Historic Building in El Paso Gets a Fresh New Look: O.T. Bassett Tower Facade Lighting
The CodeLumen team, the lighting division of Creates Group, has worked on this project for the last year, and we are happy to be a part of something bigger and to touch history. We want to share the story of the journey, historical facts, some of the project’s challenges, and how we overcame them using new technologies to change the look of El Paso’s historical landmark.
The main goal of the project was to illuminate the facade of The Bassett Building, which is located in downtown El Paso, Texas, and was recently transformed into a modern art deco Aloft Hotel and commercial spaces. The main challenge of this project was highlighting the historic architectural details of the building without compromising the aesthetic and historical aspects. How did we design and engineer sustainable lighting solutions to illuminate the exterior facade of the building? Hold on, let’s first dive into the history of this place.
The O.T. Bassett Tower was built by Charles N. Bassett in 1930 as a memorial to his father, Oscar T. Bassett, who was a pioneer El Pasoan and one of the founders of El Paso’s first bank, the State National Bank of El Paso. Henry C. Trost was the chief designer and architect of the building. El Paso Times acknowledged him in 1933: “He was the one who let himself be known by his works, rather than his words, one who made a valid and lasting contribution to the development of this great region. His was a life of purpose and achievement, and he leaves the Southwest richer for his having lived and worked in it.”
Henry Trost designed the building and decorated it with many nice details, including decorative terracotta elements and faces at the main entrance. Supposedly, one of the faces in the middle of the facade — a man with a heavy mustache — is Henry Trost himself; another suggestion is that it might be Oscar T. Bassett. Either way, to add such an element was a typical gesture of Trost’s sense of humor.
For the last ten to fifteen years, El Paso has invested in renovating the downtown area, making it more attractive for the citizens and aggressively vitalizing the central part of the city. When it comes to renovating historic buildings, a specific set of rules must be followed, and no significant changes to the state of construction can be made. To complete this project, we had to get our plans approved by the Texas State Historic Landmark Commission and El Paso’s local Landmark Commission — this stage alone took us months.
The art deco skyscraper is a historical landmark of the city and has to stay the same because it has been around for almost 100 years. We could not install lighting fixtures or touch the original materials of the building. By teaming up with architects and engineers, we came up with a solution: arched metal pools holding top-quality LED fixtures. The construction of the fixtures connected to the roof of the building, and they don’t touch the surface of the wall or any decorative details. Our custom-made solution is designed to illuminate architectural details of the building, making them stand out during the nighttime.
The CodeLumen team fully managed the project, from the lighting solution to fixture specifications and installation. During the project, we used our own management platform and in-house developed transparent bidding system where subcontractors could offer their services.
Because CodeLumen’s headquarters is in New York, one of the challenges was coordinating work with the client more than 3,101 miles apart. To simplify the process of a complex architectural project, we used our own management platform so that the project could be done remotely without a single problem. Specifically, our user-friendly management tools within our platform were used to design and specify architectural spec-rate lighting solutions for four mockup residences and successfully execute the project.
Our lighting design and engineering team analyzed every single area of the floor plan to properly specify architectural lighting solutions. In other words, once the areas were analyzed, our lighting fixture selection was focused on technical and architectural elements, such as LED engine, efficiency, lumen output, beam angle, color temperature, and IP rating, among other elements.
Our smart icon technology (part of the Creates Platform) was incorporated into the digital architectural floor plans. Smart icons were used to recognize the lighting fixture type and location within a floor plan. Once the user clicked on a smart icon, the user was granted access to all key data about the specified lighting fixture, such as spec sheets, installation sheets, and tracking numbers. Additionally, our platform helped manage the entire lifecycle of the project.
The final lighting solution was installed in May 2019 to create a new look for the historical El Paso landmark. The CodeLumen team enjoyed working on such an interesting project and is satisfied with the work done. The team is ready to take on new challenges.
For additional details, please contact us info@clumen.com.a