Seattle Landmark Sees New Light

	"The new lighting will enable the arches to share the excitement of the Kraken hockey games with the entire Seattle area," says Will Daugherty, president and CEO of Pacific Science Center.

Given the excitement of the Seattle Krakens inaugural NHL season, the Pacific Science Center wanted to spruce up its venues as part of enhancements to the entire 74-acre Seattle Center entertainment complex featuring grounds and venues that support arts, cultural, sports, educational and tourism activities. The campus hosts more than 14,000 events annually, attracting millions of local residents and visitors from around the world.

With its origins dating back to 1962, the complex includes various buildings and architectural elements from the World's Fair, many of which remained to become well-known and beloved structures, such as the Space Needle, the United States Science Pavilion (now known as Pacific Science Center) and the iconic arches -- five, 132'-tall arches, situated on the primary north-south axis of Seattle Center and visible from multiple viewpoints around the city including from the Puget Sound.

Over the years, Seattle Center continued to grow, adding a sports arena and theatres, among other attractions. One of the most transformational projects was the redevelopment of the 1962 sports arena -- now named Climate Pledge Arena -- which took place between 2018 and 2021.

The newly renovated 800,000-sq.-ft. hockey and basketball arena doubled the size of the previous building while also becoming the first zero-carbon arena in the world. In addition to the arena itself, investments were made to increase energy efficiency in other surrounding Seattle landmarks while also adding excitement to the area as the city welcomed audiences back downtown following the COVID-19 pandemic.

To greet residents and guests to the area, a new, lighting system was added within the iconic arches. The 20 existing 700W color-changing flood lights used a 3,000-hour lamp that needed to be replaced every year. The new Acclaim Dyna Drum HO Color fixtures consume a Maximum of 250W with an L70 rating of 150,000 hours.

"The previous fixtures were state of the art when it was installed over 20 years ago. However, the fixtures and controls had failed, leaving the iconic structures dark outside of a few special events when rental equipment was provided. We wanted to provide the latest state-of-the-art replacements that would last well into the future and further enhance the capabilities of the controls."

To replace the antiquated technology, the Pacific Science Center wanted a state-of-the-art lighting system that delivered high output on very low energy, a precise color spectrum and the ability to easily choreograph display designs to welcome guests to the area. Also, integrated drivers were specified to avoid remote drivers to keep the installation clean and clutter-free.

After careful consideration of the lighting capabilities and energy-efficiency needs, Dyna Drum HO Color high-output LED floodlights from Acclaim Lighting were selected to illuminate each of the five arches. The lights feature an internal 100-277VAC power supply and onboard DMX+RDM driver, plus, the quad color chip provides superior color mixing and saturation over single source LED fixtures. It comes with a narrow 10° beam standard, with optional quick-change spread lenses for wider applications.

"Our Spectrum Four Technology offers more usable colors, including pastels, dedicated whites, and dynamic white options, all in the same system to provide infinite display options," says Michael Giardina, general manager for Acclaim Lighting. "This provides opportunities to showcase not only the Seattle Kraken NHL hockey team colors and themes but also create custom lighting displays to increase visibility for other organizations, causes, and issues."

The new system will enable functionality for pre-game lighting displays, as well as choreographed displays designed in collaboration with the Kraken to share the energy inside Climate Pledge Arena.

Haas said, "With the request to tie in the lighting to the new Climate Pledge Arena and the Kraken, we worked in collaboration with AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Pharos Controls to create a live link to home game scoring that triggers a special look when the team scores. The trigger is activated over a LAN connection in which AWS pushes a trigger command to Pharos. The advanced capabilities of Pharos Controls made it the obvious choice for this request."

"An additional Pathway Connectivity Network Switch and RDM Hub were added for network connection and to allow a third-party console to take control for events under the arches such as weddings, corporate events, summer camps, and other special activities."

"The new lighting will enable the arches to share the excitement of the Kraken hockey games with the entire Seattle area," says Will Daugherty, president and CEO of Pacific Science Center. "No matter where fans and residents are around the city, they can celebrate and look to the arch lights for a sense of community."

Just like in hockey, the design team scored a hat trick -- accomplishing three key goals of the project. In addition to creating a high-impact, dynamic lighting presentation and creating engagement with the entire city, the new Dyna Drum HO LED floodlights from Acclaim Lighting have reduced energy usage by more than 80%, thus meeting the city's goals for sustainability.