Architectural Record – August 2019

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD AUGUST 2019 95

55 Hudson Yards

Lobby

Kohn Pedersen Fox

OneLux Studio

By David Sokol

ARCHITECT: Kohn Pedersen Fox — Trent Tesch, Lauren

Schmidt, Lane Rapson, Jacyln Jung, design team

LIGHTING DESIGNER: OneLux Studio — Stephen

Margulies, Yasamin Shahamiri, Rob Merow, design team

CLIENT: Related Companies

OWNER: Related Companies; Mitsui Fudosan

SIZE: 12,000 square feet

COST: withheld

COMPLETION DATE: February 2019

SOURCES

LIGHTING: Axis Lighting; Color Kinetics; Dado Lighting;

Kurt Versen; Lucifer Lighting; Nanometer Lighting

CONTROLS: Lutron (preset dimming system)

credits

According to lighting designer Stephen

Margulies, hiding luminaires helps a project to

mature gracefully. “If a viewer’s first impres­

sion includes lighting equipment, then you

run the risk of looking out of date,” says the

partner of One Lux Studio. Heeding this phi­

losophy, the New York–based firm achieved an

ageless character in the three­story­high lobby

of KPF’s recently completed office tower at 55

Hudson Yards.

To provide an effective ambient glow in such

a large volume, Margulies and his team took

advantage of an approximately 2­foot­deep

wood­veneer ceiling structure suspended over

the 12,000­square­foot space. They concealed

discreet LED wall washers around its upper

edge in a cavity under the slab, angling the

fixtures toward the granite cladding to accen­

tuate the texture of the stone. A 3500­Kelvin

color temperature lends warmth without

muddying the surface.

Tucked into the perimeter of the suspended

ceiling, beneath the wall washers, indirect

linear LEDs illuminate the negative white

space between the granite wall and the

dropped wood plane. The brightness of these

additional light sources enhances the ceiling’s

floating quality and makes its hidden wall

washers even less conspicuous. Visible me­

chanical slots on the underside of the ceiling

house low­intensity LED downlights.

Backlit elements enliven the stone and

enhance wayfinding. These include tall onyx­

panel insets behind the main reception desk

and on the lobby’s west wall, as well as two

large grids outfitted with vertically ribbed

cast­glass panels—one near the entrance,

another opposite the elevator banks. In both

cases, integrated lighting amplifies KPF’s

material choices, by highlighting both the

PHOTOGRAPHY: © CONNIE ZHOUThe lighting designers took advantage of the building lobby’s dropped wood-veneer ceiling to house and conceal the majority of the luminaires needed to light the space.

ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING

waves of color in the onyx and the vertical ribs

in the glass panels. “On timeless projects like

this one, it is our job to let the light speak for

itself without creating visual distractions,”

Margulies explains. “You don’t see the equip­

ment—instead, you see the effect.” n