Moxy Austin

This Project included all front of house public areas in a small, university-centered hotel in Austin. The Moxy is a stylish and playful hotel that targets a young, hip demographic and therefore the public areas center around the focal bar, which also acts as the reception desk. The client refused to accept LED lighting in Lobby and Restaurant spaces, with the exception of linear warm-dim fixtures, and we still had to meet the 2015 IECC. The main lobby and bar spaces were designed with exposed black ceilings, presenting huge challenges for a typical indirect ambient lighting approach. Standard budget restrictions were identified fairly early in the design process and allowed us to move forward with specified and mostly acceptable alternates. Due to the black ceilings in the main public areas, the lighting concept had to rely on reinforcing the vertical surfaces and decorative elements, particularly the main bar and decorative shelving. We incorporated lighting into multiple bar features and decorative walls to bring the visual perspective as high toward the black ceiling as possible.

A dimming system is utilized in every public space. The balance of daylight and artificial light, particularly with the interior black ceilings, is critical. Time-clock settings and fade times are instrumental in transitioning from day to night and bringing as much attention to the feature bar as possible. Lighting scenes are balanced to account for the glow from the bright and distracting TV wall. The bar, the central figure of this hotel, incorporates integrated shelf uplights make the bottles and backlit glass glow, under shelf accents light the bar top, while under counter lighting highlights the special bar finish. Surface mounted adjustable fixtures spot tables and highlight decorative items on shelving while allowing the bar to remain the primary glow. Hexcell louvers were added to all adjustable fixtures for glare control. Integrated banquette uplighting highlights art and the tile wall. All LED light sources incorporate warm-dim technology that allows lighting to become warmer and more golden as it dims, blending in seamlessly with the traditional incandescent and halogen light sources.