SEARCH RESULTS

Light Projects by Leni Schwendinger is the #1 US based professional lighting studio serving global clients. For over 20 years Light Projects has been designing innovative lighting concepts and providing full-service lighting designs that optimize city, urban, and public spaces. Experts in both day and nighttime light experiences, resulting in spectacular creative visions with light offering safety, beauty, and sustainability. Infrastructure + Bridges < Previous Next > Photo: Michael Maltzan Architects Photo: Leni Schwendinger Light Projects 6th Street Viaduct Replacement Location Los Angeles, California Client LA Bureau of Engineering Team HNTB, Micahel Maltzan Architects, Hargreaves 2022 Los Angeles Business Council Grand Prize, 2022 ACEC Engineering Excellence Honor Award, 2022 Civil+Structural Engineer Media: Most Popular Infrastructure Project, 2022 Women Transportation Seminar Innovative Transportation Solutions Award Seen in movies and on television, Sixth Street Viaduct is one of America’s most famous and iconic bridges. The bridge acts as a vital connection between the Arts District on the west side of the Los Angeles River and the historic neighborhood of Boyle Heights on the east side. Leni Schwendinger Light Projects led the competition and concept-phase lighting design. Collaborating with architect Michael Maltzan, the City of Los Angeles, and our internal team of interactive designers, a concept was envisioned to display ambient patterns echoing environmental conditions. The innovative concept, a ribbon of light, entitled “Slip Stream”, was presented through rendered video and live demonstrations to a wide variety of stakeholders. Most bridge lighting is visible and interrupts the line of vision. Although highly challenging, team criteria included a desire for concealed lighting. The Light Projects’ design incised mounting niches for under-arch illumination. Additionally, vehicular, low-positioned lighting, rather than standard streetlight poles, was proposed, tested and accepted by the LA Bureau of Engineers. Working with landscape architects, Hargreaves, Schwendinger’s team conceptualized under-bridge lighting for a large-scale park. One goal was to utilize the bridge itself as an armature for lighting, removing the need for lighting fixtures littering the ground plane. Our design set the stage for the final design which was handed off to architects and engineers for the ensuing phases. The opening for the bridge was July 2022.

Light Projects by Leni Schwendinger is the #1 US based professional lighting studio serving global clients. For over 20 years Light Projects has been designing innovative lighting concepts and providing full-service lighting designs that optimize city, urban, and public spaces. Experts in both day and nighttime light experiences, resulting in spectacular creative visions with light offering safety, beauty, and sustainability. Landscape + Parks < Previous Next > Photo: Philippe Renault Image: Leni Schwendinger Light Projects Zaryadye Park Location Moscow, Russia Client City of Moscow Team Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Hargreaves, Citymakers, Mobility in Chain, Buro Happold, Arup Leni Schwendinger joined the DS+R team for a highly sought-after, international, design competition for a park adjacent to Red Square with St Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin. The team was selected out of 90 submissions from 27 different countries. Russia’s geographical variety is mirrored in the landscape design: Arctic lands, birch, coastal and coniferous forests, the steppe, and a meadow. Buildings and pavilions such as concert halls, museums, restaurants, and an ice cave were envisioned as jewels in the landscape. A 70-meter panoramic observation deck is illuminated to appear as if it were suspended in mid-air. Illumination concepts parallel the landscape and architectural principles. Lighting intends to create webs of starry light to mark destinations and delineate paths in an innovative, loosely structured way. Lighting displays interpretive measures of heat and cold weather by light quality and color temperature.

