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Elation Proteus Maximus illuminates firefighter memorial

The memorial to firefighters at Firemen’s Memorial Park in Naperville, Illinois, was created by local artist Paul Kuhn in partnership with Dark Moon Designs and Intelligent Lighting Creations.

The memorial depicts a firefighter climbing a “Ladder of Light” and was unveiled on the 50th anniversary of a crash that killed three Naperville firefighters. It also memorializes another firefighter from the same department who died of a heart attack in the line of duty. At night, the sculpture appears as if the firefighter is climbing a ladder made of two beams of light coming from two inground Elation Proteus Maximus LED profile luminaires.

Paul Kuhn of Twelve Limbs Art Studio, a metal artist and the main sculptor on the memorial, partnered with Dark Moon Designs to facilitate and design the lighting of the project. Besides designing the lighting system, the art fabrication firm constructed the entire chassis that surrounds the system with assistance from Twelve Limbs Art Studio.

The project was focused on more than the lighting system however, but also on how it was encased and could function in a permanent environment. Dark Moon Designs brought in Intelligent Lighting Creations (ILC) to help with gear and power solutions so Dark Moon could focus on physical elements like the chassis, portholes, ventilation, etc.

Two lighting fixtures were required for the project along with a control system and power distribution while the fabrication side required a ventilation system, access hatch, chassis structure, porthole design and execution. The design team initially looked at Elation’s arc-source Proteus Hybrid but eliminated it in favor of an LED source option.

“The LED source needed to be IP rated (even though the chassis is watertight) for our own security, and the lights needed to be intense enough to be seen without atmospherics”, explains Dark Moon Designs’ Natalia Janusz who heads the company along with Paul Thomas. She adds that heat dissipation was also important and was one of their top focuses throughout the project.

The designer says that Scott Hosford from ILC suggested the Proteus Maximus for the project. Their 50K lumens of output was essential in creating the two beams of light that form the rails of the ladder yet the fixture’s framing shutters and 5.5° to 55° zoom were also key components. “We actually shuttered in the beam to carve out a rectangle similar to a firefighter ladder which is crazy to see in person as you walk around”, says Janusz. “It cleans up the beam super well and creates a ‘doorway’ on the clouds when the cloud ceiling is low enough.” 

The lights were set on custom-built rolling carts and keyed into a locked position so they cannot move but can be unlocked if need be. As for the focusing of the lights, Janusz explains: “We drafted scenarios on Fusion 360 software and confirmed that it could work, but we were focusing pretty much ‘live’. The chassis has a basic drafting we went off of, but everything else was fabricated as we pushed forward. The portholes married off the one solid number the entire team could work off of, and that was that the ‘Ladder’ was at a 62-degree angle. So everything was truly built around that.” Michael Kelly from ILC was the control system programmer on the project.

www.elationlighting.com

www.darkmoondesigns.org

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