member since 2002
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Church Lighting Restoration
If your church has a signature lighting style, but your fixtures are starting to show their age, We can make them look new again.
One of Artech's specialties is restoring and upgrading church lighting.
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John McNicholas
John brings 25 years of lighting expertise to Artech. He began his career, at a large lighting design firm in New York City, as a mechanic in the lighting department. He was promoted, to Production Manager, before setting out in 1990 to found his own company. In 2006 John joined Artech's team, as our lighting specialist, bringing his vast experience with production, fabrication, design and restoration of church lighting fixtures. |
John's Workshop |
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Hawthorne Gospel Church, Hawthorne, NJ Contemporary Style Lights
Hawthorne Gospel came to Artech for a complete church renovation. Artech was able to assist them by improving their lighting and providing new pews.
At the time of the renovation, the sanctuary lighting was provided by 22 overhead fixtures and several large wall fixtures, located in the rear of the room.
Due to the age and location of the fixtures, there were pools of dim light interspersed with shadows.
The church was considering disposing of the fixtures and purchasing new ones. However, Artech was able to show them how they could save money, and still solve their lighting problems, by refurbishing the existing church fixtures.
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We presented them with several sketches, of the proposed lighting renovation. They chose an option that utilized the outer arms of their existing fixtures, removed the center "candle" and added a center bowl. We removed one fixture and brought it back to the shop. John modified it and we presented the sample, to the church. They were happy with the results and had us do the lighting restoration. You can see the results. |
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While John was finishing the church lighting, they removed their carpet and replaced it with stone flooring.
We installed new curved pews to replace their old straight pews.
The final result was dramatic as you can see.
Our goal was to meet the 3 area's of light :
- Downlighting, for a wide spread of light over the pews
- Interior fixture light, for general illumination
- Uplighting, for ambient reflective light
Standard fixtures are made for general lighting, not specialized church lighting.
Artech retro-actively modified Hawthorne's lighting, to fit their space and needs. By altering the arrangement of the bulbs we were able to expand the spread of light, increasing the 10 foot wide cones, of light, to 18 feet. This allowed the islands of light to overlap and eliminated the dark areas between the islands.
We added new lights, to increase general illumination and uplights to remove the shadows from the ceiling.
John was able to suggest a different type of bulb, which improved the color quality of the lights.
Now, instead of a yellowish white light, the fixtures now give off a bright white light.
The new bulbs also last 3000 hours, as opposed to 1500 hours. This is significant when your lights are 2 stories off the ground.
The most dramatic effect, of Hawthorne Gospel's lighting renovation, isn't even visible. The new fixtures use halogen lights, which provide more illumination with less glare, all while consuming less wattage.
1 center down: 6 outer down: 6 outer up: 6 outer inner: 1 interior bowl: Total: |
500 watts 540 watts 600 watts 600 watts N/A 2240 watts |
N/A 720 watts 600 watts 225 watts 180 watts 1725 watts |
Traditional Style Lights
St. Luke's Lutheran Church was considering renovating.
They wanted to redo their upholstery and carpet, for a new look.
St. Luke's also had lighting problems. They had three aging fixtures, in the center of the sanctuary ceiling, providing the only light in the church.
The church had beautiful original fixtures, but they were not providing sufficient light for the sanctuary.
After contacting other companies and getting the response that they would need to replace the fixtures, they contacted us.
We were the only company that gave them the option to restore and upgrade their existing fixtures.
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Artech met with the Church and proposed suggestions for changes to the lighting fixtures. The existing church lighting fixtures had one large bulb pointing straight down.
John's recommendation was; to modify the outer decorative band to hold six halogen downlights, angled to provide a wide spread of light.
Additionally, six compact fluorescent interior lights would provide illumination, in all directions.
In the above photograph, John is working with the pastor to select the finish color for the fixtures.
The proposal was accepted and we took the fixtures, to our shop, for refitting.
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We finished the renovation and re-installed the fixtures.
The new acrylic panels allow a cleaner white light, from the central cylinder, and the additional bulbs light the entire cylinder. This resolved the problem of the singular center light source.
The angled downlights now allow light to reach the entire sanctuary.
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