R90 Lighting was honored to team up with Campfire Collective for the reopening of Seattle Union Station’s Grand Hall.
Our team brought out the character of this historic Seattle landmark while giving it a fresh, modern feel. The design goal was to blend modern lighting technology with the classic architectural aesthetics of one of Seattle’s famous historic landmarks. Not one to pass up an opportunity to deploy some of the more unique equipment in our lighting toolbox, this design made use of our GLP Nexus Circles and Nexus Lines, as well as utilized our flagship Elation Paragon M fixtures which provided the immersive texture against the historic building architecture.
The build itself was helmed by our esteemed leader and creative mastermind, Joe Cole, responsible for both the lighting design and programming the fixtures on a ChamSys MagicQ MQ50. Joe was assisted in the build by Alexa Nader and Mary Hall, with Kurtis Copeland jumping on for the strike.
As power was a limiting factor, we opted to utilize a number of additional battery powered lighting fixtures from our inventory, including ADJ Mirage IP Q6, Chauvet Freedom H1, and Chauvet EZPin Zoom. In order to provide power to the Paragon Ms, we employed the service of our friend Moises Santos’ MESSX 10K Mobile Energy Storage System, which provided plenty of juice to our thirstier lighting fixtures, eliminating the need for a noisy generator.
Thanks to Campfire Collective for bringing us on for this one!
A Brief History of Seattle’s Union Station
Seattle’s Union Station opened its doors on May 20, 1911. Built by the Union Pacific Railroad as an answer to the Great Northern and Northern Pacific’s King Street Station which had opened just one block away five years earlier. Architect Daniel J. Patterson designed the building, drawing comparisons to the grand rail terminals that began appearing in New York and Chicago at the time. The two stations sat close enough that passersby could see both at once, a rare sight of competing railroad giants facing off across the street.
The station’s run as an active passenger hub didn’t last much more than half a century. The Milwaukee Road pulled its passenger service in 1961, and Union Pacific followed a decade later in 1971 when Amtrak consolidated Seattle rail service at King Street Station instead. With no trains running through it anymore, the building sat largely empty, and at one point an antique store took over the Grand Hall for several years.
The building stayed idle for nearly three decades before real restoration efforts began. Nitze-Stagen led the renovation with backing from Paul Allen, and the station reopened in October 1999. The project won a preservation award in 2000 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the building had already been added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Today, Union Station serves as headquarters for Sound Transit, and the Grand Hall has become one of Seattle’s most sought-after event spaces. A fitting second act for a building originally designed to make an impression the moment people walked in.
