Connecting All the Dots on the Saint Paul Hotel
A timeless treasure and downtown landmark, The Saint Paul Hotel continues to bring grace, warmth, unmatched hospitality and now sparkle to the Minnesota capital’s skyline with its new lighting system that accentuates the building’s Italian Renaissance Revival architecture. The new AL Dot AC RGBW lighting system from Acclaim Lighting on the top of hotel’s grand façade helps maintain the building’s rich historic European charm and elegance reminiscent of the bygone golden era.
Opened and promoted as “St. Paul’s million-dollar hotel” in 1910, the property has hosted dignitaries, leaders and colorful characters from presidents and royalty to movie stars and athletes, including President Kennedy and Charles Lindbergh. The Saint Paul Hotel was designed by the architectural firm of Reed and Stem, who were best known for their design of New York’s Grand Central Terminal.
Today, the historic hotel maintains its charm by combining early 20th century elegance with the convenience of modern 21st century amenities to provide luxurious indulgence, comfort, convenience and fabulous views of Rice Park and downtown St. Paul. However, until recently, the exterior lighting specification was up to the standards of the trademark style and sophistication of the AAA 4-Diamond multiple award-winning Minnesota hotel. The property was planning to use an antiquated incandescent lighting that was certainly historic, but not flexible and efficient.
Ken Wieber, Director of Property Operations at the Saint Paul Hotel, said, “The original specification was for a string type of lighting product to meet our needs. Upon testing of the product, the results were underwhelming with low light output and not true white color. In fact, the light color was more pink than white. So, we cancelled the contract based on the results of the test and set off in search for a better product to draw attention to our beautiful hotel at night, as well as creating a more pleasing St. Paul skyline.”
To find a better lighting system, the hotel worked with Mlazgar and Associates, Eden Prairie, Minn., for the initial design development, specification, project management and system commissioning. Mlazgar has a strong reputation of providing exceptional support and timely service for many of the industry's most valued brands of lighting and controls, serving Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Wieber worked with Darren Strafelda, account manager at Mlazgar, who has more than 20 of years of experience in lighting and specification. With his experience and lighting knowledge, Strafelda covers all aspects of lighting applications, which includes working with engineers, architects, interior designers, distributors and installers.
Bright and Flexible
Wieber and Strafelda had three major criteria. They wanted the new lighting system to produce a true white color, appropriate brightness, and the ability to quickly program color changes.
Through a recommendation from Kathy Foldesi, account manager at Viking Electrical Supply, Minneapolis, the team tested AL Dot AC RGBW fixtures, a direct view, RDM/DMX node, developed and designed by Acclaim Lighting for low resolution dots of color and dynamic visual effects for the entire top of the building. AL Dot AC features an internal DMX driver, 120º beam angle, and Acclaim’s Spectrum Technology which allows for true dedicated whites alongside color changing options.
Wieber said, “The AL Dot AC RGBW test fixtures with their control device worked very well, exceeding all of our selection criteria. The construction of the light nodes was very high quality and inspired confidence in our specification and purchase.”
According to Wieber and Strafelda, the team liked AL Dot’s RGBW color changing ability with option to be at 3000 K, which will be the “standard” color used by the hotel on most days. The color changing ability enables The Saint Paul Hotel to set and change scenes throughout the year.
Viking Electric Supply provided 160 AL Dot AC RGBW nodes, which were installed by Aid Electric Corporation, Blaine, Minn., around the top of the building. The project was managed by Aid Electric’s President Brian Kovar and Project Manager Kevin Vanderlinde. With two screw holes on each side of the fixture, the AL Dot nodes are easy to mount on any surface. The direct view, RDM / DMX node comes with a multipin with five connectors for DMX lead conductors.
To maintain the façade’s architectural integrity during installation, Wieber said. “We designed a mounting system that enables for single fixture replacement without disturbing any of the building’s envelope with penetrating hardware.”
The IP66-rated AL Dot AC has an aluminum housing that does not attract dust and provides protection in water. The fixtures operate in temperatures between -4 to 123 °F and maintain 70 percent of their lumens at 150,000 hours for efficient operations in the extreme Minnesota environment.
Sparkle on an Elegant Building
As part of the lighting project, a controller was programmed with several pre-set lighting scenes and commissioned at the hotel’s request. Plus, the hotel programmed a couple dozen scenes based on holidays, seasonal activities and special events. The lighting scenes are switched with just the touch of a button from a wall switch or phone app.
“Everyone loves the results.” said Wieber. “We reinforced our position as a showpiece in the city. It changed the look of our hotel by adding sparkle to our elegant building. We are now brighter and more vivid. For us, the building is a major part of our attraction. We are a beautiful historic property with this attractive lighting system on top.”
Wieber added, “We are always changing colors for events, including St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Independence Day, as well as other local and national holidays. The best part is that the color displays are vibrant and moving with lights flashing and chasing and using different colors. Our imagination is the only limitation. We are presently running bright white most of the time, and every five minutes running a gold and white light show to provide interest. We also plan on changing colors based on guest events for both business and social occasions.”