Light Projects by Leni Schwendinger is the #1 US based professional lighting studio serving global clients. For over 20 years Light Projects has been designing innovative lighting concepts and providing full-service lighting designs that optimize city, urban, and public spaces. Experts in both day and nighttime light experiences, resulting in spectacular creative visions with light offering safety, beauty, and sustainability. Planning + Community < Previous Next > Images: Leni Schwendinger with Arup Images: Leni Schwendinger with Arup Double Bay Centre Public Domain Lighting Strategy Location Double Bay, Australia Client Woollahra Municipal Council Team Arup, ASPECT Studios, NightSeeing Double Bay is an upscale, bay-side village that features a blend of natural landscaping, architecture, and waterfront. At night, the area is defined by its dining and social economy. The Council desired an illumination strategy that attracts visitors by visualizing the community’s tagline Stylish, Intimate, Refreshing. The Strategy proposes recommendations for the development and delivery of future lighting projects to create a cohesive nighttime experience within the precinct. It provides guidelines for new lighting infrastructure projects and strategies that will enhance visitor experiences and support creativity in the community. The strategic design process began with a NightSeeing™ program. The workshop and a series of site visits identified key understandings of the current night-time conditions and several objectives for future illumination projects. Following this, the design team worked with stakeholders, decision-makers, and consultants within the client team to identify and agree on key objectives. The Lighting Strategy was developed over nine months and included key stakeholder workshops and meetings. Circulation routes were prioritized according to nighttime usage. Functional and creative overlays were identified. Lighting characteristics were designed, and finally, discrete projects were outlined and priced. Prototypes and selected design projects are being implemented over time. This process was informed by and supports the Double Bay Place Plan 2014. It is consistent with the principles of place-making to maximize Double Bay’s distinctive brand.

Light Projects by Leni Schwendinger is the #1 US based professional lighting studio serving global clients. For over 20 years Light Projects has been designing innovative lighting concepts and providing full-service lighting designs that optimize city, urban, and public spaces. Experts in both day and nighttime light experiences, resulting in spectacular creative visions with light offering safety, beauty, and sustainability. Planning + Community < Previous Next > Photos: Leni Schwendinger Photos: Leni Schwendinger Urban Braids Location Newkirk Plaza, Brooklyn, NY Client Flatbush Development Corporation Team Leni Schwendinger Light Projects Urban Braids is the newest addition to artist Leni Schwendinger’s “D.I.Y. Lighting” public space portfolio of dynamic, colorful braided light structures. Suspended on iron gates that edge Newkirk Plaza, the art installation spans the entire site. This unique approach employs community participation to innovate with everyday string lighting to create an interplay of safety and joyful experiences. Urban Braids was commissioned by Flatbush Development Corporation. The location, a mall, which opened in 1913, is predominantly composed of mom-and-pop stores. The plaza consists of two parallel walkways, “open cut” and raised above a New York City subway station. The Q and B trains serve 2-million straphangers per year. The project was funded by New York City’s Small Business Services grant as part of their Commercial District Lighting initiative for 15 NYC neighborhoods. The intent is to boost local businesses and foster community engagement by creating a vibrant, well-lit environment for shopping, strolling, and commuting.

Light Projects by Leni Schwendinger is the #1 US based professional lighting studio serving global clients. For over 20 years Light Projects has been designing innovative lighting concepts and providing full-service lighting designs that optimize city, urban, and public spaces. Experts in both day and nighttime light experiences, resulting in spectacular creative visions with light offering safety, beauty, and sustainability. Planning + Community < Previous Next > International Nighttime Design Initiative (NTD), Planning 4 Places Municipal Smart City Street Lighting Conversion & Evolving Technology Guidebook Location New York Capital District Client Capital District Transportation Team International Nighttime Design Initative (NTD), Planning 4 Places The Municipal Smart City Street Light Conversion & Evolving Technology Guidebook was commissioned to address issues of street light ownership, the streamlining of municipal services, and economic benefits for New York State. Additionally, the convergence of energy-saving, responsive technologies, ownership of data, and infrastructure is being debated across the nation. In parallel, issues of public space equity and social cohesion are in flux. The intent was to provide guidelines proposing a unique hybrid