Beneath the Surface Blog

The backlit escalator wall installation at the Grand Hyatt in San Francisco is wrapping up smoothly.

Here's the project rendering again, described in our first blog post about this project:

Some photographs snapped from our cell phones in the field:

The clean lines and even illumination are the result of months of iterative detailing and expert installation.  A great project for our team to celebrate this weekend!

Contact closures, relays, Cue servers, DMX decoder units, din rails… if you’re a conceptual designer, you’re probably not too interested in what those mean, but when implemented through a thoughtful electrical engineering process, these items can add a whole new element of fluctuation to your spaces.

Imagine synchronizing the vertical movement of an elevator with a lighting effect that “speaks” to the waiting patrons. At the renovation of 1828 L Street in Washington, D.C., lighting designers MCLA and architects DEP Designs envisioned a full scale elevator lantern that capitalized on the dynamics of time and movement (fitting for an elevator lobby). The elevator call lanterns take on a modern architecture with full height panels of backlit glass. Goodbye, standard call buttons!

Standard Elevator Indicator Buttons - small scale, appear "additive" to the architecture (Image Credit: robinsonsmay) 

Re-designed Backlit Lanterns - large scale, integral to the architecture

The design intent was to have the elevator lanterns illuminated at a dim level at all times. When the elevators descend to the main lobby at the first floor, the lanterns slowly brighten up to 100%, signifying the arrival of the elevator cab.  Pretty cool visual reinforcement of movement!

Custom controls by GPI sync the elevator control system with our Flat-Lite™ LED panels

Only one of the elevators descends to the basement; the designers wanted the lantern at this elevator to illuminate in a red color. At this area, GPI designed a dual-illumination red and white LED panel to backlight the glass. The colored and white settings were engineered to be controlled independently. When the cab is above ground, the lantern remains white like the others. The relay to the red LED string only fires when the elevator drops to the basement level, at which time the LED panel changes to its red hue.

Flat-Lite™ LED panel on white and red settings

This is just one job that goes to show the value of integration when it comes to backlit features. As you’ll often hear us advocate, to have a truly well-executed backlit feature, it’s much more about the LED panels themselves. In this case, the LED panels were properly designed to both seamlessly illuminate the surface and interface with the existing elevator control system, for a lighting effect that strengthens the architecture. The challenges of the project were perfectly suited for our team and we’re looking forward to publishing the final installation photographs soon!

Thinking of designing a backlit glass bar or countertop? It's not quite as easy as just placing a light source behind the glass.  There are many details that can slip through the cracks in backlit architectural features, and when the lighting system is sloppy, the time and investment that you’ve put into the surface is rendered useless.

Particularly when the glass panels and the backlighting system are provided by two different companies, it is often unclear who is responsible for these seemingly secondary items (attachment methods, diffusers, accountability for the final look).  But it's really those details that make your backlit feature sink or swim. The most overlooked item when backlighting glass panels is diffusion. It’s one of those items that often slides through the design and construction process unnoticed.  

A few important tests can ensure that your backlit glass designs perform to your expectations. We’ll use this recent project as an example: the designer wanted to seamlessly illuminate vivid blue glass panels from Jockimo. The glass specifications, color, and patterning were already set. The Jockimo glass sample was sent to our Design Lab here at GPI to determine the best illumination and diffusion strategy. Based on the custom LED light panel design (LED panel sizes, color temperature, spacing between LED bulbs), GPI was able to quickly generate a light diffusion strategy that complemented both the glass panels and the construction assembly.

• When placed in direct contact with the LED light panel as shown below, the hot spots (bright edges) were quite visible. (Distracting, muddled look - doesn't do justice to the beauty of the glass.)




Backlit Glass Assembly Before Diffusion: Hot Spots at Edges, Cold Spots at Center

• As time was of the essence, we didn’t want to increase lead time by altering the glass panel specifications with the addition of interlayers or frosted treatments. (Cross those methods off the list.)
• To keep the countertop assembly as simple as possible without adding thickness, the glass surface needed to rest directly on top of the LED light panel. That meant that we couldn’t rely on the air space cavity for diffusion. (Cross that method off the list.)
• We tested optical acrylic diffusing panels, but even with a slim 3/16” gauge, the added thickness was not desired. (Acrylic diffusion panels won’t work here, scratch that.)
• The outcome: a specialty diffusion film was applied directly to the face of the LED panels. The corrective film blends the light and even brightens up the saturated blue colors. We applied the film using varying pressures that balance the LED panel lighting into a truly seamless plane of light.  The LED light panels were shipped with the film applied, ready for easy on-site construction by the installation team.

Backlit Glass Assembly After Diffusion Film: Continuous Plane of Light, Saturated Glass Coloration

VOILA! The custom solution for evenly illuminated glass countertops– with our integrated methods, a few simple testing iterations allowed us to preserve the designer's vision.

Stay tuned for final installation photographs!

