Compuware Headquarters Building, Detroit, USA

Architect: Rossetti Associates
Lighting Design: Illuminating Concepts-Ron Harwood, Kenneth Klemmer and IC Design staff

The 15-story Compuware Headquarters Building in downtown Detroit, Michigan is a key architectural element in the continuing revitalization of the city. The building includes space for approximately 3,000 employees and houses many employee centered amenities such as a day care center, wellness center and sporting courts, running track, and cafeteria.

This progressive humanistic approach extends to other aspects of the building as well, including the aesthetics of the interior and exterior lighting. As a leading technology company, Compuware sought an indoor lighting scheme and entrance façade illumination capable of dynamic qualities, an attractive lighting scheme reflective of the dynamism of the company itself.

The architect Rossetti Associates called on Illuminating Concepts of Farmington Hills, Michigan to enhance the existing architecture through the integration of color changing light. Illuminating Concepts project managed the lighting design and integration for a large indoor atrium space and exterior façade and turned to full CMY color mixing luminaires from Martin Architectural.

Atrium
An open air atrium with central fountain is the building’s social hub and serves as a meeting area for both Compuware employees and visitors. It includes 60,000 square feet of retail space, including a Hard Rock Café, all accessible to the public. The atrium is essentially a multi purpose room and Compuware uses the imposing backdrop for everything from press conferences to black tie events.

The atrium space features two key lighting elements. Mounted on a cat walk over 15 stories above are twenty Martin Architectural 575-watt Exterior 600 color changers with long throw 12 degree PC lenses aimed down to the floor below. The illumination creates movement and color throughout the area and is evenly distributed around a central water feature. According to John Bartley, Project Manager at Illuminating Concepts, the Exterior 600’s project a measurable 25 footcandles onto the floor from 220 feet, an impressive figure.

The atrium’s water feature comprises fifteen glass kites and, at more than 14 stories tall, represents the largest indoor hanging water feature in the world. Although the kites are illuminated using focused white light fixtures from the same upper catwalk, light from the Exterior 600’s enhance the vivid appearance of the kites with colored light spilling onto the floor below.

The atrium’s second lighting element comes from six Exterior 600’s pointed upwards toward the skylight’s large frame steel structure. The Exteriors give the structure a brilliant depth of field, especially when illuminated in two different colors.

Façade lighting
The dynamic lighting experience begins before one even steps into the building however. On the crown of the building’s entrance façade a row of fourteen 30-foot tall glass panels are lit in color changing light from 28 Martin Architectural Exterior 200 luminaires. The 150-watt Exterior 200’s are mounted in the interior of the building near the high point of the atrium.

Illuminating Concepts has programmed a number of different sequences for both the atrium and façade; daylight white, a slow night time color change, and special looks for special events and holidays. The system runs automatically via Illuminating Concept’s own MediamorFX controller with user integrated web page for remote control.