A lighting installation now does its part to greet visitors—and planes—as they arrive in New York. As part of Governor Cuomo’s initiative to revitalize Albany International Airport’s transportation corridor, local firm Bergmann provided the lighting design, architecture, civil and structural engineering for a new “Gateway Entrance Sign.”
The design team overcame an aggressive three-month design and construction schedule, while also considering the effects of the lighting on the flight path, to create the color-changing, DMX-controlled sign, which includes a combination of custom backlit sconces, downlights, backlit curved arc lights and backlit individual alphabet lights.
“What was unique about the project is that we used fiber optic between controllers, and each lighting fixture is controlled via DMX. Basically, every individual light can be controlled independently,” says Bergmann’s Nikhil Bodhankar, who designed the lighting system. Additionally, since the lights are color-changing, the airport can modify the colors in celebration of key events.
The installation marks the completion of New York State’s $72-million investment to modernize the airport, providing a finishing touch meant to welcome people to state capital for generations to come.