An office building in downtown Jacksonville, Florida, has become a backdrop of the city due to an exterior lighting makeover. VyStar Credit Union purchased the building in 2019, moving its headquarters from a suburban location. While completing interior upgrades, there was a chance to transform the exterior with lighting.
David Laffitte, an independent consultant, was brought into the project by RS&H as the lead lighting consultant. Retired from RS&H, he had been the original design architect of the building when it was constructed in 1989.
The existing lighting consisted of a series of white metal halide floodlights. VyStar’s corporate color is blue, so the concept was to create bold lines of blue light on the upper floors to showcase the building.
"My goal was to create an even wash of blue light that would be visible across the St. John’s River,” says Laffitte. "I was looking for luminaires that could provide a high-intensity color and uniform illumination."
In consultation with Paul Vranesh, specification sales executive at ASI Lighting, the team selected the 8200 Monochromatic Blue floodlights and Hyline501 Monochromatic Blue linear floodlights by Hydrel, a brand within the Acuity Brands Lighting and Controls portfolio.
With balconies at differing heights, one of the challenges was that each level required a different number of fixtures and varying optics. Vranesh worked through several mockups on Acuity Brands’ visual lighting design software to determine how the Hydrel luminaires could be installed to produce consistent lines of light on each level.
Jacksonville experiences very wet and humid weather throughout the year, with daily rains in the summer. So, the lighting design team knew that the durable design, corrosion-resistant finish, and IP67 rating of both fixtures would stand up to the demanding Florida environment over the long term.
