PHT LIGHTING DESIGN

The reception desk and lounge area of the Hyatt Herald Square had been severed from the daylight-filled entrance by an 18-foot-wide elevator core that occupied the middle of the lobby’s 32-foot-wide floor plate. Darkening it further were 10-foot ceilings at the entrance and two enclosed staircases on either side. 

 

A custom clerestory system that wraps around the perimeter of the lounge and behind a bar gives hotel guests the impression that the space was illuminated by way of natural light.

 

Built out of 4-inch-thick industrial glass blocks, the clerestory window tie into the interior design, which sought to elicit the area’s industrial history, a hub of both publishing (the neighborhood is named for the now-defunct New York Herald) and apparel and fashion.

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Dynamic white LEDs provide ambient light during the day that visitors no doubt subconsciously assume is somehow penetrating the 20-story building. Controlled by a dimming system, the LEDs transition from a cool 5000K during the day to a neutral 3500K around dusk and then to a warm 2700K at night. Thanks to an astronomical clock, the lighting also is synced to the seasonal changes in the times of sunrise and sunset.