Week #10- The Theatre at The Ace Lobby- Tasha Spear

I went to the Theatre at the Ace Hotel last week to see Ingrid Michaleson in concert and thought this view from the upstairs lobby had so many interesting lighting elements. Starting with the floor, there are these two strips of light that are brightening up the deep green of the floor. This light is coming from a small torch-type sconce on the wall to the left (not pictured). I find it interesting to look at how a small light can make such a difference. The lit parts of the floor have so much more dimension than the parts that are in shadow or even mostly in darkness. The carpet has such detail and when lit with just a little bit of white light, you can see the design much better.

Possibly my favorite lighting in this photo is the lighting through the banister/ railing. The railing has such an ornate design, and with the yellow, white and hints of purple lights shinning through, it creates this really beautiful effect. I think it would be cool to find a gobo that resembled this banister and try to recreate this type of lighting effect. It kind of reminded me of looking at light through tree branches.

The chandelier in the middle of the ceiling is obviously giving off the most light. Interestingly, although the light is mostly white/ yellow, the pink candles make the light seem to have a pink tinge to it. I would say that the emotion is more ethereal, than blinding. The chandelier is the main, functional light in the room because it is definitely what people are relying on to be able to see in the darkened room. I would imagine that because it is so grand, the designer probably wanted the focus to be on the chandelier. Although it is big and bright, the room still has a dark, club- like feel, which is I think what the designer was probably trying to go for because the Ace Hotel does seem to have that club- like feeling, however, the chandelier does add some class to the scene and I feel like the Ace is also a pretty classy place.  

The lights that are pictured behind the chandelier are multicolored Christmas-looking lights that are actually outside of the building and on the other side of the street. Even though they are outside, you can actually see their reflection in the mirror to the left. The multicolored lights kind of infringe upon the club-like/ classy feel of the Ace hotel. I personally don’t like the multi-colored Christmas lights. They seem tacky to me, but that’s probably because I like uniformity in everything, therefore I would prefer one color of light rather than many colored lights. The multi-colored lights evoke a sense of indecisiveness. (I realize that’s a bold claim, but I was always very against the multi-colored lights on our tree. I needed the lights to be all white twinkle lights).

On the left side of the picture, there are purple lights than can kind of be seen from downstairs. The entire bar was completely colored with purple light. I think that the intent behind this was to be fun and colorful, especially because the rest of the lobby was dim, or lit with white light/ yellow light. I really liked the purple color because it was pretty saturate. The saturate color definitely gave me a sense of nightlife and downtown LA.