of design, policy, technological and social inputs to the growing field of smart cities applications. As cities and towns across the region convert/upgrade their street lights to energy-saving LED, they must consider and balance lighting quality, safety, after-dark social issues, digital infrastructure, and economic considerations. The guidebook also addresses community engagement, essential for developing trust and on-the-ground knowledge, with a photo narrative about NightSeeing™, an evening program developed by Leni Schwendinger for active learning about illumination and nighttime design. Planning for smart and responsive lighting technologies opens the door to considerations about expanded digital infrastructure. The range of available applications results in a vast set of options and market promises from parking solutions to gunshot detection. Case Study, City of Saratoga Springs With a thriving downtown night-life and historical importance, the City of Saratoga Springs presented an excellent test-case for how to create safe and sustainable nighttime environments through a strategic look at lighting. With additional regional and Northeast case studies, diagrams and images, the guidebook offers context, perspective, and a roadmap for complex decision-making processes. The Saratoga Springs’ streets and open spaces contain a mixture of public lighting with an inconsistent collection of light poles and fixtures as well as light sources – sodium, metal halide and LED. Saratoga Springs desired to consolidate the look and feel of their night lighting and connect it to a central system. Committed to sustainability and exploring enabling technologies through their Smart City Roadmap, they can now consider expanded options such as electric vehicle charging, public WiFi, and data collection capabilities to aid safety, transportation, and other service operations. The International Nighttime Design Initiative (NTD), founded by Ms. Schwendinger, partnered with Planning4Places to complete a Municipal Lighting Technology Guidebook for The Capital District Transportation Committee (CDTC) as part of New York State’s Smart Communities Program. The guidebook also addresses community engagement, essential for developing trust and on-the-ground knowledge, with a photo narrative about NightSeeing™, an evening program developed by Leni Schwendinger for active learning about illumination and nighttime design. The Guidebook is free and available to the public.

Light Projects by Leni Schwendinger is the #1 US based professional lighting studio serving global clients. For over 20 years Light Projects has been designing innovative lighting concepts and providing full-service lighting designs that optimize city, urban, and public spaces. Experts in both day and nighttime light experiences, resulting in spectacular creative visions with light offering safety, beauty, and sustainability. Infrastructure and Bridges < Previous Next > Photos: Mikaela Baird Parking Garage and Community Space Location Queens, NY Client Urbahn Architects Team Marvel Design, Hunter Roberts Construction Group PRESS Design-Build Institute of America 2024 National Award of Merit The Queens Parking Garage and Community Space, completed in 2023, is the first New York City Department of Design and Construction "design-build" project. Leni Schwendinger Light Projects (LSLP), a Women-owned Business Enterprise, consulted with Urbahn Architects and Marvel Design, headed by Hunter Roberts Construction Group. Beautiful lighting enhances a feeling of safety, care, and identity. The Queens Parking Garage and Community Center’s east facade is punctuated by triangular, metallic fins. The large-scale dimensional wall is a canvas for illumination. Colored light dynamically displayed in the public realm is an LSLP specialty. The team conducted a series of sketching, rendering, technical, spatial, and budgeting exercises to arrive at the final illumination concept: Iridescent Waves. Clients and designers determined that the massive facade would provide a moment of vibrancy for vehicular viewers traversing the adjacent highway tangle, where the Van Wyck Expressway visually converges with Grand Central Parkway. The textured, luminous wall would be a landmark for those drivers, especially during high traffic volumes. For residential tower occupants, it will provide a far-away point of focus. During the evening hours, Iridescent Waves reflects ever-changing hues inspired by the butterfly and bird wings’ “scattered light” chromatic effect. The selected tones are predominantly of the cool spectrum, accented with warm tones. The sequence plays in a loop from sunset until midnight. The programmed composition is bookended by static white providing “white space on the page.” Bookending provides a beginning and end to the luminous color sequence and focuses the viewer’s attention on the light art itself. LSLP provided lighting design for the building exterior. The Community Center entry faces the Queens Borough Hall. The parking entrance faces east toward the highways. With its outdoor stairways and plazas, all sides of the structure present a dynamic profile during the day. After sunset, the eastern side turns iridescent.

