Interview
Above BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, Canada, features a colour-changing roof and façade, designed by CM Kling + Associates. Working on the content for the façade led to Ghatan co-founding Pixelumen Lab in 2014. (Pic: Ed White Photography)
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“I learned very quickly by consuming as much
treating each with “equal importance and
questions of Candy. She was the consummate
Reminiscing on some of the highlights from his
listen. She knew that on top of being a professional
career, in that I joined a company that was already
to enjoy what you were doing and imbue fun into
architectural lighting since the late 1960s. From
Ghatan worked under Kling for fourteen years,
through solutions.
Associates six years ago. In his formative years,
Washington Convention Center in Washington
“formed from a collaborative process, that were
coordinated drafting. We were seeing a shift
the unexpected”, and this is an approach that still
metal halide and compact fluorescent in place of
lighting designer.
been a public success since day one.
to push the project forward. That may mean in
renovation of the Watergate Hotel in Washington
final end product or as part of the design process,”
Music City Center in Nashville, the Phoenician
“For me, this means that there is never one way of
Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium. “BC Place was a
possibilities and apply your knowledge and skill to
roof and façade,” he explained. “On top of the
be collaborative; lighting designers cannot exist
content for the façade. This meant learning new
end users. The design needs to be developed with
of dynamic façade lighting.”
Over the past 20 years, Ghatan has worked on a
company Pixelumen Lab in 2014, which in turn
and application, from stadiums and convention
scenic design skills, now applied to burgeoning
information as I could find and asking many
dedication”, no matter their size.
teacher, always willing to provide guidance and
career, Ghatan said: “I was fortunate in my design
and providing the technical requirements, you had
20 years old, with a founder who had been in
the project.”
early on I was a part of the design team working
before succeeding her as President of CM Kling +
“Memorable early projects such as the Walter E.
he says that he hoped to bring designs that were
DC were notable for the scale and amount of
sensitive, well thought out, and possessed a bit of
in technology and the introduction of ceramic
rings true to this day, shaping his philosophy as a
traditional halogen sources, and the facility has
“I would say that the designer’s responsibility is
Other career highlights for Ghatan include the
technology, science, or application. It can be in the
DC, the Boston Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, the
he said.
Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona, and
lighting something. You must explore the various
very large scale project, with a colour-changing
reason why one is best for that project. It needs to
design work, we were later engaged to develop the
without architects, interior designers, owners and
software and storyboarding through the sequences
the team and have consensus.”
This experience led to Ghatan co-founding sister
wealth of projects, ranging greatly in both scale
allowed him to “re-engage with my fine art and
centres to hotels, spas and office spaces, always
interactive technology”.
