‘Wabash Lights’ to Illuminate Chicago’s Elevated Tracks

由专筑网雷军，刘庆新编译

该装置将在下个月推出测试版，为城市带来焕然一新的繁华。

The proposed installation will launch a beta next month, giving a luminous update to an oft-overlooked stretch of the city's downtown.



从芝加哥市中心商业区的一个高架列车运行轨道上的街道，能看到许多灯光。这就是公共艺术项目“沃巴什灯“。该项目计划新增超过5000个可编程的LED管沿沃巴什大道麦迪逊街和梦露街之间的两块拉伸面。设计该项目的团队最近获得城市的中转机构的批准，以安装一个12英尺长的模板，在一月份总共完成20000个灯。测试版将运行六个月至一年的时间，并在应用程序中测试灯，这需要500万美元的资金筹集。

The street beneath a run of elevated “L” train tracks in Chicago’s downtown business district could soon see the light. That’s thanks to the "Wabash Lights," a site-specific public art project that plans to add more than 5,000 programmable LED tubes to the underside of the tracks that shroud the two-block stretch of Wabash Avenue between Madison and Monroe streets. The team behind the project recently got approval from the city’s transit agencies to install a 12-foot-long version of the proposed work, which will feature 20,000 total feet of lights, in January. The beta will run six months to a year and test the lights in application to make a case for the final installation, which requires raising $5 million in additional capital.



该项目是由Unger提出设想的，目前项目的架构和设计人物为来自全球营销团队的赫尔曼米勒，还有在电影、电视等数字节目中起引领作用的杰克纽厄尔。他们的目标是步行到沃巴什大道–南大道北州街与密歇根大道，而不是在公共艺术的一个新的周旋。纽厄尔说：“我们认为公共艺术，它应该是属于每个人，但通常是由几个人支付的，由艺术家创造。”我们四处看了看城市，看到了一些公共艺术作品，我们却觉得它们不是属于我们的，我们可以做些什么？”

沃巴什大道是历史和现代正确的结合。长的中央商业走廊，包括历史街区的珠宝行，它夹在州街与密歇根大道之间，林立的名牌专卖店，吸引着当地人和游客。这一切，随着“我”的存在轨迹，使沃巴什大道从城市的著名的湖畔公园中脱离开来。

“芝加哥市中心在星期五、星期六和星期日会有很多游客和外地人前来参观，所以如果他们还没有到芝加哥之前，会听说一些吓人的……噪声，砂砾和轨道的声响，我们想利用沃巴什照明工程桥梁（连接州街与密歇根大道）和市中心连接在一起，”Unger说。

The project was conceived by Chicagoans Seth Unger, currently the architecture and design audience lead for Herman Miller's global marketing team, and Jack Newell, a filmmaker and program head of television, film, and digital at The Second City Training Center in Chicago. Their goal was less to drive foot traffic to Wabash Avenue—which runs parallel to the more popular north–south thoroughfares of State Street and Michigan Avenue—than to put a fresh spin on public art. “One of the things we noticed about a lot of public art was that it’s supposed to be for everyone but it’s usually paid for by just a few and usually created by a single artist," Newell says. "We were looking around the city and seeing pieces of public art that were supposed to be for us but we didn’t feel that way and we said, ‘Could we do [something like] this?’”
Wabash Avenue brought the right mix of history and proximity. Long a central commercial corridor that includes the Jeweler’s Row historic district, it is sandwiched between State Street and Michigan Avenue, which today are lined with brand-name stores that draw tourists and locals alike. All that, along with the presence of the “L” tracks overhead, can make Wabash Avenue easy to pass up—albeit situated a block from the city’s celebrated lakefront park system.
“Downtown Chicago transforms on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday into a place that a lot of tourists and out-of-towners come to visit, so for someone who hasn’t been to Chicago before, there’s something intimidating about … the noise and the grittiness and the actual physical structure of the tracks,” Unger says. “We wanted to use the Wabash Lights project to bridge [State Street and Michigan Avenue] and connect downtown,” Unger says.



在今年早些时候Kickstarter筹集了近60000美元基金来进行Beta安装，这类系统将用来如何通过培训使得产生持续的振动响应，克服全市极端天气的变化，和一般的磨损和撕裂。Unger和纽厄尔目前正在制定互动条件让路过的人可以使用应用程序或网站改变灯光的颜色。安装程序将包括4英尺长的飞利浦iColor MX PowerCore光管，每1.2英寸运行可控。合作伙伴包括照明和智能照明的创作制作阿灵顿工作室，和照明设计师贾斯廷，Axxis高级客户总监路易斯维尔。

“我们正在尝试创建一个有计划的经验，试图用地域性和城市化来改变沃巴什的原则，”纽厄尔说。

哈利巴斯特是产品的副主编和技术的照明住宅建筑师。

A Kickstarter earlier this year raised nearly $60,000 to fund the beta installation, which will test how the system responds to the continual vibration caused by the L trains, the city’s extreme weather variations, and general wear and tear. Unger and Newell also plan to add an interactive element to the final installation that will allow passersby to change the lights’ colors using a companion app or website, which is currently in development. The installation will comprise runs of 4-foot-long Philips iColor Accent MX Powercore light tubes that are controllable every 1.2 inches. Partners include lighting and production studio Intelligent Lighting Creations in nearby Arlington Heights, Ill., and lighting designer Justin Wardell, currently a senior account director for Louisville, Ky.–based Axxis.
“We’re trying to create a planned experience, trying to use the principles of place-making and urbanism to change your experience on Wabash,” Newell says.
Hallie Busta is an associate editor of products and technology at ARCHITECT, Architectural Lighting, and Residential Architect.

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