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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Folsom Library

Troy, New York, USA

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), with campuses in Troy, N.Y. and Hartford, Conn., is widely recognized for its effective hands-on approach to undergraduate education. At RPI’s Troy campus, the Richard G. Folsom Library provides its student population the resources needed to further develop their education. The Folsom Library, named after former Rensselaer president Richard Gilman Folsom, had not been renovated since its opening in 1976, and the Institute recognized the need for a refurbishment that would make its main library more user-friendly and inspire and attract students, researchers and many others to use the library.

Jorge Vidal, with Rensselaer’s Design and Construction group, developed the overall design and managed the construction. Gleaning input from RPI’s faculty and student population, he drafted a creative plan with special consideration to include color lighting. Vidal believed that by incorporating accent color lighting, the library would become more open and inviting, particularly if the colors could dynamically interact with the upstate New York climate by assigning “warm” lighting during the cold winter months, “cool” lighting in the summer, greens in the spring and orange colors in the fall.

Vidal designed an attractive, welcome lobby using curved, custom-built desks as well as multi-tiered acoustical ceilings that properly integrate the colored lighting. Mark Akin, the team’s electrical designer, suggested using Color Kinetics to enable the lighting transformation. To accentuate these areas, he specified the use of iColor Cove® QL and iColor Cove MX Powercore fixtures. Behind the circulation desk, an inverted world map, specially designed for the renovation, is accentuated with ColorBlast® 6 and ColorBurst® 4 fixtures. iColor Cove QL, ColorBurst 4 and ColorBlast 6 fixtures lend color to the computer hubs, interactive and team work areas, as well as throughout the reference sections of the library.

In using Color Kinetics’ LED lighting system, the Folsom library now displays custom color light scenes, ranging from fixed to color changing light shows. Also, the iPlayer® 2 controller enables the staff to have complete control over its lighting environment when needed. The addition of Color Kinetics’ lighting helped to improve the Folsom Library providing an inviting atmosphere throughout the year. Through its use of LED technology, as opposed to traditional methods, the library will also benefit from its low consumption of energy and minimal maintenance needs.