Light Projects by Leni Schwendinger is the #1 US based professional lighting studio serving global clients. For over 20 years Light Projects has been designing innovative lighting concepts and providing full-service lighting designs that optimize city, urban, and public spaces. Experts in both day and nighttime light experiences, resulting in spectacular creative visions with light offering safety, beauty, and sustainability. Public Art < Previous Next > Photos: Leni Schwendinger Glowing Waterway Location Unna, Germany Client The City of Uma Team Leni Schwendinger Light Projects For an international artists’ program, five artists were commissioned to design site-specific installations using the medium of light to line the streets leading to the town center. During the fall and winter seasons of 2003, Schwendinger created a temporal course - a sensuous environment suffused with liquid-light colors – leading to the central square. Water Street in the town of Unna, Germany, is named for the stream beneath its surface and the path it makes to the Ruhr River. Hell Weg, or Bright Way, an ancient pilgrimage pathway crisscrosses the underground river. Glowing Waterway recalls the flows of water and footsteps that have traversed this path since the 15th century. Utilizing the cartographic lines as a launch point, Schwendinger created a graphic ripple-form as artwork in two ways, formed into a fiber optic strand mounted in mid-air, and recapitulated into a light projection cast onto the paving. Visitors experienced Glowing Waterway as a street and as a river of light, redefined by a festoon of continuous, illuminated, aquamarine lines. The projected forms bathed the visitors as they rested on curvy concrete benches. Playing with perspective - the large-scale of the Hell Weg, the street-scale of Water Street, and the small-scale of a ripple - the installation was perceived on many levels and by many ages, children through adult. Viewed from afar, luminous lines and patterns converged to create a path of sparkling water-light. Up close, Unna residents, workers, and visitors experienced the artwork as a gathering space for conversations and evening fun.

SEARCH RESULTS All (142) Blog Posts (95) Other Pages (47) 142 items found Blog Posts (95) Light: Power, Inspire, Play Into darkness, the artistry of light proclaims a special power to inspire and play...to encourage the best proclivities of our built environment. Urban Braids in Progress in Flatbush Brooklyn On June 3, 4, and 5 Chris and I spent midnight work shifts so common for urban lighting. This time supervising prepared string and rope -light while the strands were suspended by Friedman Productions. The subway train splits Newkirk Plaza into 2 walkways lined with gritty retail and restaurants. Looking up from Brooklyn’s Newkirk Plaza subway platform, the straphanger will exclaim, I have arrived! Also looking down from the Plaza, Urban Braids presents a carnivalesque sight against the smooth subway platform illumination. A strange juxtaposition. D.I.Y. Lighting is braided, twisted string lighting made by local community. The Evolution of Community Engagement- where are we now? Community Engagement: Beyond the Survey A 2-Way Street What is your view about community participation in public space design? Community design approaches are evolving through best-practice methodologies, including pilots, research, and hands-on co-creation. Lighting designers, learning from outreach program specialists, are transforming the predominant view that involving community or space-users results in mediocre design. We believe that real involvement is a reciprocal knowledge transfer. Designers provide active learning scenarios to elicit local insights. Residents, workers and stakeholders inform designers about place-keeping legacies, priorities, and geographic/socially based genius loci with which designers can develop the best public spaces even after dark! Water above Water, a Sublime Floating Landscape (Glasgow, Scotland) An early, temporal, community-engaged project In 1999 Leni was offered an opportunity to blend environmental artwork and social engagement. Site specificity is an approach that landscape architects and public artists use to make a space into a place. Design factors include the site's histories, the culture, geography, and other threads. Leni's background as a community organizer and lighting designer merged for Water Above Water. "A sea of luminous blue, green and aquamarine floodlighting dissolved and animated the stern, hand-hewn stone of the aqueduct's buttresses and arches." — Architectural Review (UK) View All Other Pages (47) Water Above Water Planning + Community < Previous Next > Photos: Guthrie Photography Photos: Guthrie Photography Water Above Water Location Forth and Clyde Canal, Glasgow, Scotland Client Glasgow 1999, British Waterways Team Leni Schwendinger Light Projects ​ ​ “As part of Glasgow’s 1999 City of