Life & Casualty Tower
The soaring LED chandelier is the centerpiece of a new arrival experience in the lobby of the iconic L&C Tower, located in the heart of downtown Nashville. Renovated by Gensler, the Life & Casualty Tower was the city’s first skyscraper and once the tallest office building in the southeast. Designed by Edwin Keeble in 1957, the 39-story building is Internationalist in style with added Art Deco elements. The limestone, granite, and green glass building has distinctive vertical aluminum “fins” that are also practical, controlling sunlight in the building and improving energy efficiency. Intersecting curves and angles at the building’s base focuses attention on the entrance which angles out to the street corner. The new chandelier turns the building entrance into a glowing lantern, enhancing the building’s new identity by increasing its visibility and beckoning visitors to enter.
The tower has a history of using innovative lighting experiences to connect with the public. In the building’s early days until the 1980s, the 25 feet high L&C sign functioned as a weather beacon, changing color to indicate the forecast. It was re-set every four hours and controlled form the metrology department at a nearby airfield. The four-story lobby chandelier brings a new iconic lighting experience, offering a different geometric pattern and emotional experience at every level and viewpoint. Designed around the lobby’s skylight, the chandelier fills the large vertical void while maintaining an ephemeral lightness in feel that belies the challenges of a highly technical installation. Highly responsive to the site, the shape of the chandelier follows the form of the lobby, which is a very narrow and tall space with a curved back wall that turns into the ceiling. The top corner of the chandelier echoes this curve.
Client: 511 Group
Location: Nashville, TN
Size: 37’-11” x 16’-8” x 8’-4”
LED: 3158 pixels, 154 strands
Cost: : $117,000
Project Status: Completed 2016
Team: Gensler (Interior Architect), RUSH Design (Fabricator)
Photographer: Studio1Thousand
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