malls posed two significant challenges to the lighting design team. First, create a lighting system that would play an active part in establishing the center's new visual imagery, and second, accomplish the first while complying with Hawaii's newly minted energy code, one of the nation's most stringent.
A new design direction for the mall, which is bisected by a busy roadway, was to contrast a youth focused urban vocabulary ("Downtown") in one half, with a sophisticated adult emphasized city lifestyle ("Uptown") in the other.
A dramatic 14 foot diameter globe punctuates "Downtown's" center court. The skeletal structure comes to life periodically with bursts from internally concealed strobes and projectors. Shadows cast by the planet's landforms are scattered throughout the court as a reminder of Hawaii's position as a global crossroads. A gritty urban mural engulfs the concourse, its black and white starkness broken by occasional lightning, rising moons and color punched windows.
Across the street, "Uptown's" sophistication is enhanced through more traditional and conservative lighting techniques. A series of astronomical time clocks and photocells minimize daytime lighting usage, while helping to meet the State's energy requirements.