Constructed in 1967 to celebrate Canada’s 100th anniversary, the Calgary Centennial Planetarium remains an excellent example of brutalist architecture now revitalized as a contemporary arts gallery. The lighting design judiciously highlights the original exterior heritage structure while bringing focus to the new entry plaza as a public gathering space. Interior lighting provides clean, modern, and flexible lighting solutions to provide the art gallery a solid infrastructural base from which to work. Specialty lighting is provided in areas with significant architectural features such as the dome theatre’s 3D illumination effect through the offset scrim.

Serving as the flagship library within the city, Calgary’s New Central Library is designed to emphasize the interplay between daylight and architecture. A chinook-inspired illuminated archway leads to the building’s entry, where flowing wood-clad architecture surrounds a skylight-topped atrium. Sloped walkways border the atrium, rising from ground to top. Exterior walls, clad in a honeycomb pattern of opaque, translucent and transparent glazing allow light to travel through while offering levels of visibility and privacy.

To enhance the connection to the library’s location, the design approach embraced the ever-changing Southern Alberta sky. Lighting was kept discreet, supporting the daylight throughout while featuring Calgary’s dynamic natural light as key light.

Linear luminaires suspended amongst acoustic baffles provide ambient lighting, while lines of recessed lighting trace exterior walls. Feature lighting denotes distinctive spaces – areas requiring lighting as unique as the as the spaces themselves.

Elsewhere, fixtures are placed above areas requiring illumination, including shelving-integrated lighting for the stacks and stairways lit by LED-integrated handrails. The integration of the lighting into the handrails creates a pleasantly warm surface, adding to the welcoming experience.

All lighting within the building is connected to a network system which allows for complete automatic control. The automatic lighting control system can be reprogrammed as needed, maintaining light levels regardless of time and weather.

The multi-award-winning union of century-old and modern architecture is the site of a community hub designed with inspiration in mind from top to bottom and old to new. Envisioned as a place to concentrate local artists and assemble them to challenge, sharpen and inspire each other. The facility is a testament to the design team’s creativity, offering users the supportive freedom to create.

The lighting design is intended to inspire and push boundaries: with art as the focus, thin patterns of light were incorporated directly into various installations. Existing historic elements have been re-purposed throughout in an innovative modern manner: magnetic fixtures originally created ‘off spec’ for a nuclear power plant were re-purposed as ultra-adaptable spot lights, and the original boiler room doors now lie on display within the floor illuminated by colour changing linear lights.

Inspired by antique museum specimen trays and mosaic panels that previously adorned the building, the interior design of this museum gift shop is a modern merchandising system allowing endless display combinations. A palate of whitewashed plywood was used with a compliment of colors and finishes that allow the retail team to play and evolve the store over time.

Following suit, the lighting design intent was to support the impression of specimen trays, outlining larger cells within the millwork with recessed strip-lighting: Allowing reconfiguration as the lighting supports all kinds of item sizes and arrangements – popping them off the muted background like the inspirational specimens in their trays. Elsewhere, previously-existing track and downlighting adds focused and ambient lighting.

Consisting of nine, five-storey, interlocking towers, Studio Bell is a striking feature in Calgary’s East Village. The architecturally-designed contours of this building limited locations for mounting luminaires, leading to the strategy of bouncing light into and around the space from discrete locations: these reflections allowed light to travel further into spaces on both vertical and horizontal plains. Throughout the National Music Centre, the lighting seems to come from everywhere and nowhere; highlighting key focus areas while supporting visual comfort.

Located in the heart of the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, the Rundle Bar and Lounge originally served as the hotel lobby from 1928 to 2000. Now the main bar in the Castle, the lounge features a two-storey bar display with rolling library ladder, a cocktail space on the mezzanine floor, dedicated stage, and an expansive private room on the main floor.

The design intent for the lighting was to support and enhance the existing architecture of the space, creating a contemporary analogue of what it might have looked like a hundred years ago. The design team kept the fixtures discreet, matching the colour temperature throughout the space and creating the illusion of the feature lighting being the only source of light. The architectural lighting subtly shapes user’s perceptions, drawing the eye to the arches and height of the ceiling.

To welcome a cozy feeling back into the space, Dim-to-Warm luminaires were used for ambient light and lamp sources, recreating the lighting behaviour expected in the historic locale, and adding the warm and luxurious atmosphere associated with the Castle in the Rockies.

