Hubbell Lighting Helps Add the Sparkle of Leed Gold to New Omni Dallas Hotel

GREENVILLE, S.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hubbell Lighting, a market leader in lighting technology for over a century, was the major provider of lighting fixtures for the magnificent new Omni Hotel recently opened in Dallas, Texas.

“The Omni is a landmark project for its leadership in sustainable design underscored by its creative use of energy efficient and innovative lighting. We are proud to have contributed to its achievement of USGBC’s LEED Gold certification.”

Built on six acres of an eight-acre site in the southwest side of the Dallas Central Business District, this latest addition to the Omni brand of 50 luxury hotels and resorts throughout North America has a very appealing and sophisticated persona. A contemporary reflective glass exterior and rich native textures highlights the interior, making the newest Omni an expression of the best that Dallas offers as they warmly welcome visitors and guests to an incomparable convention hotel.

With the decision and foresight of Dallas city leaders, hotel developer Matthews Southwest and 5G Studio Collaborative, the lead design architect, the project raised the bar on what a convention hotel should look like. The stunning building arose from what was once a parking lot now home to a remarkable 23 story 1.2 million sq. ft. edifice designed and built complete with 7,000 pieces of original art created by Dallas artists spread throughout the hotel’s common areas and guest rooms; 110,000 sq. ft. of meeting event space spread across 39 meeting rooms including two gigantic ballrooms; 1,001 guest rooms and suites, a luxurious spa, fitness center, pool deck and five exceptional culinary venues.

According to Ed Netzhammer, managing director and regional vice president, Omni Hotels & Resorts, the Omni Dallas is already being recognized as a strong addition to the convention center as well as a destination for local and regional residents for weekend getaways and staycations. Unquestionably, the Omni Dallas Hotel is well on its way to reaching its intended goals of helping Dallas reenergize and reinvigorate its convention industry as well as the southwest corner of the city’s expanding Central Business District, Netzhammer added.

Testimony to this is that since its opening on 11/11/11, the Omni Dallas Hotel has contracted more than 300,000 room nights and is proving its value as a catalyst for growth. In the two years prior to its May 2009 development announcement, the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau had booked 18 citywide meetings. Since then, the group has booked more than 50 meetings. Owned by the City of Dallas and under Omni management, the hotel, which is connected to the 2.1 million sq. ft. Dallas Convention Center, epitomizes the renaissance the 9^th largest city in the country is experiencing.

Dedicated to achieving the highest standards of both environmental and energy conscious design for this innovative 21^st century hotel, the Omni Dallas Hotel just received the prestigious honor as LEED Gold certified by the United States Green Building Council. It is the largest new construction hotel to be LEED Gold certified in the United States. And it is the first and only hotel to be LEED Gold Certified in Texas. Design Architect and LEED specialist 5G Studio Collaborative designed the building and developed the plan that encompassed the strategic and careful use of lighting in the interior and exterior. 5G Studio Collaborative integrated a number of sustainable strategies in the architecture of and systems of the hotel in order to contribute meaningfully in areas of energy conservation, water conservation, responsible material use, and occupant comfort and well-being. One example of their effort can be seen in the illumination of the hotel.

Working closely with lighting designer, Lang Lighting Design, the objective was to seamlessly merge fixtures, controls, and daylight harvesting to achieve sustainable lighting solutions. To accomplish, Jacob Gerber, senior lighting designer, and Andy Lang, president of Lang Lighting, investigated many if not all of the lighting options possible.

After a thorough evaluation, the Lang Lighting team chose five Hubbell Lighting brands for interior and exterior lighting applications including Kurt Versen, Prescolite, Columbia Lighting, Dual-Lite, and Kim Lighting. From the standpoint of state of the art products, depth of choices, and overall service, the three specifiers agreed that Hubbell Lighting was the best fit for what they were trying to achieve from a design perspective.

