Lighting Design Strategies Help Bridge the Divide between Comfort and Efficiency in Commercial Properties
Companies are rethinking the office environment, investing more in resilient and collaborative spaces, sustainability and wellness, and creative touches that communicate company culture.
When transforming that vision into reality—whether it is a renovation, fit-out, or new building—lighting systems play a vital role. Light control is essential to creating welcoming spaces that support employee-centric design and meet or exceed building codes.
We’ll take an in-depth look at how the team at BlackRock used innovative light, shade, and control strategies to maximize comfort and create a vibrant, collaborative, and productive environment with these four design goals in mind:
- Consolidate employees in a single New York City location to encourage collaboration and emphasize a unified culture
- Establish an inclusive work environment that prioritizes employee well-being and comfort
- Create an adaptive space that will serve BlackRock’s needs today and, in the future
- Prioritize energy reduction, limit material waste, and achieve LEED Platinum certification
Prioritize Collaboration and Flexibility
Reimagining BlackRock’s New York headquarters started with a vision to co-locate 4,000 New York City employees from their separate buildings into a single, modern, 1 million-square-foot headquarters—with iconic views and desirable amenities—in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards Development. The lighting control system was an immediate focus since lighting, daylight, and shading impacted every aspect of the 15-story space.
Inspired by New York City, architects at NBBJ approached the design as a scaled-down urban plan that balances group workspace and focus areas, mirroring the city’s gathering places and private retreats. Each “cityscape” had to work independently and within the comprehensive plan while being easily replicated from floor to floor.
Common across floors is an integrated lighting and shading solution designed to draw natural light deep into the space and make the most of the building’s floor-to-ceiling windows. Glare—always a design consideration—was especially challenging on the BlackRock project since, in addition to standard sun glare, the proximity of other glass-facade buildings causes sunlight to reflect into the space at unusual angles throughout the day.
In a space intended for a lifetime of use, the lighting system needed to easily accommodate flexibility while delivering innovative performance over time. Beyond gathering people together in a physical space, the building design fosters connection, eschewing perimeter offices to democratize daylight and encouraging employees to interact and collaborate throughout the space, whether gathering in the massive auditorium, holding meetings in huddle rooms, catching up in the employee pantries, or stopping at the oculus overlooking the main stairwell.
With this goal in mind, lighting designer Stephen Margulies, partner at One Lux Studio, designed an innovative, cloud-connected, wireless lighting solution that utilizes individual fixture control throughout the space. This kind of granular control enables wireless flexibility in each fixture and facilitates the integration of automated shades into the lighting system while saving closet space and installation time.
Consider the Way Light Impacts Every Space
The BlackRock team also embraced the power of dynamic light to improve the indoor environment. Tunable white lighting was installed throughout the open office areas and programmed to change with the time of day to support the occupants’ daily routines.
Stephen Margulies describes the organic transitions and their impact on the space: “You don’t notice it changing because it happens over time. We have four triggers throughout the day starting with the ‘morning’ scene as the offices open, fading to ‘afternoon’ at noon, and then to ‘evening’ half an hour before sunset. The ‘nighttime scene’ is triggered when they shut this place down, which might happen at 10 or 11:00 at night. These scenes draw that natural-feeling light deeper into the floorplate, so everyone works under light that feels right—whether they have a window seat or not.”
In tandem with the programmed lighting scenes, automated shades on all windows adjust automatically throughout the day, preserving access to city views while minimizing uncomfortable glare and solar heat gain. An important plus is that the shades move quietly and in unison, avoiding aesthetic distractions inside and outside the space.
Plan for the Future
Choosing wireless technology proved a crucial investment for ensuring performance, flexibility, and efficiency. Individual fixture control installed directly into the more than 9,000 LED fixtures further enables the lighting to be easily rezoned and reprogrammed with no rewiring required.
Barry Novick, technology strategist at BlackRock, emphasized why this is such an important design consideration: “We’ve already gone through changing business needs, and the lighting control component has been seamless. We just reprogrammed the wireless switch on the walls and the fixtures … and it’s really been wonderful. This project changed the norm for what people expect from a lighting control system. It sets the bar higher.”
The wireless solution made a significant impact on the job throughout the process—simplifying installation, saving labor, and lowering materials costs. The lighting design included a broad mix of downlights, linear luminaries, and pendants, all of which were delivered with the individual fixture controls pre-installed, resulting in tremendous flexibility and the ability to provide actionable energy and occupancy data while maintaining an uncluttered ceiling.
Service and Support Can Be a Game Changer
Beyond system design and installation, success can depend on getting exemplary service and support from initial design through installation and beyond. Look for manufacturing partners with proven wireless expertise, a commitment to caring for the client, and uncompromising support.
Barry Novick emphasizes their providers were critical to BlackRock’s confidence in the project’s success, and lighting played a key role: “We broke a lot of new ground in this building. Lighting control is one of the many areas.” The new, LEED-platinum-certified BlackRock headquarters exceeds expectations of comfort, efficiency, and flexibility while celebrating the people and honoring BlackRock’s quest for sustainable and future-forward solutions.
