GE Lamps illuminate Beijing plaza

Beijing has become a hot spot for avant-garde architecture as the world pays more attention to the city´s building boom. Many of the world´s great architects have bold structures sprouting all over the city, with such descriptive nicknames as the bird´s nest, twisted doughnut and eggshell. Even surrounded by such ultra-modern marvels, the New Poly Plaza in Beijing stands tall as a bold landmark building. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), it is recognized as one of the most innovative architectural designs in the world. The building incorporates 24 stories of office space built around a 90m tall atrium enclosed by the world´s largest cable-net-supported glass wall.

The challenge for lighting designers was to enhance the magnificence of the building and ensure it would stand out as a distinctive addition to the city´s nighttime landscape, while combining traditional Chinese culture and modern technology with energy efficient lighting.

Beijing Hao Er Sal Lighting Engineering chose GE Consumer & Industrial to help meet its ambitious lighting objectives. The lighting design firm wanted to highlight a number of interesting architectural features, such as yellow stone walls at the front of the building that form a ´triumphal arch´, vertical stone layered windows and an open brass curtain wall that represents the more traditional Chinese culture.

Luminaires with GE 400W and 1000W Lucalox high-pressure sodium lamps highlight the ´triumphal arch´ of the yellow stone walls. The lamps are carefully aimed to minimize light pollution. On the west and south facades, the vertical stone-layered windows and brass curtain wall presented an unusual lighting design opportunity. The lighting designers used waterproof and dustproof luminaires with GE 28W T5 Starcoat Ecolux 2700 K lamps, a product of ecomagination. The luminaires with GE fluorescent lamps create a textured look that is energy efficient and visually striking.

"The GE T5 Starcoat Ecolux lamps offer outstanding light quality with high lumens per watt for high output and high energy efficiency," says Mary Beth Gotti, manager of the GE Lighting & Electrical Institute, GE Consumer & Industrial.