Lighting Becomes an Industrial Feature in Exposed Ceiling of a Fitness Center

In 2019, new owners purchased the then 10-year-old office building at 600 Washington Boulevard in Stamford, Conn. The owners retained Tantillo Architecture to redesign the public spaces in the 12-story, approximately 450,000-square-foot building. Part of the update is the newly opened Rippewaum Corporate Fitness Center, now located on the fifth floor, which had previously been a commercial kitchen space. The owners requested a modern, clean look for the fitness center that building employees could enjoy. The client wanted to embrace exposed structures and also wanted the lighting to be a feature of the design.

Project team members Chris Tantillo, Chris Reed, Katie Dane and Andrew DeVares of Tantillo Architecture had quite the challenge: Walls had to be taken down, changing the traffic flow from space to space, and they needed to incorporate a lighting system that could work with a ceiling cluttered with existing pipes, vents and wiring.

The specified lighting was chosen to illuminate the space while aesthetically blending in with the ceiling and becoming an architectural feature. The lighting—PureEdge Lighting’s Pipeline Modular Suspension—has an industrial vibe look while also maintaining a simplistic elegance. The pipe-style lighting was the start of the whole design. Large ductwork running through the space was a challenge. Chris Reed, senior project architect, and his team designed the flexible lighting system to move down and around the ducts and make it a part of the ceiling.

“Anytime you have exposed structures, you have to consider how to incorporate lighting while getting maximum ceiling height. [Pipeline Modular Suspension] allowed us to work around everything,” Reed comments.

The lighting system also includes dimmable LEDs, which was very important to the building owner because the lighting can easily adjust for the time of day. 

Everything in open ceilings is typically round, yet traditional lighting is square. The lighting system specified in this project was selected because it’s flexible, plug-and-play and can scale walls and turn corners—a lighting system for designers looking for a customizable industrial-looking lighting system.