An exhibition space holding light-sensitive archival objects needs a controlled environment. In the case of a historic Brooklyn Navy Yard building, that meant blacking out all the windows. But what about the outside? Our challenge was to reanimate what would otherwise look abandoned, and keep the look of the building. Our solution was a very tiny bulb above the top frame of each of the many windows; the building would never look uninhabited.

At the time we were brought on the project, the available LED technology was still very actively forming itself (as it constantly does.) Starting with an 11 watt bulb, we did a number of tests in the studio and on site. It was stunning that such a small wattage was WAY too bright. So we took it to a 6 watt LED and we put that up, and we still felt it was a little too bright. Down to a 3 watt -- everyone was happy and we ordered all the LEDs and they were delivered to the site and we put them in...and it was waaaaay too bright.

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I don’t think about light so much. We don’t see light; we see reflections on surfaces, on skin. 

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