Kevin Rorabaugh - Lighting Design Projects

drawing
Rittenhouse Hotel Exterior Courtyard & Entry Lighting | Rendering for BEAM ltd | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Lighting Design Projects

Drawing is an exceedingly useful method for understanding the environment around oneself. Slowing down the normal pace of daily life or a packed travel itinerary, taking the time to draw allows for the absorbing and analysis of underlying concepts, orders, & assembly of natural & constructed objects. I strive to maintain an active, ongoing, & varied personal sketchbook in order to continue developing my drawings & analysis skills.

Recycled Components Lighting Fixture

Various projects focused on lighting design.

Type: Personal
Date: Spring 2014
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Role: Design, Fabrication

A necessary fixture of architectural and design offices is a large format printer or plotter for production of drawings. This equipment requires large amounts of consumables, most notably 36" or 40" long paper rolls and rigid cardboard tubes. These tubes, similar to an empty toilet paper roll, commonly accumulate in the office or are disposed. My interest in lighting combined with my notice of this daily aspect of life in design offices worked to generate this idea for how to repurpose these underappreciated but potentially useful materials. A common, inexpensive 4 foot long fluorescent strip fixture was covered with perfectly fit shields cut from the cardboard tubes and mounted via the plastic endcaps that are shipped with the tubes. Indirect light is reflected from the fixture with projecting wings and the primary direct glare from the fluorescent tube is blocked by the perforated bottom. This resulted in a fixture that volumetrically fill a space with primarily diffuse light and some direct downlight, similar to various commercially available fixtures. The cardboard was then spraypainted white for greater reflectivity and a cleaner appearance. The fixture was completed for a minimal cost and minimal fabrication time provided proper tools for cutting through the tough cardboard.

design design design design design design

Lighting fixture design and fabrication process

completed

Completed lighting fixture

Drexel University Perelman Plaza

Various projects focused on lighting design.

Type: Landscape, Professional Work
Date: Summer 2012 - Summer 2013
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Role: Lighting Designer
Team: various at The Lighting Practice

site plan

Proposed site plan and feature lighting for the new academic plaza

mockup mockup mockup

Lighting facade mockup of historic beaux-arts style Drexel University Main Building

Horseshoe Casino

Various projects focused on lighting design.

Type: Hospitality, Commercial, Landscape, Professional Work
Date: Summer 2012 - Summer 2013
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Role: Lighting Designer
Team: various at The Lighting Practice
Awards: 2015 Award of Merit: The Illuminating Engineering Society; 2015 Philament Award: IES Philadelphia Section

This new 350,000 sf (32,500 sqm) casino contains extensive gaming floors, entertainment venues, dining, and an attached parking garage that all required careful lighting design. My responsibilities included extensive documentation in Revit BIM software to coordinate and detail lighting for the high-end interiors required. One prominent feature of the project was extensive lighting coves throughout all areas, and this required matching the specific ceiling details and curves. Keeping track of quantities and lengths of all fixtures for cost evaluation of these elements was also needed. I addressed this issue by developing custom lighting fixture families and parameters based on the needs of the project and for future use by our office. The process consisted of studying the various installation conditions in the project, then synthesizing and creating a standardized kit of parts in Revit with configuration toallow for live reading of lengths and feedback as needed based on costs. The outcome was the continued development of similar lighting fixture families and processes, using and improving them in other projects. Ultimately the lighting fixtures for this project were installed successfully, time was saved in the design process by reducing time spent counting or scheduling, and more time was freed to focus on other decisions. The project was completed and opened in the summer of 2014.

elevation