I think all of us in the construction industry know that projects always take about 3x longer than expected and cost 3x as much, but the parishioners at Galveston’s Broadway Church of Christ learned that first hand after their sanctuary was flooded with Hurricane Ike’s storm surge almost two years ago. This Sunday marked the first service in their newly renovated space, an event which was covered by the Galveston County Daily News: http://galvestondailynews.com/blog/3766

Shortly after the storm, the church asked Gandy2 Lighting Design to assist in helping them come back better than before. As with just about every church we’ve worked on the consensus among the congregation was that “there wasn’t enough light.” So our first challenge was to improve the light levels while working within the existing shell and without adding any downlights or pendants to the space which is known for it’s clean, sparse look. Our second challenge was to add accent lighting and a visual focus to the altar area. And of course the third challenge was to do it all within a minimal budget–did I mention that the church didn’t have flood insurance?

To address the ambient lighting we used budget-friendly T5HO cove lights in their existing coves, replacing the outdated T12 fluorescent strip lights. This effectively doubled the potential ambient light, while dual switching the lamps gave them a cost effective way to get multiple light levels. Additionally, detailing the existing cove so that the electricians lined the lamps up with the top of the cove allowed for maximum light spread and output so that we weren’t losing any light to shadowing.

To add focus to the altar area we added adjustable sidelights and track lights, both hidden behind a beam to avoid visual clutter. Ingrade lights along the walls flanking the altar give an uplifting feel and provide accent without introducing unwanted decorative elements.

Congratulations to the parishioners at Broadway Church of Christ–G2LD is proud to have been a part of your road home!

Dickinson First United Methodist Church Exterior Lighting Design

In other lighting news, G2LD has been hired to do the lighting design for First United Methodist Church in Dickinson. Our scope includes house and theatrical lighting for a new 500 seat sanctuary, welcome center, surrounding support areas, and facade lighting. Gandy2 Lighting Design is working with Houston architects Hall Barnum Lucchesi on this project with expected completion in 2011.

First United Methodist Church Dickinson--Interior Church Lighting Design

Among the current projects in the G2LD studio–the City of Houston Central Permitting Center. With many unique lighting design challenges, the project takes a 100 year old brick rice warehouse and, through adaptive re-use, turns it into a five story, 190,000 square foot office building. The building sits on the edge of downtown and in addition to being a single location for all of the City of Houston’s permitting needs, it will also be the permanent home for the Green Building Resource Center. The GBRC will homeowners, business owners and designers of all types information and inspiration for making their projects more sustainable and energy efficient.

Gandy2 Lighting Design is working with Studio Red Architects and E&C Engineers to create a state of the art lighting system, incorporating the best and most energy efficient technologies on the market. Lamp specification, light fixture efficiency, lighting design layout, and whole building lighting controls are all being considered. The project team will seek LEED Certification for the building after it’s completion in 2011.

In other moving news–G2LD has! We’re now in Midtown and have joined up with the very hip Caroline Collective office group.

Our new address is:

4820 Caroline Street
Houston, Texas 77004

As was previously announced, G2LD is honored to have been chosen to consult on Galveston’s own Green Revival Showhouse. For those that don’t know the Green Revival is a joint project of Galveston Historical Foundation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The aim is to take a dilapidated, 1000 sq. ft. historical shotgun house, which was knocked off it’s foundation by the storm surge in Hurricane Ike, and rehabilitate it into a state-of-the-art (yet historically sensitive) LEED Platinum residence.

As Dwayne Jones, GHF executive director, says “It’s often been said now that the ‘greenest’ building is one that has already been built.” Good Point. In addition to using minimal new construction material (and creating minimal construction waste), I strongly believe that many older houses employed very green design principals that we’re just beginning to “rediscover” with the green movement. Before air-conditioning and extensive electrical systems folks were forced to work with their environment, employing large well placed windows for light and flow-through ventilation. High ceilings helped the heat rise above the human level, and local, natural building materials worked with the hot, humid climate instead of fighting against it. So I’m all for a project that shows that a 100 year old house can in fact be very cutting edge.

Obviously the house will be equipped with fabulous-state-of-the art, energy efficient lighting, but it was also have solar panels and a bird-friendly wind turbine in the back yard to generate power. Rainwater will be harvested for irrigating the carefully thought out landscaping and permeable paving will reduce storm water runoff. The list of features goes on and on, but if you’re really interested, the house will be a prime feature on the GHF’s Homes Tour in May. If you’re really lucky we might even be on hand to answer questions about the aforementioned fabulous lighting.

But all that talk is only conjecture until the house gets to it’s new home site. Which it did yesterday after successfully navigating 17 blocks worth of power lines, street lights and low hanging tree branches. We were on hand for about half a block worth of the move before we decided we needed to get back to work, but it was still fun to see a project actually driving down the street.

Welcome home Green Revival!

Gandy² Lighting Design is excited to be working with the National Trust For Historic Preservation and the Galveston Historical Foundation on a LEED Platinum restoration project.