Out on the Town week 9

I visited the Irvine Spectrum for this assignment. It was a great place to go because the Spectrum really reaches out to a wide audience. It advertises itself, not just for its shopping, but its atmosphere. There are even pos

ters suggesting what a great date place the Spectrum can be to UC Grads that can't dance (not a problem for the grad students in this class). The dynamic outreach of the Spectrum is really reflected in its lighting design and many lighting fixtures. It serves as a fun, romantic, entertaining, and classy location. The palm trees are lit with warm hues. There is excitement in the use of grand scale. The Spectrum really plays with levels. Lights are imbedded in the floor. There are street lamps that suggest a midnight stroll. The palm trees reach even higher with the

light pouring onto their greenery above. On top of the warm tones that flood most of the walk, there is a great use of purple hues. There is a mix of magic and romance between the ambers and the purples. In the combination of these hues and variety of light fixtures, the spectrum reaches out to enterta

in and enchant. I did not display a picture of the light posts that line the walk from the parking structure, but I did attach a photo of one of the other fixtures from the Spectrum above. You can see that the fixture has a fabric of mirrors. At night, the light catches the mirrors and shimmers in a really beautiful way, which adds to the majestic atmosphere. I think as a shopping center that advertises itself as a place for friends and couples to mingle, the Spectrum did a great job by combining sophisticated, classy, and warm lighting with some really exiting purple hues and dazzling light fixtures.

I then visited a store by the name Customize. It is a very urban, cool, edgy, hip store. I found that they were not only creative in the design of their store, the lay out, and general interior design, but in terms of lighting. Along the walls they had vertical strips of light emerge just enough to add highlight to displ

ayed merchandise. The lights were innovative, but functional. There is a lot of down light that adds a lot

of warmth and made it easy to see everything even though the light was n

ot all even. Yet, unlike other shops that flood the shop with light, Customize used down lights and accent lights as mentioned earlier. Plus, all the light fixtures really created a cohesive feeling that matched their audience and store design. The light quality matched that of urban construction lights and there was also a warm glow to the store. The fixtures were all steel and silver. Part of the store had a sunroof that emulated being in a building under construction so that there was a mix of natural light and construction light.

Altogether, the renovated urban style of the store was really conveyed through their artsy design and use of such lighting and creative accent fixtures.

The next picture is not a store, but a restaurant. I took a quick visit to the Yard House because as I was walking the lighting of the restaurant from outside pulled me in. Yard House is a classy dine out experience mixed with the atmosphere of a sports bar. The atmosphere is dark, textured, and elegant. I would actually go as far as to say the Yard House lighting design is very close to that of Cheesecake Factory in the sense that there are pools of light that fall onto the tables, light is intricately designed on the ceiling, the lighting fixtures are classy and creative, and the colors are warm. Yard House's light is a harsher amber. It really brings out the colors in the dark wood of the architecture and tables. Yard House, as a classier sports bar and restaurant, sells itself as a more refined dining experience and a place of classic Rock. It is intimate and, like the music, classic. The pools of light on each table isolate each dining experience. There is an overall warmth to this darkly lit restaurant. It glows. As a restaurant selling itself for its classic rock, American food, and great style, Yard House did a great job of capturing a cultivated, warm, and elegant sense of lighting through its design.