Embracing its location within Canada’s oldest National Park, the two-storey brewhouse features an open-concept main floor brewery and mezzanine kitchen bathed under the natural light provided by a retractable skylight. The wood-wrapped interiors feature Park regulars including wildlife statuettes, plant life, and a full-height live tree at the centre.

Working with the Design and Architecture teams, SMP’s lighting designers provided guidance for the custom lighting fixtures throughout, and an inconspicuous lighting design serving to support the open concept and provide for unencumbered appreciation of the nighttime sky and the surrounding natural world.

The newest addition to the University of Lethbridge’s campus, this future-thinking facility brings together eight different scientific disciplines along with meeting and outreach areas to facilitate cross-disciplinary research, support scientific innovation, and provide learning and outreach opportunities for users of all ages and knowledge levels. Built into the side of a sun-soaked hill overlooking the coulees, the building features floor to ceiling windows and full height interior glass walls to highlight the view and maximize the amount and reach of daylight to the space.

The architectural focus on transparency created challenges for the designers, as all luminares are visible from countless angles. To create a cohesive and consistent lighting design throughout the facility, luminares were carefully integrated with the architecture, including the seamless contoured lighting underneath the central staircase, rectilinear luminares that highlight gathering and meeting areas, as well as the simple yet striking suspended direct-indirect linear luminares; located both inside and outside offices and labs on each floor, these linear luminares have been aligned in parallel on either side of interior glass walls on all floors throughout the entire facility. This effective repetition of form breaks down any perception of divided space, creates intuitive wayfinding, and promotes collaboration between users of adjoining areas.

To meet the energy requirements for the project, close collaboration between the architectural, mechanical, and electrical design was required, including the use of multiple strategies to address the detailed lighting controls required. While the extensive glass in the building allows for daylight harvesting, the designers integrated occupancy sensors and time schedules for energy usage reduction along with local controls in occupied spaces to provide flexibility for visual comfort.

The facility is a celebration of science, providing delight and intrigue around every corner. The soft glow of the building invites exploration from researchers, students, faculty, and community members alike.

Located in Edmonton, the five-storey Productivity and Innovation Centre at NAIT features a large main atrium, modular lab and classroom spaces, café, and conference rooms. To meet the lighting needs of this uniquely-shaped large space, a band of high-performing linear uplighting inside the atrium’s glass walls helps illuminate the large volume of the space, with windows taking advantage of daylight. Illumination of the stairs is achieved through a combination of the ambient light in the atrium as well as select ‘lines of light’ recessed into the underside of key stairs.

The lighting design for the atrium was inspired by the night sky; the ceiling was addressed with small, point-source recessed downlights to evoke stars, while the organic shape of the raised ceiling recalls the shape of a cloud. This sense is emphasized by the colour-changing luminaires along the inside perimeter; typically set to NAIT’s signature blue hue, they can be tuned for different events – including a rainbow in June to recognize Pride Month. All together the atrium lighting helps to showcase the relationship between the changing prairie sky and city lights, enhancing the atrium’s connection to the outdoors.

Originally opened in 1910, the truss bridge - which connects downtown Calgary to neighboring communities - was due for a lighting upgrade. Considering the history of the bridge, especially its renaming to Reconciliation in 2018, CMLC saw an opportunity to develop a lighting program which recognizes and celebrates important Indigenous stories, history and culture.

The initial inspiration for the new lighting program came from the bridge’s structural form itself, and how it could best be revealed and showcased. Knowing how iconic and graphic the iron and steel truss looks when illuminated from behind in silhouette, we determined that locating the dynamic lights on the interior sides of the bridge structure would best provide this silhouetted glowing effect – akin to how an old gas lantern casts the shadows from its metal casing when lit.

Once we determined the method of illumination, we began envisioning how the dynamic lighting sequences would interact with the structure and what sort of thematic expression could be produced. This process led us to some high-level decisions around pacing and directionality for the lighting to flow; for instance, most lighting sequences change in a North to South pattern as that moves with the flow of traffic for which the bridge is most commonly used.

Lastly, the specific colours and patterns of the lighting sequences were heavily informed from our engagement sessions with the City of Calgary Indigenous Relations Office. The key moment was to focus on Indigenous stories and celebratory cultural elements; to find the happiness and the laughter. Although there are important sequences recognizing the solemn and tragic experiences of the Indigenous People, these were not to be the foundational elements of design. The new lighting program will regularly cycle through lighting sequences that mark changes in the seasons, the lunar cycle, and special events and occasions.

