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Martin Architectural at Wembley Arena
To coincide with the building of England's new national stadium, Quintain Estates secured approximately 50 acres of property surrounding the Wembley Stadium site to develop a vibrant new district. Incorporating office, retail, residential, hospitality/gaming and entertainment components, the new Wembley Stadium district will help to revitalize this area of London.
The first phase of the new district focused on the restoration and re-orientation of the famous performance venue, Wembley Arena, along with the creation of Arena Square at the foot of the new entrance.
The £35 million transformation incorporates design features echoing the original 1930s architecture of the building and upgraded modern facilities. The re-orientated Arena's main entrance is now at the east end and opens onto Arena Square, a public space which houses a performance water feature and kinetic light and audio towers.
Illuminating Concepts (IC), architectural and themed lighting designers and consultants based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, was called upon to create an intelligent lighting system for the façade of the new Arena that would provide the ability to activate the building and synchronize with events in the Square. IC’s role was extensive and included handling of the entertainment strategy, all exterior architectural lighting, theatrical lighting and show lighting design, light tower design, audio integration, control systems, implementation, project management, procurement and logistics.
IC chose Martin Architectural IP65 rated Exterior 200 colour changers located on custom light towers to light the consumer views of the building, the northwest and east facades, which are also visible looking down from Wembley Stadium. The light towers also house 70W metal halide fixtures for area white lighting. The 150 W Exterior 200’s are also used to provide aesthetic color changing onto a series of light columns in Arena Square. The water feature is illuminated by internal LED (a non-IC element).
“We use the Martin Exterior 200 colour changers to bring continuity between the building and the plaza,” commented Michael Shulman, lighting designer at Illuminating Concepts. “I chose the fixture because it’s a standard, robust fixture with a long lamp life and very good maintenance program and record. We’ve used it in the past and it has had good flexibility as far as usage and maintenance cycle. Obviously its ability to be controlled, as well as operate outdoors, was a plus. The luminaires are very visible so aesthetics as well as functionality was a factor. It’s a small fixture in a really nice looking architectural package.”
Lighting control is from IC’s own MediamorFX audiovisual and lighting system. Martin’s Maxxyz PC controller with Maxxyz Manager has been integrated into the MediamorFX system. “We’re using Maxxyz PC as a standard lighting controller,” Michael states. “It allows us to use multiple universes and synch them with ease instead of having to do complex patching. It’s a network based system which works well with ours.”
http://www.martin-architectural.com
9th February 2007
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