Spyscape

Lighting Designer: Lighting Workshop
Architect: David Adjaye Associates
Photograph: Scott Frances / OTTO

Lighting Illuminates The Dark World of Espionage at Spyscape

The Client
Spyscape is an exciting new contemporary museum in Midtown Manhattan that illuminates the mysterious world of espionage with the subtle, yet dramatic effects of LED lighting. USAI Lighting’s robust technology provides the capabilities to address the museum’s current design needs and the versatility to change lighting as the exhibit evolves.

The museum is another innovative feat with architecture, interiors, and experience designed by architect, David Adjaye, and exhibit lighting designed by Lighting Workshop. Filled with stories of deception, gadgets and a series of “Spy Challenges,” the visitor is treated to an interactive personal journey that’s designed to test their covert skills and determine what role they would be best suited for. Part of the adventure of exploring the museum is feeling thoroughly immersed in a world of enigmatic intrigue that straddles both the physical and digital world. “Lighting plays a large role in creating this dramatic experience, producing a range of emotions from discomfort to disorientation to levity,” explains Principal at Lighting Workshop, Steven Espinoza.

The Challenge
The museum’s 60,000 square foot space houses seven high-tech galleries dedicated to deception, encryption, surveillance, hacking, cyber warfare and special ops. The surveillance gallery is the nerve center of the operation, centrally located and dynamically illuminated by USAI Lighting. An imposing large cylindrical steel drum structure, with a towering 360 degrees projection of live pre-recorded surveillance footage engulfs the viewers as it casts its own luminous glow in a dark, ominous space.

As a focal point, it is an unsettling reminder to visitors that we are always being watched – setting a tone for the room. Espinoza explains when designing, the challenge was to maintain the extreme darkness in the room yet create tight beams of light to highlight spy memorabilia.

The Solution
Using USAI Lighting’s BeveLED 2.1 Infinite Color+ LED recessed downlights, with its small aperture, tight beam spread, strong lumen output, black alzac trim and precise tunability, helped achieve a quiet footprint with a 1% ethereal glow. This approach met the needs of the difficult design challenge by lighting the glass cases with pinpoint beam spreads that maintains darkness, while simultaneously creating drama and keeping all eyes on the main feature of the exhibit – the surveillance projection. Circling the perimeter of the weathered metal drum, a series of Infinite Color+ LED light fixtures are programmed to match outdoor natural light to create a different experience from day to night. With USAI Lighting’s proprietary technology, lighting designers were able to reach beyond the typical white light and present a very curated experience to visitors that can be altered as the exhibit changes over time.