Prize(s) Honorable Mentions
Lighting Design/Product Company Anita Jorgensen Lighting Design
Lead Designers Anita Jorgensen
Other Designer's names Joseph Ballweg
Architecture Company Annabelle Selldorf and Beyer Blinder Belle Architects
Interior Design Company Stephen Saitas Designs, Exhibition Design
Client The Frick Collection
Photo Credits Joseph Coscia
Completion Date Spring 2025
Project Location 1 East 70th Street, New York, New York 10021
Entry DescriptionIn the freshly renovated Frick Collection, the visitor experiences the mansion as it originally appeared in 1915 when the Fricks first occupied it. The interior finishes were returned to their original glory, yet the colors are crisper, and, while only one or two paintings were conserved, all appear to be cleaner. The newly installed high color rendering, highly efficient, neutral white 3,000º Kelvin LED light sources render the various color palettes of the paintings and objects more accurately than before when they were lit with tungsten halogen. Since LED lighting technology has more energy present in the blue wavelengths of the visible light spectrum, cerulean tones come forward rather than being dulled by warm 2,700º Kelvin illumination.
The existing track lighting system in the three primary galleries is replaced with new track and LED luminaires, and light the celebrated paintings in combination with UV filtered daylight from the overhead laylight skylight system. While the color temperature of the new lighting system employs neutral white at 3,000º Kelvin, the overhead ambient daylight ranges from cool 5,000º to 3,000º Kelvin depending on the time of day. The LED and daylight combine to illuminate the paintings at an average range of 150 to 280 lux.
The mansion’s historic living quarters' chandeliers are fitted with micro LED spotlights to invisibly highlight objects.
Sustainability ApproachPrior to the renovation, The Frick Collection (TFC) was largely illuminated with incandescent, halogen, or LED retrofit light sources. In addition to returning the mansion to its original glory, one of the primary goals of the renovation was to reduce the museum's overall energy consumption. Lighting is a significant draw on TFC's total energy load. The new lighting in the renovation of the mansion was based on LED light sources including the art, ambient, and decorative lighting. The overall energy savings was approximately 50%. For example, the standard track lighting luminaires were reduced from 50 watts each to 23 watts each, and the highlights were reduced from 42 watts each to 16 watts. Since LED light sources last ~5 times longer, material and maintenance costs were also reduced.
