2019 IES Illumination Award: MGM COTAI, Macau

ILLUMINATION AWARD FOR OUTDOOR LIGHTING DESIGN
Award of Excellence

MGM COTAI, Macau

Designers: Kelly Stechschulte, Adam Winter, Tyler Ezell, Joseph Cazeno, Kelly O'Connor, Kevin Kelly, Pam Rodriguez, Bruce Powell, Sheila Kerr – Illuminating Concepts

The hotel's elegant exterior façade consists of eight stacked, cantilevering "jewel boxes" in an abstract sculptural form based on Chinese imagery. The design intent was to make the façade's silver, gold and copper powder-coated aluminum finishes stand out among the other highly-lit structures nearby. The challenge was to illuminate the façade's large surface area, with no setback to light from. The solution was to conceal customized lighting fixtures within the façade's decorative curtain wall mullions. Over 48,000 individual fixtures are integrated into the horizontal window mullions, lighting upward to highlight façade patterns. The lighting design team and manufacturer created two new fixture families: The first was a modification of an existing line voltage graze product to add DMX/RDM control and reduce power draw to meet energy restrictions, with 12 different optical distributions across three fixture lengths. The second was a new, high-output fixture with high-power LED emitters and narrow optics, enabling throw distances exceeding 30 ft from a 2-in. wide fixture. Each customized fixture features a unique address, allowing the system to monitor fixture health and flag fixtures for easy replacement. Through a combination of power supply tuning and discrete fixture control, the overall power load for the façade lighting was reduced more than 50%. The installation is the first private sector project to achieve China Green Building (Macau) Design Label Certification.

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