NY Time's Full-Scale Lighting Tests

A Day In The Light, Metropolis, May 2004, describes the New York Time's full-scale mockup of a portion of a typical floor of their planned 51-story Manhattan high rise. The mockup is being used to evaluate numerous aspects of the design, including:

• office furnishings
• lighting and controls
• constructability
• user reactions to the space.

Evaluating lighting strategies is one of the mockup's primary and most interesting purposes. The 4300 sf mockup simulates the southwest corner of a typical office floor, the quadrant most affected by exposure to direct sunlight. Daylight control is accomplished with a combination of exterior shading elements and computer controlled motorized shades. Two control systems are being evaluated. One responds to ambient exterior lighting conditions analyzed in combination with a database of seasonal and time of day lighting information. The second system monitors and responds to interior lighting levels. Each of these daylight control systems is paired with one of two separate systems for controlling interior artificial light levels. Lighting data from the mockup is being recorded at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL) every 60 seconds around the clock, and the tests are being run from winter solstice to summer solstice to capture the fullest range of solar exposure conditions.

Since the mockup represents only one-sixth of a typical floor plate, lighting conditions for the remainder of the floor are being modeled in computer using LBNL's Radiance software. By synchronizing the computer model to the data coming from the mockup, results can be generated for the remainder of the floor with a high degree of confidence. Human factors surveys are also a part of the testing protocol.

Designed by Renzo Piano, the building will be located on Eight Avenue, between 40th and 41st Streets, in New York City.

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