Cleveland icon towers with light
Located in the heart of downtown, the Terminal Tower has become the Cleveland's most recognizable landmark with its terra-cotta façade and ancient Roman style architecture. Dominating the city's skyline, the 215 m (708 ft) tall skyscraper was the tallest building in North America, outside of New York City, for more than 30 years after its opening in 1930. Today, its 52 floors are occupied by corporate tenants, in addition to the observation deck where visitors can see as far as 53 km (33 mi) from downtown Cleveland.
The wear and tear of intense Ohio weather triggered the need for an extensive full-building restoration in 2010. The Terminal Tower has long been famous for its illumination, and this restoration provided the perfect opportunity to upgrade the quality of the light system. An LED solution was desired for energy efficiency purposes and to simplify control of color-changing effects on the building's façade.
Ron Friedman of Art and Science Lighting Design and Greg Shick of Bright Focus Sales, Inc. were commissioned to design the lighting for the retrofit that would help the Terminal Tower sustain its fame. The designers selected Color Kinetics ColorBlast Powercore luminaires to light the building and show off the architectural details. The luminaires were generally spaced 1 m (2–3 ft) apart and positioned between 1.2–7 m (4–25 ft) away from the illuminated surface to wash the entire exterior of the building.
The ease of control with Color Kinetics luminaires enables the Terminal Tower to actively participate in awareness campaigns for charities and organizations. It also has an engaging presence on social media, taking light and color requests from followers. In addition to being an interactive experience, the LED solution will save the Terminal Tower about $21,000 per year in energy savings.
"Historically, the Terminal Tower is the most iconic building in the Cleveland skyline, so we wanted a lighting solution that would allow us to feature the architectural details of the building, but at the same time would provide the ability to easily and effectively change the colors in support of charities and local events," said Don Beck, the Operations Director at Forest City Enterprises, the building's management company. "The Color Kinetics product was a perfect fit for our applications."