Kurt Versen 6” diameter downlights and Prescolite 6” and 4” diameter downlights illuminate the hotel’s lobby and three succeeding Podium levels. The downlighting employing either Par 38, 42W compact fluorescent, MR 16, or LED lamp sources also illuminates corridors, restaurants, guest rooms, meeting rooms and ballrooms.

Lighting in the back of the house, provided by Columbia Lighting, included 2x2 and 2x4 fluorescent fixtures with T8 lamps in the hotel’s executive offices and kitchen. Strip lighting fixtures illuminate mechanical rooms, corridors, and stairwells.

LED exit lighting from Dual-Lite are surface mounted on ceilings and, for maximum security, guestrooms corridors also include Dual-Lite exits installed on walls about three inches above corridor paths. Garage lighting, provided by Kim Lighting, illuminates a 3-story parking facility containing 720 parking spaces.

Lang Lighting’s design also included enveloping the exterior of the Omni in a multi-colored LED lighting treatment that generates additional energy and excitement. Lang Lighting in collaboration with Innovative Lighting installed a custom designed linear LED fixture and programming infrastructure on the exterior of the hotel. With the LED system integrated into the deep recesses of the hotel’s 23-story curtain wall, the entire hotel tower takes on a different character at night. A work of art in its own right, the dancing ribbons of LED colored lights surrounding each floor can be seen for miles in all directions.

Summing up the overall lighting design created by Lang Lighting for the hotel’s public and private spaces, 5G Studio Collaborative partner and co-founder Scott Lowe noted that the intent was for the lighting scheme to become a communications tool transmitting the operational point of view of the Omni linking décor, architecture, and service that makes the hotel guest feel welcomed, comfortable and appreciated. Functionally and aesthetically those objectives were achieved, he said.

Hubbell Lighting president, Scott Muse, noted “The Omni is a landmark project for its leadership in sustainable design underscored by its creative use of energy efficient and innovative lighting. We are proud to have contributed to its achievement of USGBC’s LEED Gold certification.”

As a result of both the interior and exterior lighting, the new Omni Dallas Hotel has introduced a fresh approach that helps to unify the Central Business District, and hopefully has established something distinctive and memorable as a Dallas landmark that will endure for years to come, stated Netzhammer. Paraphrasing remarks made by Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings during the official grand opening of the hotel, Netzhammer concluded that the Omni Hotel has already significantly contributed to reinvigorating Dallas’ world-class reputation in the large meeting and convention industry.

About the Lighting Team:

The Hubbell Lighting agent, Hossley Lighting Associates, was founded in 1977. The company is recognized as the leading manufacturers representative agency in North Texas.
The distributor, Rexel, is the world’s leading distributor of electrical supplies.
5G Studio Collaborative, founded in 2005 is based in Dallas and operates internationally. Its award-winning services include architecture, interiors and strategic branding, with noted success in all business sectors – and with an acclaimed expertise in sustainability.
Lang Lighting Design provides architectural lighting design services through its offices in Dallas, TX, Weathersfield, VT, and Shanghai, China. Since its inception in 2002, the company’s portfolio has grown to over 400 projects worldwide.
Blum Consulting Engineers is a mechanical/electrical system design and engineering firm. Established in 1945, the Dallas based firm includes a staff of engineers licensed in over 30 states.

About Hubbell Lighting:

Hubbell Lighting is one of the largest lighting fixture manufacturers in North America. The company provides a full range of indoor and outdoor lighting products serving the commercial, industrial, institutional, and residential markets. Hubbell Lighting brands include Alera Lighting, Architectural Area Lighting, Beacon Products, Columbia Lighting, Compass Products, Devine Lighting, Dual-Lite, HomeStyle Lighting, Hubbell Building Automation, Hubbell Industrial Lighting, Hubbell Outdoor Lighting, Kim Lighting, Kurt Versen, Prescolite, Progress Lighting, Security Lighting, Spaulding Lighting, Sportsliter Solutions, Sterner Lighting Systems, Thomasville Lighting, and Whiteway.

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