New York’s ESI Design has made its name creating dazzling lighting and video installations around the world, from the illuminated signage at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center arena to an interactive multimedia pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. But when the task at hand is to revamp a landmarked 1960s Boston office tower designed by the firm of Pritzker Prize winner I. M. Pei, the job is not just to wow a crowd but to give a fresh, sensitive makeover to a Brutalist structure with very different programmatic goals from a sporting stadium or exhibition hall.

In partnership with Seattle-based architecture firm NBBJ, ESI took on this unique challenge, helping to devise a scheme to revive Pei’s 177 Huntington Avenue, currently owned by Beacon Capital, a real-estate investment company. Custom LED fixtures now grace the building’s concrete façade and several areas across its cavernous lobby, resulting in a series of humanly scaled spaces with a renewed sense of visual interest. Take the updated elevator bank, for example, where ribbonlike, 22-foot-tall, six-foot-wide LED displays present news and weather information to employees. It seems good lighting is the key to a fresher, more youthful look after all.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here