The Glenmore Dam rehabilitation required the 1933 structure to be torn down to the waterline and then rebuilt following the 2013 floods. Originally carrying ¼ of the infrastructure for Calgary’s drinking water and electricity across the top of the dam, a new tunnel was created to house the equipment and give the Art Deco heritage structure a new pedestrian-friendly walkway across the top, complete with a gorgeous view of downtown.

Designed to emphasize the heritage structure while creating a safe and welcoming pedestrian experience, the lighting design team approached the large project scale by addressing the dam’s repeating elements (bays, arches, pedestrian areas, and work zones), considering the lighting needs for each, and blending with the need for a cohesive visual experience for all user groups. The design team chose mounting positions and lighting colour temperatures to showcase the heritage elements and increase the visual interest and theatricality of the dam at night.

Situated on the border between Calgary’s East Village and downtown proper, this softly lit urban park provides a comfortable and modern pedestrian environment balanced with the immediate proximity of a major LRT line that defines the park’s west edge. The square is surrounded by sweeping angular wooden benches that glow from beneath to provide comfortable reflected illumination throughout.

The park’s defining feature is “The Veil”, an artistic installation of twisting forms lit from within that follows the LRT track. When the sun sets, the Veil’s presence transforms with internal illumination. As LRT trains approach, the sculptures reveal their link to sensors along the rail line and display a smooth flow of light along the sculptures as the train passes. This physical gesture flows through the site, providing a unique visual connection and boundary between the park and the city core.

The home of Calgary’s original lawn bowling club, Thomson Family Park had become derelict, with dark overgrown areas that provided a haven for illicit activities. Tasked with using light to revive a sense of safety and community, the lighting designers brought in multiple elements to create a welcoming twenty-four-hour neighbourhood hub.

To showcase the site’s urban history, eliminate dark areas, and attract public usage no matter the time, ambient lighting was provided through luminaires mounted under benches and architectural features. Paying tribute to the original lawn bowling club, the caternary lighting system over the lawn was restored as the wire-suspended luminaires possess a heritage aesthetic and provide the perfect soft illumination for the grassy square below.

The new eighty-meter Elbow River pedestrian bridge was a necessary expansion for Calgary’s Parks and Pathway network, alleviating congestion on surrounding pathways. The City of Calgary has strict guidelines regarding lighting design for the pedestrian and cyclist’s bridge, so there is a balance in achieving illumination levels that create a safe and secure environment.

The subtle illumination of the bridge structure adds to the experience of the shoreline pathways. As the bridge is adjacent to wildlife and waterfowl, the lighting is designed to minimize any effect on nocturnal activities. No uplighting component was utilized to ensure Dark Sky compliance.

The largest facility operated by the YMCA in the world at 330,000 ft2, this YMCA provides recreational leisure and cultural amenities, as well as competitive sport features. The facility has many different program areas that require varying approaches to the lighting design. Careful attention was paid to selecting the proper fixture for each application in coordination with the architectural interiors group; stringent requirements for competitive sports were met while maintaining the aesthetic integrity of the lighting design for the facility as a whole. In the swimming pool area, direct illumination to meet FINA requirements was added while indirect lighting on the white curving fabric ceilings creates gentle ambient light that mimics daylight filtering through clerestory windows.

Throughout the facility, the lighting design was intended to emphasize the architecture and unique features of the space while maintaining illumination levels for all users. In the atrium, (pictured left) luminaires suspended between ceiling panels highlight the suspended bird sculptures, while in the entry (pictured on the front cover), a large statement piece of inter-suspended rings softly glows above the grand staircase, creating a memorable impression on entering the space.

Situated in the middle of a natural park, this 283,640 ft2 facility is a full-service community hub, home to sports facilities, child minding areas, and cultural amenities including a library, an art studio and gallery area, and a 300-seat theatre.

Designed to integrate smoothly with the landscape, the YMCA features a curving roofline designed to mimic a chinook cloud. This created an intriguing challenge for SMP’s lighting designers in providing appropriate illumination levels for multiple user groups while following and enhancing the ceiling’s graceful lines. Mounted on stems of even length, the suspended fixtures were calculated to minimize hotspots and glare while supporting the warm, organic feeling of the space. Different lighting zones are separately controlled to provide flexibility.