The Grand Plaza underwent an enormous transformation of the guest experience at the Anaheim Convention Center and its surrounding hotels. After extensive stakeholder input, the former throughway for taxis and buses was converted into a pedestrian mall reimagined into a unifying themed River of Light.
Grounded by large fountains on either end of the plaza, the river is a kinetic light work of art that simulates the flow of water and the sparkle of sunlight playing off its surface and represents the Santa Ana River - around which Anaheim was founded - flowing from the mountains to the sea.
The team developed modified versions of in-grade luminaries and implemented electronic theatre controls to assemble over 1,500channels of control. The result created a landscape of light that flows organically from one fountain to another, using almost 300 individually controlled luminaires to span the gap.
The two large fountains - The Mountain Fountain and The Ocean Fountain – are governed by the vast lighting system, including the RGB luminaires and the pumps and jets. The lighting design is LED, from fountain luminaires and pedestrian poles to the linear lighting integrated under the benches that flank the plaza, landscape luminaires, and floodlights providing ambient lighting.
Project Leader Eileen Thomas transformed a roadway into a pedestrian mall for the convention center and its hotel corridor. The artistic yet highly specialized engineering endeavor resulted in fountains cycling through multiple shows each evening, on the hour and the half-hour, with a sparkling, more “quiescent,” flowing river state in between. Pedestrian lighting achieved through tree-mounted luminaires with cut-off glare shields with luminaires mounted high enough on the trunks of the palm trees that uplighting is limited only to the canopies of the trees, minimizing light trespass into the night sky.
The tk1sc lighting and electrical design team delivered an epic scale lighting sculpture providing years of entertainment, flexibility, ease of maintenance, and energy conservation. The entire 160,000square-foot installation operates with less than 16,000 watts of light or just over 0.1 watts per square foot. This project has received international recognition for its lighting design excellence and the sophistication of the control systems, which integrate all lighting and water effects.
