Weill Café at Carnegie Hall: Illuminating Tradition with Modern Flair
Weill Café, nestled within the entrance to the legendary Carnegie Hall and named in honor of longtime donor Sandy Weill, serves as a daytime coffee bar and gathering space during pre-concert and intermission times. Thanks to the efforts of Kugler Ning Lightingand Helpern Architects, the café has been transformed into a grand space, filled with a symphony of layered light.
Kugler Ning aimed to create an experience that balanced grand architecture with a welcoming spirit, inviting patrons to feel they were a part of history with every visit. Amber Moriarty, Principal of KNL, highlighted, "It was a lot more than just transforming the space from incandescent to LED. It was a complete redesign and rethinking about what the space should feel like."
The lighting design team employed layered lighting that served dual purposes: to add a sense of scale to the overall space, and to highlight the rich textures of the finishes sprinkled throughout. QTL’s ESSENTIALS LALO linear LED fixture was chosen for its exceptional light quality and minimalistic profile, perfect for the room’s delicate new cove detail. Jerry Kugler, Principal & Founder of Kugler Ning, advised, “QTL offers many extruded housings that we regularly use, and more means of attaching profiles compared to most manufacturers. It’s very helpful.”
The under counter lighting at the bar elegantly highlights the luxurious marble, adding a human-scaled element that balances the grandeur of the upward-facing cove lighting. Similarly, the bottle and glass shelf lighting at eye level emphasizes the room's comfortable proportions, mirroring the sparkle of the chandeliers above. This strategic placement of lights not only illuminates but also magnifies the café’s inviting atmosphere, ensuring that each design choice contributes to a cohesive and approachable environment.
Anna Ames, Studio Director at Kugler Ning, added that all the cove, chandeliers, and integrated lighting was 2200K to create a warm, inviting atmosphere throughout the café.
"The color of the QTL products always wins out. It's very compelling," Moriarty explained, emphasizing the rigorous testing that led to selecting QTL for their ability to match the project's high standards.
While the aesthetic demands of the project required the KNL group to carefully consider their recommended lighting design, it also allowed them the opportunity for vast creativity, including sourcing and retrofitting antique candeliers and sconces. Jerry Kugler explained, "We were charged with paying homage to the level of grand ornamentation while ensuring it was appropriate for Carnegie Hall’s architectural detail, which compared to other buildings of its time, is really a simpler building."
The restoration also addressed renovations from the past, “During a prior update, 6” downlights were inserted into the original guilloche ornamentation. These were removed, and the openings were restored to their original 2-¾” diameter, with custom downlights installed for general illumination and sparkle," Amber explained. This process included repairing the plaster and retrofitting antique Caldwell candle holders into sconces. Jerry describes these fixtures as candles that were repurposed with electrical wiring. The integration of these fixtures, along with the strategic addition of custom-modified antique sconces and layered lighting, significantly brightened what was once a darker, more enclosed space. "There's a huge difference," Amber remarked, underscoring how the cafe's charm was preserved while its functionality was modernized.
The revitalized Weill Café at Carnegie Hall stands as a testament to how thoughtful lighting design can bridge the gap between historical reverence and contemporary appeal. Through the collaborative efforts of Kugler Ning Lighting and QTL, the café now offers an atmosphere that is both majestic and welcoming. As Jerry succinctly put it, "The space feels really great," capturing the essence of this successful endeavor in lighting design.
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