MARION OLIVER MCCAW HALL

How Many Lighting Designers Does It Take To …?

The Seattle Opera, home to the Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Seattle Opera has reopened as Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Improvements to the $127 million facility include a dramatic new transparent lobby, monumental, landscape lighting-artwork, renovation of the 2,900-seat auditorium, and a new Café and Donor Rooms. A collaborative effort between three lighting specialists defined the differing roles of a lighting designer. Each approach required sensitivity and understanding to integrate the varied scopes: the artwork, architectural lighting, and theatrical lighting. The collaboration involved Leni Schwendinger Light Projects Ltd., Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design, and Schuler & Shook, Inc. LMN Architects was the orchestrator of this fine balancing act.

Throughout the project, the team maintained an awareness of each other's needs and created an atmosphere of collaboration where sensitivity to others' work was a key goal. In the case of the promenade artwork, Horton Lees Brogden worked with Leni Schwendinger Light Projects Ltd. and designers at LMN Architects to ensure that the architectural lighting of the interior of the transparent lobby was integrated with the art lighting, which weaves in and out of the building. For the interior of the auditorium, the subtly balanced architectural lighting allows the prominent theatrical lighting of the stage and the stage velvet curtain by Schuler & Shook, Inc. to captivate the audience.

Art, Architectural, and Theatrical lighting have worked together to create cohesiveness for the lighting design of Marion Oliver McCaw Hall - one that blends the line between the exterior and interior for the patron and casual visitor. The Hall is an example of the evolving roles of the lighting designer and how these roles can overlap successfully while working within the same building and in complex environments.

We invite your readers to learn more about the brainstorming sessions, long-distance sketches and other collaborative devices that were used to make this a successful project.