Category:
Venues (club or lounge)

Design team:

• Marty Peck, Creative Lighting Design & Engineering, Lighting Design
• Hnedak Bobo Group, Architect
• Staff Electric, Gilbane Construction and Doug MacDonald, DesignLab Chicago, Construction
• Philips Color Kinetics, Manufacturer

Installation Description

Potawatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee expanded its Menomonee Valley casino to give it a more contemporary design and attract a more urban crowd and younger clientele.

Design Objective

Younger crowds and a vast portion of the casino’s existing customer-base drive to the casino, the owners and design team therefore wanted to create a unique and memorable entry point for those entering from the expanded parking garage.

How Did They Do It?

The lighting and architectural design firms of Creative Lighting Design & Engineering and Hnedak Bobo Group collaborated to create a 62’x123’ “Welcome Wall” made of aluminum and etched glass panels, which are illuminated by over 600 Philips LED light fixtures. The floor-to-roof entry energetically welcomes Potawatomi’s guests and is a focal point for the renovated garage.

The Welcome Wall consists of 208 4’x8’ frosted glass panes with a 4’ cavity behind. For each pane, lighting designer Marty Peck specified one ColorBlastâ 12 Powercore, a wall-washing fixture that creates color-changing effects, to backlight the cavity. He also positioned two iColorâ MR g2 color-changing lamps on the back wall pointing towards the glass pane. By combining ColorBlast 12 Powercore for wash lighting with the iColor MR g2 lamps for direct viewing, he created a unique look that allows for wide-ranging choreography and transitions. According to Peck, the “pixels” of light—created by the iColor MR g2 lamps—provide depth, while ColorBlast 12 Powercore washes the panes with colored light.

Using Light System Manager—an integrated software and hardware solution that allows for the management, authoring and control of effects—Peck created a variety of looks and effects for the Welcome Wall. Scenes range from environmental themes (e.g. fire with embers, rain, and lightning, stars and the northern lights) to the more abstract images (e.g. “the Matrix,” a time tunnel). All the effects are animated and dynamically transitioned or cross faded using Light System Manager.

Additionally, the bridge that conjoins the Welcome Wall and the parking structure uses 64 8’ iColorâ Accent Powercore fixtures, a linear LED-based “tube.” Positioned on the bridge’s ceiling, the fixtures run intricately designed effects that coordinate with the lighting show displayed on the Welcome Wall.

The Result?
The renovated Potawatomi Bingo Casino now attracts guests from all angles and adds plenty of glitz to the Milwaukee cityscape.

Selected Gear

• Philips/Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 Powercore
• Philips/Color Kinetics Data Enabler
• Philips/Color Kinetics iColor MR g2
• Philips/Color Kinetics PDS-70mr 24V
• Philips/Color Kinetics iColor Accent Powercore
• Philips/Color Kinetics Data Enabler EO
• PhilipsColor Kinetics Light System Manager