In studying our website metrics that indicate which keywords our visitors are searching for, it’s mind-boggling how many designers are searching for answers to detailing backlit panels. And while we love to stock our website full of useful information that makes it easy for busy designers to quickly understand and specify our systems, typical details can sometimes actually hurt the process.

When backlighting architectural panels, there are many considerations that affect the arrival at a detail.   It’s a process that we forge through per job.  As an architect or designer, can you imagine if your potential clients (developers or building owners) called you up and asked to see a typical floor plan from your firm? Sure, there is a general aesthetic and personality to your design process, but each solution is generated by working through several design phases/iterations, and that’s what makes the finished project unique. A single floor plan doesn’t fully do justice to all of the variables that affected that final solution. That’s how much attention and iteration goes into one of our details; they’re like our blueprints.  

Here is a wall section detail we generated for a specific project that incorporated backlit onyx panels. The variables:

• Surface type and translucency levels
• Surface thickness
• Light source (method, panel sizes, color temperature, brightness)
• Necessary diffusers
• Structure and fastening method
• Ideal spacing between elements (this can only be derived from physical testing)

As you can see,we develop our details based on the above considerations, and they must be considered holistically to achieve high-quality finished works.

The honest truth? For backlighting architectural panels, you don’t need typicals. Rely on a company's portfolio and expertise to trust that they will arrive at an equally thoughtful solution for your backlit project.

Learn more about our custom solution for the backlit onyx lobby features at the Wells Fargo Center:

Backlit granite bars with the correct lighting controls allow designers to explore the furthest ranges of materiality. Granite is often associated with traditional countertops, but with advanced technology and the correct backlighting system, the flip of a switch can dramatically transform from day to night.

For this backlit granite bartop application in Dubai, GPI developed DURA-Lite™ panels that consist of an ultrathin layer of granite laminated to glass backing. The glass backing provides reinforcement to keep the granite stable during production, shipping, installation, and everyday use.

For this particular application, the design team chose the RGB LED backlighting system for its flexibility. The lighting system is kept off during the morning hours, with the white backlighting illuminating the granite bartops in the evening hours. On more celebratory occasions, the restaurant owners can change the backlighting to a colored arrangement.

These photographs explore the range of aesthetics that thin granite panels with colored backlighting can provide. With adjustments to the illumination, the granite material is rendered in different moods, attracting different groups of people and completely altering the programmatic use of the space.

Thin granite veneer panel (without backlighting)


Granite panel illuminated with flat LED backlighting (cool white light)


Granite panel illuminated with flat LED panel (on red setting)


Granite panel illuminated with flat LED panel (on blue setting)


Granite panel illuminated with flat LED panel (on green setting)

The bottom line? Designing color variation into your lighting schemes can completely redefine space and provide an important selling point to the property owner.  Controls for RGB backlighting systems might add a bit of cost, but the flexibility is priceless.  

Bringing together fine art photographs of natural grasses, custom bent glass, and LED backlighting can be difficult – throw in a curved shape with a narrow lighting cavity and the stage was set for this example of custom integration at the lobby of Lancaster General Health Women and Babies Hospital.

Architects Noelker and Hull wanted to bring soothing natural elements to the entrance lobby of this hospital in Lancaster, PA. Artist Henry Domke’s fine art images were commissioned, and Skyline Design fabricated the prints onto bent glass panels. The designers knew they wanted to showcase these artistic glass panels with seamless backlighting.  

1. Design Intent

Rendering of initial design concept for the space

2. Surface

Skyline Design printed Henry Domke's specified image onto optically clear film, which was then applied to the back side of Skyline's bent glass panels.

3. Lighting

GPI analyzed the printed glass surface to calibrate the ideal diffusing method and lighting cavity.

Below left: glass in direct contact with LED panel, without diffusers

Below right: specialty diffuser between glass and LED panel plus small air cavity to increase light diffusion

4. Structure

Section detail showing the overall assembly - glass was run in channels on the floor and ceiling

5. Detailing

All wire exits were detailed in a staggered arrangement to avoid extensive gaps between panels.

6. The Result

Seamlessly illuminated dramatic glass feature wall

---> Here’s what we learned from working through this project. Keep these tips in mind when designing illuminated glass feature walls:

• Make sure that your glass supplier and lighting supplier maintain direct communication so that each company can calibrate their product based on the given set of parameters.
• Don’t skimp on physical mock-ups. Because flat LED panels emit varying brightness based on the panel sizes, each job must be analyzed individually in order to determine the ideal LED panel size, lighting cavity and proper diffusers.
• Seams between flat LED panels are the most susceptible area.  Hot spots can occur when two LED strings are placed back-to-back. Seams can also create shadows if wire exits create large gaps that push the panels apart.
• Printed glass can be highly translucent, with great risk of hot and cold spots appearing on the surface (regardless of what type of lighting you use). Check with your glass manufacturer to see if they can treat the back surface of the glass with texture or diffusion layers – or make sure your lighting manufacturer can provide the appropriate diffusing panels.

See the final project images >