Magnificent Melrose Arch

Melrose Arch, nestled in the embrace of the M1 in the northeastern suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa is a hamlet unto itself. You could quite conceivably live and work here without ever having to venture outside its walls.

Like most small towns, it has a town square around which are clustered restaurants and boulevard cafés. And like all self-respecting town squares, a tower presides benignly over the townsfolk’s activities. Melrose Arch management had recently been in head-scratching sessions: The tower is an interesting feature of the area, but surely it should be ‘given something to do’.

Video ruled out
In days of old, the solution would have been to adorn the structure with a clock. However, Gautengers (residence of Gauteng province) are far too obsessed with the time as it is and another reminder simply wouldn’t be appropriate.

Considering that the tower’s walls are made of frosted glass, the ultimate wow factor would have been rear-projected video. It was an interesting proposition, but it posed some serious problems: Firstly, the exposure to the elements of sensitive video equipment; secondly, the tower is rather high and people directly below would not have a clear view of video footage; thirdly, it would not be in keeping with the aesthetics of the development. Every aspect of Melrose Arch complements the original design and video would be ‘too busy’ and possibly distracting.

Automated color changing
Ideally, something was needed that would be noticeable and memorable, but subtle. The solution was programmable automated color changing lights and its advantage of providing a predetermined color wash (or combination of colors) for any period of time and to change color over any predetermined time, thus giving a building ‘life’ and character.

Electrosonic
While casting around for a person and company who could meet their needs, architect Graham Wilson of Osmond Lange, the company responsible for the entire Melrose Arch project, came across both person and company. The company was Electrosonic, and the person was Bruce Schwartz who is the man to talk to when it comes to architectural lighting.

Johannesburg’s first fully automated outdoor color changing install
The Melrose Arch tower was the perfect opportunity to create Johannesburg’s first fully automated outdoor color changing installation with the use of Martin Architectural’s range of Exterior fixtures.

Exterior 200
It took two months and numerous attempts to get all the decision makers together in one place at the same time. There were two on-site mock-ups to determine the best luminaire and the ideal mounting position for the chosen luminaires.

Finally, it was decided to use the Martin Exterior 200. The Exterior 200 is completely weatherproof, sealed to withstand all conditions, and has a lamp life of 6,000 hours. It is an automated color-changer boasting a full CMY color-mixing system which can, with its three color wheels, create a virtually unlimited palette.

LightCorder control
Once the go ahead to complete the project had been given, the luminaires were delivered from the Martin factory in Denmark within 10 days. Electrosonic’s ever reliable Robert Izzett installed the fixtures and cabling in a day and Bruce Schwartz completed final programming over two nights.

To control the fixtures, a calendar based DMX playback unit – Martin’s LightCorder – was used. The majority of the programming was done at Electrosonic’s premises, using advanced modeling software to visualize the programmed scenes. The scenes were saved to a memory card, which was then simply slotted into the LightCorder.

“The realtime, calendar-based controller is programmed with varying sunset timers throughout the year,” comments Bruce. “Not only that, but it also takes care of calendar-specific events such as Valentine’s Day and Christmas.”

No setting is static for longer than three minutes and a full color sequence takes an hour and twenty minutes to play itself across the frosted glass plates – so it would take a lot of gazing before one would be able to detect a pattern.
 
The reactions to the tower of light from the restaurateurs and diners in the area have all been positive. “It provides a constant, yet subtly evolving, light show that is pleasing, intriguing, but not so distracting that it demands cutlery be downed or conversation stopped,” comments Bruce.

Talk about hot technology – this beacon is bound to be the talk of the town.