Area lighting illuminates Zoo Knoxville’s new Asian Trek experience
Zoo Knoxville in Tennessee is a 56-acre park home to around 800 animals. It is one of the premier zoo attractions in the Southeast and welcomes more than 400,000 visitors annually.
The accredited park has ambitious plans to double attendance and is making progress on a 5-year master plan involving significant renovations to enhance the experience and engage new generations.
Opened in spring 2017, the Boyd Family Asian Trek was one of the first new areas to be introduced. Named for philanthropists Randy and Jenny Boyd, the multimillion-dollar, four-acre area includes habitats for Malayan tigers, white-naped cranes, silvered leaf langurs and white-handed gibbons.
Knoxville-based Johnson Architecture created the theme for the Tiger Forest exhibit, which includes features such as a small-scale pagoda, an elevated underwater viewing pool and a replica of ancient ruins. CLR Design, with offices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Capistrano Beach, California, designed the habitats.
The design firms recognized the importance of effective lighting for the project and specified an assortment of fixture types to meet the needs of the various conditions in each exhibit. The lighting package included spot lighting, in-ground up-lighting, interior lighting and daytime lighting.
When it came to selecting lighting to illuminate the walkways and general outdoor areas as the sun sets, Luminis' Eclipse EC813 products were the choice.
The Eclipse EC813 products combine a decorative aesthetic with functionality to blend with the surroundings while also producing a usable light to illuminate the exterior visitor areas. Recently re-designed, the Eclipse products have a classic shape, which perfectly fitted the design intent for the Asian Trek project.
"The project is themed, and our challenge was to create several unique environments not indigenous to this area," Johnson Architecture’s Danielle Hemsley said. "We also had to create smooth transitions among these areas while enhancing the overall theme. The choice of lighting helped us to achieve that."
In total, 17 of the Eclipse EC813 products were used throughout the space, all AC8 mounted, with LED light sources mounted on an extruded arm that extends from the pole.
Intended for parks and pedestrian areas, the Eclipse EC813 products are robust, high-performance luminaires that work in all weather conditions. They are designed to work in wet areas and offer maximum resistance to wind load. They also boast a lifetime of more than 145,000 hours, meaning Zoo Knoxville won't have to worry about lighting maintenance while its team is working on the next phases of redevelopment.
The end result is lighting that seamlessly blends with the environment during the daytime due to the product’s classically decorative design. In the evening hours the Eclipse EC813 fixtures deliver a 4000K, 80 CRI, 110 lumens per watt light, providing a functional and energy efficient illumination, while making the surrounding design elements look stunning.
Project Name: Zoo Knoxville
Architect: Johnson Architecture
Luminis Agent: SESCO
Photographer: Ryan McGill
