Completed Project: Kansas City Icon Bridge Lighting - Kansas City , MO

BACKGROUND

The kcICON Christopher S. Bond Bridge, located in North Kansas City, MO is a distinctive cable-stayed bridge that spans four miles of Interstate 29/35 over the Missouri River. Barbizon was contacted by the Lighting Designer, Illumination Arts (www.illuminationarts.com), in the winter of 2009. They presented Barbizon Lighting with a couple of challenges that needed solutions. Firstly they needed us to source out a climate controlled equipment rack that was to be installed in the pylon of the bridge. The second was to design a custom user interface that needed to communicate with the Barco color-changing LED panels that would execute dynamic content for a nightly light show that celebrates the seasons, holidays, and significant local events.

SOLUTION
Barbizon New York quickly moved to provide an appropriate control solution. Early on Barbizon was informed of a couple unique project challenges. First, all devices needed to lie on MODOT’s private wide area network so Barbizon needed to work closely with MODOT to layer the hardware and software onto their WAN. The other was that the custom control application and associated hardware would be located in
their central control facility some 20 miles away from the bridge. Christopher Reising of Barbizon’s Technical Services Department stepped-up and designed the custom user interface the bridge required. The UI allows users to set the controller’s time, when the light show starts and ends, and manually activate shows. The UI also displays the health of the equipment rack in the bridge by displaying the temperature,
rack power consumption and any errors with the UPS. The Barco equipment was controlled through a High End Axon Media Server, which intern was controlled using an Interactive Technologies Cue Server. In order to make on-site integration smoothly the systems were mocked-up at Barbizon’s NYC office with several of the Barco LED tiles. This also gave designers the opportunity to preview content before hand and ship a complete system. The climate controlled equipment rack chosen was the DDB Unlimited OD-50DD made with Alumiflex. This type of aluminum offers the necessary protection needed for any severe outdoor environment such as falling ice or solar heat penetration.

“This project is a spectacular functional and visual pathway through the use of details and lighting to create a beautiful community gateway. The integration of architecture and engineering is admirable” - Illumination Arts, Lighting Designer  

For additional information on this project, please contact the Systems Division of the Barbizon NYC office at 212.586.1620