(or Rather Not):
A Proposal for Improving Lighting in the PAC
Color and light, music and art. One of the most fascinating buildings on Western Washington University’s campus is the Performing Arts Center (PAC). It houses three departments of the school and it creates dozens of spectacular shows each year. On the outside you will find a beautiful, colorful building. There is a gorgeous view of the water and a beautiful red statue right on top of the green grass. However, if you dare to go inside this building, you’ll find yourself in a scary-looking, dark and suffocating place.
Light Influences Mood
The issue with the music side of the PAC is that it has no windows. Windows not only allow natural light to come in, but they can create a bright, inspirational mood for an entire area. An article from the Richmond Times-Dispatch (2013) called “How Lighting Can Affect Your Mood” talks about how lighting affects your emotions, and how light helps you determine the personality of a place.
Much of the Performing Arts Center is windowless, since it is mostly underground. Most of the teachers’ offices have a window that lets light in, but as for students, only one classroom in the entire department has windows. If you were ever to travel into the underground PAC, you would feel like you were in some dank dungeon. The lights are hard and bright, lit like a fast food restaurant or department store, and the atmosphere is very somber and congested. One place, in particular, is the most unpleasant and suffocating of all. When exiting the elevator on the Lower Level One or Lower Level Two, you will find yourself in a bland, unpleasant place without windows or light. Yellow lights from the ceiling provide illumination, but no natural light is visible.
Imagine what first impression prospective students will have if this is what they experience in the PAC. What is the personality of a place without windows? Since college admissions are very competitive, it is important that a school create the best impression possible.
Create Natural Overhead Lighting Sources
The problem with the Lower Level 2 hallway is that this part of the building is in the heart of the PAC, thus making it very difficult to solve the problem of "no natural light." It’s not quite as simple as busting out a wall, and “viola.” All around are important rooms and structures that can’t be demolished. Right above the hallway on the Lower Level 2, there is the hallway for Lower Level 1. Above that is the outside of the building, near the entrance of the PAC. Aha!
My solution for the "lack of natural light" problem is: instead of thinking about the walls, think about the ceiling. Architecturally, this is called, “daylighting,” and according to the National Institute of Building Sciences (2016) is defined as “the controlled admission of natural light - direct sunlight and diffuse skylight.” Sometimes you must think outside of the box in order to solve intimidating challenges.
Imagine a column of glass, a huge tube that goes from the outside of the PAC down into the ground, passing through both hallways. At the bottom of this column of glass there could be plants or art. At the top of the column there could be a grate closing the hole, allowing people to walk on the surface across it. A grate is much better than a glass top because a glass top would get filthy from being walked on and it would obscure the light.
This is such a great solution because you’d only need to dig through the ceiling and floor not through any rooms or walls. Also, there is already a column in the Lower Level Two's hallway, so you could just replace that existing column with the glass one.
The light would be less prominent in the Lower Level Two than the Lower Level One, which would make it feel like deep-sea ocean. I suggest either putting art in this glass column, like a hanging, glass art chandelier or some stain glass. Or you could plant some plants at the bottom.
Improved Lighting = Better Student Experience
Beautiful art or windows in the middle of this dull building would excite prospective students and improve the experience of anyone visiting this public space. When I was a prospective student, the dungeon-like atmosphere of the PAC almost made me want to go to another school. (Which is a pity because this school's music department is phenomenal!) The lighting makes the space feels unwelcome and boring. According to Bristolite Daylighting Systems (2016), “a growing number of schools and colleges are taking the initiative and making natural light a key architectural focus. Natural light offers a wide variety of benefits in an educational environment, from improved focus to creating better student health.”
When kids audition for the Music Department, they have to go underground. Wouldn’t it be better if this part of the PAC focused more on using natural light? This area is not the shining part of the building, evidenced by the fact that tour guides for Western intentionally avoid this area and only show off the top of the PAC.
Funding Considerations
This project would definitely cost a lot of money. There would be the cost of the glass, the cost of the construction to demolish a hole in the building, the cost of removing lights and sprinklers from out of the column’s way, the cost of the art to put in the column, and the cost of an architect to overview the project. What do you get for all of this money?
Well, you get two lively, beautiful hallways in the center of this, rather dull building, which would inspire students and add color and appeal to the PAC for prospective students.
A planned fundraising campaign targeted at improving parts of the PAC could be of interest to many Western Music Department alumni, who might be interested in funding a project like this one.
Conclusion
This project would not be nearly as expensive as many other projects the school wants to tackle, and would not take up nearly as much time. If this were to be done, you would have a beautiful piece of art and nature to lighten up the dungeon-like PAC, completed in one season or less. The space would be more appealing to prospective students and they would see the beauty of not just the outside of the PAC, but the interior as well.
References
Bristolite Daylighting Systems. (2014). Natural light and education: The benefits of daylighting for schools and colleges. Retrieved from http://www.bristolite.com/blog/natural-light-and-education-the-benefits-of-daylighting-for-schools-and-colleges/.
How lighting can affect your mood. (2013, August 25). Richmond Times-Dispatch. Retrieved from http://www.richmond.com/entertainment-life/home-garden/how-lighting-can-affect-your-mood/article_39478dc0-70ff-5be1-847e-04737f557bb2.html
National Institute of Building Sciences. (2014). Daylighting. Retrieved from the Whole Building and Design Guide Web Site. https://www.wbdg.org/resources/daylighting.php.
Wood, S. (n.d.). Public art gems brighten SF's Civic Center. Retrieved from S/F Arts website: http://www.sfarts.org/ feature.cfm?featureID=411&title=public-art-gems-brighten-sfs-civic-center