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Morimoto Restaurant: 2001 – Present

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

In 2001, restaurant designer Karim Rashid created a modern restaurant space for The Food Network's famous Iron Chef, Masaharu Morimoto. Focus Lighting promoted Rashid's architectural design, which resembles a magnificent piece of kinetic sculpture with straight, clean lines and glass partitions. Paul Gregory, Principal at Focus Lighting, enhanced this modern design by installing Philips Color Kinetics iColor Cove* LED fixtures in the glass partitions between each of the restaurant's booths. The result was a display of rich, varied colored light and dynamic color changing effects — shifting from subtle white and pale tints to dramatic deep saturations. Gregory comments, "This was one of our first projects with Philips Color Kinetics prior to LEDs becoming the 'thing' in the industry. Philips Color Kinetics gave us the ability to light a space and make it timeless, both in the design sense and the literal sense."

Since the installation in 2001, the fixtures have been running approximately 14 hours a day — almost 60,000 hours in total. Although a few power supplies have been replaced due to power surges, the installation has never had a failed unit and the LED fixtures are still going strong. "Overall, the system is rock solid," says project lighting designer, JR Krauza. "The no-fail system has also worked to our advantage since it is installed in a location that is pretty much impossible to access if any fixtures needed to be replaced."

"The client has always been extremely pleased with the lighting and still feels that it is the defining feature of the space," says Krauza. "The LED lighting effects provide a wonderful, ever-changing visual interest for diners while accent lighting above maintains the visual integrity of the cuisine."

* Now specified using iColor Cove QLX Powercore