Design Solution

Shaken, Not Shattered

Euclid Ave · Highland Park, Dallas

DEFINING REQUIREMENTS · PRODUCT DESIGN

An event lounge masquerading as a basketball court created a requirements list no catalog fixture could satisfy.

The room needed NCAA-level illumination for competitive play, but it also had to become a subdued, dramatic entertainment space. The same ceiling fixture therefore had to provide broad athletic light and a second layer of controlled accent lighting without introducing a separate visual language.

Impact resistance was non-negotiable. The custom assembly used a 1/4-inch Lexan lens cover—an exceptionally tough barrier for a fixture installed directly in the path of high-speed lacrosse balls—while the internal layout combined eight 36-inch T5HO sources with four PAR38 accent heads. The marked-up shop drawing records those requirements directly.

The budget was as unforgiving as the performance criteria. The solution was not an exotic one-off object for its own sake; it was a deliberately simple enclosure organized around readily understood sources, service access, impact protection and two very different operating modes.

Define the requirements first. Then design only what the market cannot provide.

Close view of the custom Euclid Ave gym luminaire

Marked-up shop drawing showing 1/4-inch Lexan lens, T5HO sources and PAR38 heads

Euclid Ave gym showing custom luminaires across the wood ceiling

Euclid Ave gym showing the fixtures in architectural context

From Requirements to Product

The value of the custom fixture was not novelty. It was the ability to recognize that athletic performance, event atmosphere, impact resistance, serviceability and cost all belonged to one product brief—and then resolve them inside one architectural object.