The World's Largest Worship Space Comes to Light

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (November 10, 2000) The lighting design firm of Auerbach + Glasow announced today the completion of the lighting for all the exterior and interior public spaces for the new Conference Center for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah. Auerbach + Associates, the parent company, provided theatrical consulting services for the Conference Center.

The formal dedication of the Conference Center, on October 8, 2000, marked the completion of a major phase of the architectural renewal of the spiritual core of Salt Lake City. In addition, Main Street between the Church administration block and the historic Salt Lake City Temple Square was transformed into a public plaza, which was dedicated alongside the Conference Center. The lighting design for the Conference Center, Main Street Plaza, and the exterior of the Temple Square district was an Auerbach + Glasow project under the direction of Principal Patricia Glasow.

The focus of the 1.5 million square-foot Conference Center is the 21,000-seat Assembly Hall, one of the world's largest indoor worship and conference spaces. A smaller Proscenium Theatre in the building seats 911. A unique aspect of the Conference Center is its size and the fact that nearly all decorative lighting fixtures in public view were custom designed.

Auerbach + Glasow worked closely with Leland Gray and Kerry Nielsen, Church architects, and Bob Frasca, Bill Williams and John Thompson, architects for Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, in the design of the lighting and the custom fixture design. Patricia Glasow was the Principal in Charge for Auerbach + Glasow. Susan Porter designed the interior lighting and Richard Osborn designed the exterior lighting. Auerbach + Glasow's project team for the design of the custom lighting fixtures included S. Leonard Auerbach, Patricia Glasow and Jane Marshall.

The scope of work included:

• Twenty interior custom lighting fixture designs, over 1100 fixtures
  
• Six exterior custom lighting fixture designs, over 200 fixtures
  
• Ten-acre site
  
• Four-acre roof top garden
  
• Water features
  
• Rotating art program
  
• Sixty-booth translation area
  

Custom Lighting Fixture Design

Decorative lighting plays an important role in legacy Church buildings. From Temples to Meeting Houses, to the famous Mormon Tabernacle, chandeliers, pendants and sconces are used to bring warmth and elegance to a space. Consequently, decorative lighting is the major permanent decorative element in and around the Conference Center, providing a feeling of 'coming home' for the membership.

The design of the lighting fixtures had to balance the contemporary simplicity of the Conference Center with the decorative traditions of the Church. Designs were developed to address the criteria of Church tradition, universal appeal, the grand scale of the building, and energy efficiency. The lighting also had to support the Church's expressed desire to build a facility that would last 150 years, and welcome a worldwide, diverse congregation.

In addition to design and detailing, the Church retained Auerbach + Glasow to coordinate and administrate the bidding for and construction of the custom lighting fixtures. Manufacturers were pre-qualified, interviewed, then invited to bid. Four manufacturers were awarded the project, with the majority of the interior work done by Winona Lighting and the exterior work done by Sterner Lighting. Extensive mock-ups and prototypes were provided for every custom lighting fixture.

"The design of the custom fixtures was a collaborative process beginning with our sketch ideas and those of the architects. This led to our design studio developing every detail from the glass to the fasteners" said Len Auerbach.

Lobbies

The lobby of the Conference Center, the public's initial experience of the building's vast interior, incorporates the most extensive use of decorative lighting. Drawing upon Church tradition, pendant lighting fixtures with corresponding wall sconces were a natural choice for the lobby.

The expansive lobby space was broken up architecturally through the use of dropped soffits and varying ceiling heights. The architectural divisions personalize the enormous area and provide a sense of smaller individual rooms. Decorative pendant groupings in a variety of sizes help to define the rooms. Fixtures ranging in size from 4 feet to 11 feet in diameter reinforce the modest to grand scale of the spaces. The primary decorative elements are the custom-designed luminous pendants throughout the lobbies, and the wall sconces at the Assembly Hall doors, which announce and mark the points of entry. The custom-designed cast glass petals of the 8-foot and 11-foot diameter pendant fixtures mirror the cast glass of the sconces. A secondary sconce style is used to mark the entrances to the restrooms.

The custom pendants and sconces incorporate compact fluorescent lamps for crisp white light and energy efficiency. Although these fixtures could adequately illuminate the space, dimmed incandescent downlights were added for spatial modeling and warmth. The pendants and sconces also dim for varied lighting looks and added energy conservation.

For the Church's extensive art collection, a wall-mounted low voltage track system with cantilevered fixtures was designed to light the art without conflicting with the architectural elements in the ceiling and the decorative pendant fixtures. This flexible system enables the Church to modify the art lighting as the collection is rotated.

Main Hall (Auditorium)

The Main Hall has multiple lighting requirements: it functions as a worship space, a theatre, and a broadcast venue. It requires lighting for events, but also requires lighting for tours, setup of events, striking stage sets, and for maintenance. To meet each of these needs, the Hall is designed with two discrete architectural lighting systems. For special events such as General Conference and pageants, a dimmed incandescent downlight system provides the house lighting. For event setup, strike, and general maintenance, a switched metal halide downlight system is the workhorse lighting for house and stage. The metal halide system will be used the majority of the time because it is maintenance-friendly and energy-efficient.

