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Welcome Wall at Potawatomi Bingo Casino

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Installation Description
Potawatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee expanded its Menomonee Valley casino to give it a more contemporary design and attract a more urban crowd and younger clientele.

Design Objective
Younger crowds and a vast portion of the casino’s existing customer-base drive to the casino, the owners and design team therefore wanted to create a unique and memorable entry point for those entering from the expanded parking garage.

How Did They Do It?
The lighting and architectural design firms of Creative Lighting Design & Engineering and Hnedak Bobo Group collaborated to create a 62-foot by 123-foot “Welcome Wall” made of aluminum and etched glass panels, which are illuminated by over 600 Philips LED light fixtures. The floor-to-roof entry energetically welcomes Potawatomi’s guests and is a focal point for the renovated garage.

The Welcome Wall consists of 208 4-foot by 8-foot frosted glass panes with a 4-foot cavity behind. For each pane, lighting designer Marty Peck specified one ColorBlast® 12 Powercore, a wall-washing fixture that creates color-changing effects, to backlight the cavity. He also positioned two iColor® MR g2 color-changing lamps on the back wall pointing towards the glass pane. By combining ColorBlast 12 Powercore for wash lighting with the iColor MR g2 lamps for direct viewing, he created a unique look that allows for wide-ranging choreography and transitions. According to Peck, the “pixels” of light -- created by the iColor MR g2 lamps -- provide depth, while ColorBlast 12 Powercore washes the panes with colored light.

Using Light System Manager -- an integrated software and hardware solution that allows for the management, authoring and control of effects -- Peck created a variety of looks and effects for the Welcome Wall. Scenes range from environmental themes (e.g. fire with embers, rain and lightning, stars and the northern lights) to the more abstract images (e.g. “the Matrix”, a time tunnel). All the effects are animated and dynamically transitioned or cross faded using Light System Manager.

Additionally, the bridge that conjoins the Welcome Wall and the parking structure uses 64 8-foot iColor® Accent Powercore fixtures, a linear LED-based “tube.” Positioned on the bridge’s ceiling, the fixtures run intricately designed effects that coordinate with the lighting show displayed on the Welcome Wall.

The Result?
The renovated Potawatomi Bingo Casino now attracts guests from all angles and adds plenty of glitz to the Milwaukee cityscape.