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Projects   Lighting – August 2005
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Morongo Casino Resort and Spa

Cabazon, Calif.
Visual Terrain, Inc.

California’s Morongo Casino Resort becomes a bright desert oasis, with layered lighting by Visual Terrain
  Photo © Tom Pavia
   

By William Weathersby, Jr.

About 20 miles west of Palm Springs, the Morongo Casino Resort and Spa rises from the California desert like a rock formation stretching skyward. Inspired by the site’s picturesque mountain ranges, sun-streaked vistas, and canyons carved by wind and water, the new $250 million resort pays tribute to the landscape through its architecture and illumination. Design architect Jerde Partnership International and executive architect Thalden Boyd Architects collaborated with the lighting design firm Visual Terrain on interior and exterior lighting that takes its cues from the surrounding topography and quality of light.

Commissioned by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the complex sprawls across 44 acres with a low-rise casino; a 310-room hotel tower; ancillary restaurants, nightclubs, and spa; plus a villagelike enclave of swimming pools and private cabanas. The dramatically illuminated 27-story tower can be seen on approach from as far as 5 miles away. “In terms of exterior illumination, the architects and clients wanted to animate the building,” says Visual Terrain principal Dawn Hollingsworth. “The illumination color palette is restricted to colors found in the natural light of the desert during sunrise, midday, and sunset.”

Senior project lighting designer Matt Levesque orchestrated an outdoor media and light show that guests may view from dusk until dawn. “The goal was to attract the attention of arriving hotel and casino patrons,” he says, “with illuminated elements that tell guests they are about to embark on an entertainment adventure.” The curtain wall at the top of the tower’s entrance elevation employs projected video, graphic, and LED effects for a stylized collage depicting organic elements of nature. Automated luminaires wash the lower sections of the tower with colored light to extend a unified image.

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the People

Owner
Morongo Band of Mission Indians

Lighting designer
Visual Terrain, Inc.
14141 Covello St., Suite 4B
Van Nuys, Ca 91405
818-786-3500 Tel
818-786-3501 Fax
www.visualterrain.net

Principal-in-charge:
Dawn Hollingsworth, LC, IALD

Project Manager and Interior Project Design Lead:
Eileen Thomas, LC

Exterior Project Design Lead:
Matt Levesque

Controls System Designer:
Jeremy Windle, LC

Project Designer:
Lisa Passamonte Green

Project Designer:
Stacey Westbrook

Production Manager:
Francis Mempin

Special Attention:
Dawn Hollingsworth, Eileen Thomas, Matt Levesque

Design Architect
The Jerde Partnership International, Inc. www.jerde.com

Project Team:
Sharmila Tankha, Tim Magill, Chad Dasnanjali, Trevor Pollard, Jacky Cheng, Ford Hasegawa, Ronald Fiala

Executive Architect
Thalden-Boyd Architects www.thaldenboyd.com

Project team:
Charles Chief Boyd, Joe Wilkinson

Engineer(s)
Electrical engineer:
RHR Consulting Engineers

Consultat(s)
System Integrator:
Lvh Entertainment lvhentertainment.com

General contractor
Perini Building Company www.perini.com

Electrical contractor
Berg Electric www.bergelectric.com

Photographer(s)
Tom Paiva
www.tompaiva.com
1-310-559-9545

the Products

Lighting
Interior ambient lighting:
– Birchwood (fluorescent strips)
www.birchwoodlighting.com
–  Focal Point (linear indirect) www.focalpointlights.com
–  Kirlin (HID cylinders) www.kirlinlighting.com
–  Halo (track lighting) www.cooperlighting.com
– Architectural Cathode (Cold Cathode) www.cathodelighting.com

Decorative Lighting:
– Visa (gaming table fixtures) www.visalighting.com
– Lumid (Custom decorative) www.lumid.com

Downlights:
– Spectrum www.spectrumlighting.com
– Portfolio www.portfolio-lighting.com
–  Contrast www.contrastlighting.com
–  RSA www.rsalighting.com

Task lighting:
Translite-Sonoma www.translite.com

Exterior:
– Hydrel www.hydrel.com
– Hevilite (landscape) www.hevilite.com
– Martin (tower uplights) www.martin.com
– Northstar/Thorn (Porte Cochere uplights) www.techlitecorp.com
– Elliptipar (facsade downlighting) www.elliptipar.com
– Gardco (parking lots) www.gardcolighting.com
– Metalux (parking garage) www.cooperlighting.com
– Selux www.selux.com
– Gardco (bollards) www.gardcolighting.com
– iLight (linear accents)
– Element Labs (LED video wall) www.elementlabs.com

Controls:
– Leviton (architectural controls) www.leviton.com
–  GrandMA (exterior programming)


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