Verizon Wireless Store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago

Designed in 2013 and completed in November of 2014, it incorporates 100% LED in the
lighting design
Posted in News on February 24, 2016

The Verizon Wireless Destination Store on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago offers customers a hands-on encounter with the latest in technology products. With the objective of positioning Verizon as much more than a cellular service provider, it places a wide variety of technology solutions in "lifestyle zones" that enable shoppers to fully experience products just as they might in everyday life.
 
These lifestyle zones encompass categories such as music, sports and fitness, gaming, home monitoring and energy management, and small business. Each zone displays devices, accessories, and apps in a user-friendly environment where customers can actually use them and explore firsthand how they can benefit from the technology.
 
One of five such stores located in major metropolitan areas, the facility on Chicago's Magnificent Mile is comprised of 9,700 square feet of spectacular retail space on the first two floors, plus a 6,000 square foot Executive Briefing Center on the third floor. To bring their destination store concept to life, Verizon retained the services of Columbus, Ohio, architectural design firm, Chute Gerdeman, who in turn, hired Cincinnati-based 37 Volts Light Studio to create the all-important lighting design.

Working from detailed plans and renderings, the 37 Volts team set about making Chute Gerdeman's lighting-design vision a reality. The concept was to create a warm, residential ambiance that would make the technology products feel approachable. This was accomplished by bathing the architectural features and general shopping environment in warm, residential-style, 3000K light. However, in retail settings, merchandise is hero, so anywhere products were incorporated into displays and millwork, they were illuminated in 4000K cool-white light. The cooler color temperatures made the products stand out from their surroundings and made the technology look fun, young, and hip.
 
In keeping with the high-tech nature of the product offering, Verizon wanted their destination stores to be illuminated with the very latest in electronic lighting technology. The 37 Volts design team turned to state-of-the-art LED fixtures manufactured by Juno Lighting Group for the majority of the lighting applications. For general lighting, they specified 6-inch, Indy™-brand architectural recessed LED downlights with parabolic reflectors. Indy 4-inch LED downlights were mounted close to millwork panels to provide a scallop of light and impart a sense of brightness to the dark finishes.
 
Aculux®-brand 3-1/4-inch LED precision recessed luminaires were used to illuminate zone divider walls and to provide accent lighting above display pedestals. Equipped with slot pinhole trims, these fixtures offered extremely precise aiming and produced so little glare that they virtually disappeared into the ceiling. Along perimeter walls, Indy Designer Cove™ LED, multi-head, pull-down fixtures with anti-glare louvers provided exceptional aiming flexibility for changing product displays and graphics. Juno®-brand LED Mini-Cylinder Spotlight/monopoint fixtures illuminated way-finding signage and recessed Mini LED Downlights provided illumination for product display niches.

Juno Lighting Group fixtures also played an important role in meeting special challenges encountered in lighting the Verizon space. While 2,300 fixture lumens was adequate for most of the general lighting applications, the interior design of the Chicago destination store featured a three-story atrium that would require considerably more light. Indy 8-inch LED downlights producing 4,000 lumens did the job without detracting from the dramatic, continuous video wall that occupied all three levels.
 
Juno Mini LED Downlights with square trim helped solve a unique lighting challenge posed by Verizon's "Customize-It Zone," where a photo booth utilizes green-screen video technology to enable customers to appear in a digital graphic featuring a background image of their choice. This graphic can then be printed in-store on a cell-phone case and be ready for customer pick-up in about a half hour. However, preliminary system tests showed that shadows being cast behind user's legs were causing their lower extremities to disappear in the composite image. After considerable experimentation, the 37 Volts team positioned Juno Mini LED Downlights in the lower, back portion of the booth to eliminate the troublesome shadows. Problem solved.
 
In addition to complementing the high-technology image Verizon wished to cultivate, LED fixtures produced an extremely efficient lighting solution. Designed in 2013 and completed in November of 2014, this project was required to conform to Illinois and Chicago building codes utilizing ASHRAE 90.1 2010, which incorporates very stringent limitations on retail lighting energy consumption. As a result of using 100% LED in the lighting design, it was calculated that Verizon's Chicago destination store would consume 5% less energy than that allowed by code. And in addition to energy savings, the ultra-long service life of LED fixtures – typically 50,000 hours or more – promised substantial maintenance savings as well. As icing on the cake, since eco-friendly LEDs contain no lead, mercury, or other hazardous toxins, Verizon could take pride in being responsible stewards of the environment.