The Cloud at Fashion Show Mall, Las Vegas, USA

Developer: The Rouse Co.
Concept Design: Orne and Associates
Lighting Design: David Hahn, Gallegos Lighting

If you’ve ever found yourself walking down the Las Vegas Strip anytime between the months of May and September chances are you’ve prayed for a cloud to pass by - a welcome reprieve from the desert heat. Now, for those strolling past Fashion Show Mall, those prayers have been answered.

The Cloud is an elliptical steel superstructure, an architectural canopy, larger than a football field that hovers 20 stories above the entrance to Fashion Show on the Las Vegas Strip. It is a key part of the Fashion Show expansion, a modern day blend of architecture and media that can be constantly updated and changed.

Nighttime projection screen
The structure has a dual purpose; it is designed to provide shade over a 72,000 square foot outdoor plaza at Fashion Show and is a media platform to showcase fashion. At night, The Cloud’s skin, an aluminum frame covered with sheet metal, becomes a projection screen. Martin luminaires are used to paint the surface in various color shades while 6,000-watt PIGI projectors provide advertising content onto The Cloud. Four large LED screens totaling 30 x 160 feet sit below the structure.

Fourth Phase
Martin’s Las Vegas office head Tim Brennan worked with Adam Steyh of lighting supplier Fourth Phase on the project. Adam was involved in elements of the lighting design, conducted demos and ultimately specified Martin fixtures - 26 Martin Exterior 600 color changers and 6 Martin MAC 2000 Performance. Fourth Phase also completed renderings for the project.

Adam commented, "We wanted to illuminate the bottom of The Cloud in color, and when the video projection is up wanted color around the edges. The whole system consists of five PIGI projectors in projection kiosks and because of the limited lighting locations we had to go with the kiosk locations for placement of the Exterior 600s as well.”

Lighting design was by David Hahn of Gallegos Lighting who also completed the final fixture placement, focus and handled coverage considerations.

Fixture placement
The Exterior 600s are positioned at the projection kiosks, greenish smoked glass enclosures in a metal frame. There are three kiosks located between the huge north and south towers - mammoth 182-foot columns that suspend the cloud - and one on each end.

Six MAC 2000 Performance in domes are located on circular 20-foot high signage pylons, punched metal and backlit. The Performance are mostly used to project advertising gobos and provide additional color and movement. They sweep the courtyard, which is visible from up the Strip, and play on the bottom of The Cloud. The plan, says Adam, is to add fixtures to the installation.

Jim Halladay: Sr. Project Manager: Fourth Phase
Melissa Wilreker: Project Manager: Fourth Phase
Adam Steyh: Specifier, Sales, Design: Fourth Phase
Sharon Fitzgerald: Systems Sales Manager, Western Region: Fourth Phase