Parking Garage Makes Brilliant First Impression

The AC Hotel SouthPark located in Charlotte, NC was purposefully designed to allow busy travelers to relax, focus and connect with others in a sophisticated, European-inspired environment.

Crafting this experience for guests meant creating a refined hotel close enough to attractions as well as the airport. The designers intended to carry this experience all the way into the new parking structure, to ensure there was no compromise to the intended look and feel.

There are a variety of challenges in lighting a parking facility and finding the right balance is tricky business. Use too little lumens and incorrect IES distributions and the area can be extremely dangerous. Use too much light and glare and shadows become a significant issue. To be effective the lighting design needs to account for effective illumination of driver lanes, entrances, elevator banks and signage while minimizing spill light.

The construction team at Barringer Construction along with the architects at LS3P Associates consulted with TEAM Lighting on elements of the lighting design for the property. Knowing the parking garage would make a critical first impression, the team was looking to specify a fixture that would perform as needed without compromise – occupant safety and security is critical – but do so in a manner that was aesthetically pleasing. Since support beams were integrated into the design, the team was also looking to find a solution that would provide uplight that would avoid dark shadows on the ceiling.

The PGL8 from KIM Lighting was quickly identified as the ideal luminaire for this application. It features edge-lit drop lens technology to meet the performance challenges associated with parking garage applications including illumination of driver lanes, entrances, elevator banks, and signage without an overabundance of spill light.

The PGL8 is available with four distributions and six outputs up to 13,800 lumens providing effective solutions for meeting the dynamics and challenges of parking garage applications including IES recommendations. In this application the team elected to use the PGL8 with a Type V Square distribution, 4,000K CCT and 70 CRI. At 6,197 Lumens, this version of the PGL8 provides 116 Lumens per Watt.

The result is uniform, glare-free illumination across the entire footprint of the facility.

While performance was critical, the team was also impressed with the PGL8’s ability to complement the design aesthetic of the facility. PGL8 is also the only edge-lit drop lens parking garage luminaire to feature standard uplight, brightening the space and eliminating the “cave effect” found in many parking areas. It also features a smaller surface emission while maintaining a similar peak candela to other outdoor luminaires and with no visible hardware to diminish the sleek design of the luminaire.

The PGL8 is easily integrated into existing systems as a series of control options are available for tailored programming and meeting lighting code requirements. The fixture has been added to Marriott’s spec listing for consideration on future projects.