Architecture and Design initiative, the Maryhill Locks were the focus of a public art project. Coordinated by American lighting designer, Leni Schwendinger, Water Above Water temporarily transformed the locks and Kelvin Aqueduct into a magical, illuminated landscape. A sea of luminous blue, green and aquamarine floodlighting dissolved and animated the stern, hand-hewn stone of the aqueduct’s buttresses and arches.” Excerpt from “Delight”, Architectural Review, December 1999. The year-long festival reiterated Glasgow's tradition of involving communities in the process of redefining their environment. Leni Schwendinger was commissioned by Independent Public Arts in Edinburgh. She aspired to "go where the people live", with an art installation of local Scottish significance that also resonated on an international scale. Water Above Water, a Sublime Floating Landscape was both a temporal art installation and a community-engaged “happening”. Conceived and designed to draw both local and international audiences to the 1,000-foot configuration of landmarked locks and aqueducts in North Glasgow's Maryhill, Water Above Water 's mixage of art, engineering, and illuminations celebrated the Forth & Clyde Canal's visible landscape and invisible industrial heritage--creating an opportunity to reflect the achievements of Glasgow's industrial past Conceived and designed to draw both local and international audiences to the 1,000-foot configuration of landmarked locks and aqueducts in North Glasgow's Maryhill, Water Above Water 's mixage of art, engineering, and illuminations celebrated the Forth & Clyde Canal's visible landscape and invisible industrial heritage--creating an opportunity to reflect the achievements of Glasgow's industrial past. Water Above Water ‘s three artistic elements were: illumination of the Forth & Clyde Canal's landscape and towpath; locally-made floating constructions scaled from miniature to life-size; and light-suffused colors onto the Kelvin Aqueduct's 400-foot-by-70-foot, rusticated-stone and buttresses in the valley below. Viewers of Water Above Water were invited to stroll through an unforgettable landscape of natural and constructed experience, while British (now Scottish) Waterway’s lockkeepers operated the lock-gates so the canal waters rose and fell in a timed sequence. Artist Leni Schwendinger instigated local involvement, which emanated from the neighborhood center’s community art and kayaking classes. Following the public artist’s design brief, student artists developed an elementary school curriculum that entailed building papier-mâché water-creature floats. An architect and professional artist group also interpreted the design brief with abstract silvery sculptures. The kayakers put the floats in place. Additionally, electric model-ship makers from east Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park arrived to float their battleships during the installation. Zaryadye Park Landscape + Parks < Previous Next > Photo: Philippe Renault Image: Leni Schwendinger Light Projects Zaryadye Park Location Moscow, Russia Client City of Moscow Team Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Hargreaves, Citymakers, Mobility in Chain, Buro Happold, Arup ​ ​ Leni Schwendinger joined the DS+R team for a highly sought-after, international, design competition for a park adjacent to Red Square with St Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin. The team was selected out of 90 submissions from 27 different countries. Russia’s geographical variety is mirrored in the landscape design: Arctic lands, birch, coastal and coniferous forests, the steppe, and a meadow. Buildings and pavilions such as concert halls, museums, restaurants, and an ice cave were envisioned as jewels in the landscape. A 70-meter panoramic observation deck is illuminated to appear as if it were suspended in mid-air. ​ Illumination concepts parallel the landscape and architectural principles. Lighting intends to create webs of starry light to mark destinations and delineate paths in an innovative, loosely structured way. Lighting displays interpretive measures of heat and cold weather by light quality and color temperature. Jiading Parks Landscape + Parks < Previous Next > Photo: Sasaki Photo: Leni Schwendinger Light Projects Jiading Parks Location Jiading, China Client Shanghai Jiading New City Development Company Ltd Team Sasaki ​ ​ The initial design brief for Jiading Park called for a radical transformation. In its existing state, the site was comprised of factories, warehouses, and fallow agricultural fields. The park is made of five Zones such as the fitness zone, community zone, and lake zone. The Zones are counterpointed by five major paths that interweave and interact with a variety of park elements. The lighting mirrored use and character of the paths, augmenting identity and wayfinding. The lighting design echoed the creative material palette and dynamic forms. ​ View All