For this historic commercial property along Manhattan’s storied Park Avenue, the owners’ most important challenge was to preserve and enhance the quality and quantity of light—no small feat given that the property spanned two city blocks. For years, the grand Atrium of the building was illuminated with 300 PAR 56, 400-watt Metal Halide and 500-watt PAR 56 halogen lamps that hung at various heights, from 30-50 feet. Additionally, many of these lamps were part of a large 9-cell suspended parabolic fixture that was open on the top. These challenges made finding a retrofit solution difficult—but the tremendous operational and utility costs of the existing lighting system drove the owners’ agent and a national retrofit company to look for less costly alternatives.
For more than 15 years, we have represented the Los Angeles, Calif.-based Janmar Lighting, and often use their energy-efficient products to craft solutions to the most difficult retrofits. This project was no exception: turning to the Janmar Logic 6 System, we installed 39-, 70-, and 150-watt, T-based electronic metal halide lamps with multiple beam spreads. With an average rated life of 15,000 hours and a per-fixture wattage reduction of more than 3,500 watts, the lamps provided optimal light quality and quantity, satisfying operational and architectural requirements—and saving the customer $225,000 per year.
