Making a Splash

TowerPinkster's Illuminating Design for Kalamazoo College's Natatorium

By Randy Reid with Katie Smith

Kalamazoo College hosts some of the most prestigious swimmers in the state of Michigan. When their natatorium was no longer meeting standards and had to be completely rebuilt, they hired Miller-Davis and TowerPinskter to design the building.

I sat down with Tony Reiner and Scott Garberick to learn more about TowerPinskter’s involvement in the new lighting for the natatorium. After a couple of years of discussion, the old natatorium was officially torn down and completely redesigned to better elevate the college campus, while meeting all required NCAA standards. With the design for the facility completed in 2020, the process of designing the lighting began. TowerPinskter designed the lighting for the entire building, not just the natatorium.

From the outside looking in, you can see large windows revealing beautiful lighting in a lobby area known as the “Hall of Excellence,” showcasing awards and achievements compiled by the school’s swimming and diving team over the years. The custom-length continuous linear fixtures are a focal point. Lit at 3,500K, the lobby offers a warmer tone. With a space for students to study, concessions, and private and public locker rooms, the building boasts 35,000 square feet. The historic campus is full of beautiful buildings, so the new design implements brick to match. Tony stated, "A form influenced by the dynamic movement of swimming and diving, clad with campus brick, elevates the core of the athletic campus." He went on to say that it’s a way to blend into the campus while pushing form and illuminating it in a way that isn’t overly offensive. Throughout the building there is brick mixed with concrete, and the lighting strategy is thoughtful and subtle. While the lobby is an impressive feat in its own right, the Lithonia Cylinder light fixtures stretching across the side corridor of the building are a beautiful and somewhat industrial touch to the mixed concrete and brick hallways.

Photo credit: Jason Keen Photography

Scott explained, “The design philosophy is to always do light from the sides of the pool, where maintenance can easily be performed when necessary.” They designed the lighting to go around the edges of the pool and solely above walkways, and indirectly so it will never be in the athlete's eyes as they swim.

Photo credit: Jason Keen Photography

Through the process of talking to different lighting representatives, Scott and Tony sought to find indirect luminaires. Importantly, the fixtures needed to be chemically resistant to survive the natatorium atmosphere. They went with the high-performance Bolt series by Meteor Lighting. The lights are set at 4,000K and are complete with an Acuity nLight basic room controller, allowing 0-10 volt dimming and 100% to 10% dimming capability. A simple switch control allows for the coach to come in and turn the lights on at 75% for day-to-day use, and to 100% for swim meets. The lighting control system in the pool and surrounding space, like the corridor and lobby, are tied to a central lighting relay control panel provided by Acuity nLight. It is also tied to the building management system so the staff can control the time schedule. The building has a generator and emergency transfer devices to handle egress lighting as part of that system.

With no supply chain issues, the largest issue the team seemed to run into was the material of the ceiling itself and the design change. Originally planned to be two separate pools, one for laps and one for diving, it was then altered into one large “L” shaped pool. Scott shared that this caused the number of fixtures to increase and, because of the concrete “T” shaped beams in the ceiling, there were issues with just how many fixtures were needed to get to the light level they wanted. The solution? Scott convinced them to paint the ceiling white.

Photo credit: Jason Keen Photography

Painting the ceiling white reduced light loss within the dark T’s. Keeping in mind NCAA standards and the possibility of film crews filming meets, they created a way for the lights to be bright enough to properly illuminate the pool and room as a whole. The lights now reflect off the white ceiling, providing a much brighter space.

The light fixtures were originally intended to sit at a tilt over the bleacher area where the spectators sit. Installed instead with no tilt, Scott sat and manually adjusted, but recognized it created an undeniable glare. While this wasn’t an intended situation, it actually prevented an unnecessary glare on the water from the lights. A surprise in disguise!

Balanced with the natural light of north and west-facing windows, the pool is always washed with daylight that is complimented extremely well by the lighting design from Scott and Tony.

In a competitive, college-level natatorium, there is no more beautiful way to subtly display light fixtures around the concrete wall to emphasize the brightness of the room and the competitors while being equally cost-efficient and effective at bringing bright energy to the room. In a project that first began in 2018 and came to completion in 2021, this was an incredibly impressive job well done by TowerPinskter. ■

FIXTURE SCHEDULE

Lighting Design: TowerPinskter

Construction Manager: Miller-Davis

Electrical Contractor: Hi-Tech Electric Company

Pool Area: Meteor Lighting Bolt Series

Linear Lights in Lobby: Focal Point

Cylinders in Lobby: Lithonia

Pool, Lobby, Corridor Controls: Acuity nLight