The Willis Tower recently received an upgrade to its antenna lighting that allows one person to use a smartphone or computer to change the lighting color in a matter of seconds.
Previously, lighting changes meant a crew of two electricians had to journey to the 109th and 110th floors of the 1,729-foot tower and manually place color pallets over each light. The process could take up to four hours. When the lighting was no longer needed, the crew would need to remove the palettes by hand, as well.
Photo courtesy EQ Office.
See Also: Willis Tower elevators receive upgrade as part of $500 million update
It isn’t just the speed with which the colors can be changed that has been upgraded, but also the amount of colors available. The old technology could only display 12 colors. The new technology produces so many colors, some of them aren’t even detectable by the human eye. It can also light up each antenna with several color rings or animate up and down the antennas.
The LED lights emit 337,248 lumens and are expected to save the tower more than 70% in antenna-lighting energy costs.
Photo courtesy EQ Office.
See Also: $500 million investment will modernize Chicago’s Willis Tower
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Gold Award: Eisenhower Theater, Washington, D.C.
The Eisenhower Theater in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., opened in 1971. By the turn of the century, after three-plus decades of heavy use, the 1,142-seat box-within-a-box playhouse on the Potomac was starting to show its age. Poor lighting and tired, worn finishes created a gloomy atmosphere.
| Aug 11, 2010
AIA course: MEP Technologies For Eco-Effective Buildings
Sustainable building trends are gaining steam, even in the current economic downturn. More than five billion square feet of commercial space has either been certified by the U.S. Green Building Council under its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program or is registered with LEED. It is projected that the green building market's dollar value could more than double by 2013, to as muc...
| Aug 11, 2010
Let There Be Daylight
The new public library in Champaign, Ill., is drawing 2,100 patrons a day, up from 1,600 in 2007. The 122,600-sf facility, which opened in January 2008, certainly benefits from amenities that the old 40,000-sf library didn't have—electronic check-in and check-out, new computers, an onsite coffeehouse.