The Hall is so large and the ceiling so high that large quantities of downlights are required for the dual systems in order to achieve the required light level of 25 footcandles. The extensive, repetitive downlight patterns were used to an ornamental advantage, and are arrayed in the ceiling in a necklace of lights.

It was a substantial challenge to introduce decorative lighting elements into the Main Hall. "We felt that decorative lighting was crucial to bring some feeling of intimacy to a hall of this size," said Patty Glasow. Due to the stringent theatre and broadcast lighting requirements, nothing could be suspended in the space that might interfere with the theatrical/broadcast lighting. In addition, the relatively low ceiling heights under and over the balconies, 12 feet to 30 feet, and the potential for obstructing sightlines, precluded the possibility of suspending pendants or chandeliers in those areas.

The ceiling itself became the dominant decorative feature. Low voltage custom-designed incandescent accent lights concealed within ceiling coves highlight vertical wood grills, creating a warm rhythm on the vast ceiling. Wood grill wall panels are similarly accented with light.

The most prominent decorative lighting fixtures in the Hall are tall, thin wall sconces decorated with gold leaf, which provide scale and ornamentation to the space. The sconces are built into the side walls of the audience chamber. Each sconce is 11 inches wide by 9 feet high at the balcony, and 13 inches wide by 32 feet high in the main audience chamber. The finish is gold leaf over fiberglass. A low voltage light strip concealed in a custom channel mounted in front of each sconce illuminates the gold leaf.

The five foot diameter recessed dome lights at the back cross aisles are a departure from conventional downlights. They provide soft and diffuse illumination, as well as decoration, in the circulation zone. The acrylic diffusers have a faux finish painted to emulate alabaster. Because the dome lights are never intended to be dimmed off, this is the one area in the Hall where a fluorescent source is used. Although fluorescent lamps can dim to an acceptably low level, when starting from the off position they visibly pop on, which would not be acceptable in a typical theatre. The fluorescent lamps provide substantial energy savings.

Included in the program for the Hall is the requirement for the lighting control to respond to a variety of large and small events. The space is divided into a series of software-configurable lighting zones. Dividing the lighting in this way allows sections of the Hall to be dimmed based upon seating arrangement: the balcony and/or terrace can be dimmed off when not in use. The metal halide system is also zoned to allow for switching of selected areas.

The Proscenium Theatre

The 911-seat Proscenium Theatre is located in the northwest corner of the Conference Center building and will be used for training, performances, and Church-sponsored events. The custom lighting fixture design in the Proscenium Theatre and Lobby is more elaborate and dramatic than in the Assembly Hall and its adjacent lobbies. Although the design theme of lobby pendants, audience chamber recessed sconces, and grazing of the side wall panels is repeated in the Proscenium Theatre, the designs for each of these elements are more festive.

The use of the Proscenium Theatre as a training facility required that the general lighting system provide 35 footcandles in the audience chamber, an unusually high level for a theatre. The quantity of audience chamber downlights was increased to meet these demands. The additional downlights were mounted off the theatrical catwalks so they wouldn't add visible hardware and more holes in the ceiling. The supplemental downlights are used when needed for training events.

The lighting control system has 608 dimmers, the majority of which are for stage lighting. It is integrated with the building-wide Ethernet-based lighting control network.

The Exterior

The exterior lighting for the Conference Center is treated like the lighting for an urban park in the grand tradition of great public places. Decorative custom-designed pole fixtures provide general lighting for the grand plazas, site perimeter and circulation areas. The general lighting illuminates the hardscape and building. The emphasis of the lighting is on the built environment, so the landscape is revealed by the general lighting of the hardscape and reflected light from the building.

The color of the light was an important consideration in the lighting design. Although the pole fixtures use a metal halide lamp with a warm color temperature, the source was determined not to be warm enough. The color temperature was further corrected by straw-color filters applied to the inside of each lantern lens. The orchestra and terrace level arcades are illuminated with incandescent downlights, creating a warm perimeter at each entry to the building. The arcades and entrances are marked with large, luminous incandescent wall sconces. The incandescent arcades provide a smooth transition to the interior of the building, which uses a combination of warm fluorescent and incandescent sources.

The east and north sides of the building, fronting onto residential areas, step back from the street in rows of heavily-planted terraces that climb to the full height of the building. The rough broken ashlar walls of the terraces are illuminated with low wattage fluorescent floodlights concealed in the planting beds. The floodlights subtly reveal the stepping of the terraces and the texture of the stone walls while silhouetting the foliage in the planters.

The areas at the perimeter of the building, the stairs, balconies, and roof top, are illuminated with low level lighting that does not impede views of the Salt Lake City Temple, the city or the mountains. Feature lighting includes the illumination of the water elements and the internal illumination of the exhaust tower lanterns flanking the grand waterfall.


AUERBACH POLLOCK FRIEDLANDER Press Release