The notable and recognizable John Hancock Center, with its stunning crown of light, has amazed and entertained Chicago residents and visitors for years. One of the most famous buildings in the structural expressionist style, the John Hancock Center’s distinctive X-braced exterior displays the structure’s casing as part of its tubular system.
The building’s crown features high-power Pixel Graze LED fixtures from Acclaim Lighting. These fixtures produce a bold, quad-color spectrum that enables the building to colorfully highlight unique events, activities, and causes—from holidays and the change of the seasons to supporting various charities and wearing the colors of Chicago sports teams.
“As an iconic building along the Chicago waterfront, the John Hancock Center’s lighting change is easily noticed globally thanks to the beautiful schemes produced by this efficient and energy-saving solution,” says Marc Pilipuf, owner and principal of PG Enlighten, in Westmont, Ill., and a manufacturer representative for Acclaim Lighting. “Transitioning from the past to the future was more pronounced on this building than on other projects. These compact LED fixtures really provide a noticeable change with best-in-class color mixing and saturation. It was a real jump in technology.”
The lighting fixtures offer easy color changes, operating remotely under the guidance of the PG Enlighten control system. Acclaim Lighting offers its clients a unique combination of lighting and controls combined with a personalized approach to meet specialized design and specification needs.
“We knew Pixel Graze was ideal for the Crown of Lights because of its unique quad chip that delivers bright pixel control,” says Lisa Bernacchi, specification specialist at PG Enlighten.
Pixel Graze is a high-power indoor/outdoor LED fixture with quad-color spectrum or dynamic white options. It features a compact profile—its multiple control options, including pixel control, round out a set of features that offer options for any structure requiring indoor or outdoor linear grazing.
The John Hancock Center’s lighting system includes 160 LED Pixel Graze fixtures — 88 of which are 1 foot long and 72 of which are 4 feet long. Fixtures are located in cabinets above the 98th floor. The system’s Art 500 controller, also from Acclaim Lighting, is located in the engineer’s office on the 16th floor. It’s designed to be an effective control solution for architectural lighting control with an easy navigation system.
The John Hancock Center has the option of 50 different scenes, all available at the touch of switch, which has had a positive, major effect on the local community. The lighting can now keep up with all the activities of the magnificent city around it.
