The Lighting Exchange®

When homegrown credit union VyStar decided to purchase a Downtown Jacksonville skyscraper, leadership selected the runt of the litter – a smaller structure surrounded by loftier siblings along the St. Johns River. The new owners had a surprise in store for this oft-overlooked, thirty-year-old post-modern building: a lighting makeover that would catapult the newly-minted VyStar Tower into “Bold City” superstar status. The VyStar Tower exterior lighting project bucks the trend of a Downtown that had long seen stunning renderings and promises of urban renewal, but little physical evolution. Naturally, the road between vision and execution can be rife with challenges, and this project would be no different. Existing fiberoptic channels on the river-facing building façade would need to be adapted for direct-view LED fixtures; narrow balconies at the upper floors would be used to light vertical exterior walls of differing heights while maintaining illumination consistency and intensity across all lighted surfaces; and the brutal Florida weather and installation challenges of working with an existing structure had to be carefully considered. Through close collaboration between Contractors, Architects, Electrical Engineers and VyStar ownership, UV-stabilized LED luminaires were selected for the direct view “shoelaces” along the riverfront, with weatherproof floodlights for upper tier indirect lighting. Several iterations of surface photometry led to partial mockups and final plans. The LED color of each fixture had to be tuned to precisely match the VyStar corporate blue, and detailed installation processes had to be devised. This difficult road led to an exacting installation and aiming of the installed fixtures to bring the architectural renderings to life. In the end, the VyStar Tower fulfills a promise of Downtown Jacksonville renewal. Through a carefully designed and skillfully executed scheme, the VyStar Tower brings brash architectural vision to stunning life, truly representing the crown jewel along the roaring St. Johns.