Printemps

When upscale French retailer Printemps opened their New York location on Wall Street this spring (fittingly), they needed to make a statement that could be seen from the street in the rapidly evolving Financial District. They wanted something that conveyed both their dedication to couture and style, but also their signature playful approach to fashion and retail.

(And it just so happens that Printemps’ new location is right across the street from another Nanometer project, Trinity Church!)

The Pillars

In the marble-clad “Playroom,” one of their multiple retail areas, the space is punctuated by glowing pillars of light. For their opening season, the pillars were illuminated in a spring green that evoked both Printemps’ signature brand color as well as the decorative and pastel elements associated with Parisian design. The quirky, unexpected element also mirrors the casual, playful clothing found in the Playroom.

To create the luminous pillars, Nanometer mounted three horizontally oriented NanoFloat Square fixtures equipped with RGBW LED behind clear glass panels with decorative embellishments on each side of the pillar. The combination of the Float panels and the embellished glass creates the “tiled” effect but ensures even, seamless illumination on all four sides. This modern take on mosaic also echoes the historic Red Room, where today, visitors can peruse shoes amid artist Hildreth Meière’s 1920s-era tile mosaics.

But since fashion is so subject to change, the decor had to be adaptable, too. The NanoFloat fixtures in the pillars are equipped with RGBW LEDs, making them able to be programmed in any color. This makes them capable of supporting the changing aesthetic requirements for different seasons, designers, and events with ease.

The Ceiling

To continue the green motif up onto the ceiling, a lattice with channels along the top side was installed. These channels would serve as housing for lighting fixtures that would reflect off the ceiling for a diffuse glow. However, the challenge lay in the fact that the channels were very shallow, and required not only a minimal-profile fixture, but a remote driver as well. Nanometer was not only able to come up with a remote driver solution, but one that was robust enough to handle the high wattage required to meet the lighting goals for the space.

Leader cables were needed for every fixture, and this could have easily gotten chaotic, but Nanometer was able to develop a solution. To keep things clean and orderly, Nanometer made it so the power supplies only featured one feed per run. This feed ran to a hatch, and then branched out from there to the fixtures. This “fractal” organization allowed for the NanoLine Standard fixtures to maintain consistent illumination while the ceiling lattice remained sleek and discreet for an elegant shopping experience.