New 42nd Street Studios
New York, NY

Computer-controlled Integrated Lighting and Stainless Steel Façade, 2000

Jaroff Design was brought on as architectural lighting consultant for the New 42nd Street Studios when architecture firm Platt Byard Dovell White wanted to create a 10-story façade of light that would reinterpret the signature neon billboards of NYC’s Time Square. Joseph Jaroff’s challenge was to figure out how to create the impression of even, dynamic, coordinated light for passersby, while only using static fixtures whose placement was restricted to alternating floors. His solution combined spotlights with perforated stainless steel louvers, treated with a diffracting, iridescent finish that would spread the light across the façade. At the same time, the louvers’ custom metal grill produces a moray-effect as people on the street walk by and look up, working in conjunction with computer-controlled filters which shift colors to move a rainbow of bright pinks, blues and yellows up and down the façade, beautifully achieving the architects’ goal.

For the past thirty-eight plus years, Jaroff Design, under the management of founder Joseph Jaroff, has led the design, fabrication, installation and coordination of custom architectural glass and metal for the construction, architecture, interior design and art communities.