View Full Version : Beacon of Hope Lighting



Decious
11-03-2005, 09:33 AM
The Beacon of Hope was lit last night. Did anyone attend the ceremony or see it? It extends over a mile into the sky, so I'm sure someone did. It'll be on every night from dusk until about 2 am.

http://www.newsok.com/tempimages/n3beacon.jpg

BDP
11-03-2005, 09:43 AM
That'll be cool if you can really see it from a distance. I didn't notice it when I was downtown last night.

russellc
11-03-2005, 10:18 AM
I drove by it last night, and I could only see it from about 1/4 mile away, and even then it wasn't very bright. The inside of the tube is lit up bright green and is very visible from 235 though.

metro
11-03-2005, 10:55 AM
I forgot that was going on, too much excitement from the Hornets game and the American Indian cultural center the last few days. It is probably brighter from 235 because the opening is facing that way more

ksearls
11-03-2005, 03:55 PM
Hi,

I attended last night's official lighting and it was pretty cool. I think it is a great new addition to the area. Rand Elliot's vision for the project is pretty amazing. The moths seemed to like it too!

Kim

jbrown84
11-03-2005, 05:07 PM
So you can't really see it from more than a 1/4 mile away? That's disappointing.

plmccordj
11-03-2005, 07:03 PM
What time do they consider dusk? I just left there at 8:00pm and it is still not on. I went to take a picture and waited for an hour and never came on.

Paul

soonerguru
11-03-2005, 11:48 PM
Lame. Very disappointing. Rand Elliott is an unbelievably great architect,and the concept for the beacon is excellent, but the execution blows.

As another poster said, the green light they chose is so faint you don't even notice it in the sky unless you know to look for it.

They need a more powerful light source, as the one they are displaying today is quite limp.

okrednk
11-04-2005, 05:57 AM
Yeah, that would be cool if you were a visitor driving in on I-40 and seen that green glow in the sky, it might make some people get off the interstate and go see what the heck it is.

russellc
11-04-2005, 08:55 AM
The light is a single 10,000 watt xenon bulb. The beam of light at the Luxor in Vegas is actually 45 different bulbs that are 7,000 watts each totaling 315,000 watts.

plmccordj
11-04-2005, 04:44 PM
Did it ever come on last night and if it did what time was it? I want to go check it out and I waited an hour last night from 7:00 to 8:00 and it never came on.

Paul

John
11-04-2005, 05:23 PM
They say it is a billion candlepower or something like that, but I would like to see it improved upon.

In all the renderings and discussion, it was sold as something that would be just like the twin beacons of light coming up from the WTC site in NYC. It is hardly visible at all.

Maybe that is the strongest they can get it to be and still have green light. I know they say that green signifies life, but I think it is more of a play off of PHF's main color.

A landmark it is not if it isn't visible from further than 1/4 mile away.

russellc
11-04-2005, 06:00 PM
pjmccordj, I didn't go by last night, but it was on tonight when I drove by at 6:15 pm.

okrednk
11-04-2005, 09:53 PM
Does anyone have any photos from a night perspective.

diesel
11-05-2005, 01:29 PM
has anyone brought this point up to the builder or does he just think its bright as hell?

Patrick
11-05-2005, 08:34 PM
This is the pic OKCBusiness.com had posted. Doesn't look like a real pic though.

http://www.okcbusiness.com/images/newsletter/3228573_8064955.jpg

Patrick
11-05-2005, 08:35 PM
Hmmm...the article made this statement:

"By night, with over one million foot candles of power extending 5,498 feet into the sky, Oklahoma City's Beacon of Hope will be seen for miles around, lifting above the city skyline. "

Hmmm...guess the "miles around" part isn't completely accurate.

Patrick
11-05-2005, 08:40 PM
"Beacon of Hope, city's latest landmark, brightens the sky


By Jim Killackey
The Oklahoman

Oklahoma City's newest and most illuminating landmark came to life at 7 p.m. Wednesday when a 100-foot tall, monolithic sculpture beamed a powerful green light upward more than a mile into the night sky. The green light goes on for the first time Wednesday night from the new Beacon of Hope landmark northeast of downtown Oklahoma City. The light extends more than a mile into the night sky and will be on every night.
A switch flipped on the distinctive Beacon of Hope after more than 150 community leaders counted down from 10 then joyfully gazed at the monument to five founders of the Oklahoma Health Center northeast of downtown.

"This is a modern symbol that we're a modern city," local architect Rand Elliott said of the massive white cylinder designed to be a gateway to the 300-acre medical complex.

The beacon, Elliott said, symbolizes a "sense of energy" as it "lights the way to an ever-brighter future" for Oklahoma City. Elliott was the Beacon of Hope's lead designer.

In its own way, the Beacon of Hope is the kind of landmark comparable to the St. Louis Arch and San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, said James Pickel, co-owner of Smith and Pickel Construction Co.

The Beacon of Hope, Pickel said, ties together the Oklahoma Health Center, downtown Oklahoma City and St. Anthony Hospital.

Part of plaza tribute
Four years in the making, the steel sculpture is in Founders Plaza at Stiles Park, NE 8 and Stiles.

Founders Plaza is a tribute to the five founders of the Oklahoma Health Center -- Harvey P. Everest, E. K. Gaylord, Dean A. McGee, Dr. Don O'Donoghue and Stanton L. Young. They traveled to Houston in 1965 to visit the Texas Medical Center.

Inspired and determined to create a world-class medical complex, the civic leaders and those who followed them helped the Oklahoma Health Center emerge during the next 40 years.

Young is the only living member of the five. He flipped the switch on.

Clayton I. Bennett, president of the Oklahoma Health Center Foundation, termed the Beacon of Hope a monument and "a magnificent piece of art."

Stiles Park is believed to be the oldest park in Oklahoma, dedicated on Aug. 29, 1901. The 200-foot circular park is named after Capt. Daniel Frazier Stiles, an Oklahoma Territory police officer.

On most nights, the Beacon of Hope's green light will be seen from miles away, officials said. During the day, the monolith is visible from the Centennial Expressway.

Because Oklahoma City suffered from the Oil Bust in the 1980s and the Murrah Building bombing in 1995, the Beacon of Hope is symbolic of the city's resiliency and future aspirations, Pickel said.

The beacon will be daily from dusk to midnight or 2 a.m., officials said.

The luminous green beam, Elliott said Wednesday, helps highlight the healing nature of the Oklahoma Health Center, considered the state's premier resource for patient care, medical education, research and technology.

"The medical center complex is all about hope," commented Hershel Lamirand, executive director of the Oklahoma Health Center Foundation.

Other elements of the park, which had its grand opening Wednesday, include five stone rings and five flowering trees recognizing the five original visionaries.

Twenty perimeter trees acknowledge the committee that supported the medical center's original vision. One large oak tree that has survived the ages still stands to help those who visit remember the original history of the park, officials said.

The Founders Plaza is a project of the Oklahoma Centennial Commission. "

Patrick
11-05-2005, 08:40 PM
Beacon of Hope

Where: Founders Plaza at Stiles Park, NE 8 and Stiles, northeast of downtown Oklahoma City, east of the Centennial Expressway.

Cost: $700,000, all private funds.

Height: 100 feet.

Diameter: Eight feet.

Weight: 19,000 lbs.

Beacon color: White.

Beam color: Green.

Beam strength: 1 billion candle power.

Beam altitude: 5,498 feet, more than one mile.

When on/off: 365 days a year from about dusk to midnight or 2 a.m. Remains on during rain, snow or fog.

From concept to reality: Four years.

fromdust
11-05-2005, 11:28 PM
i was driving on 44 last night and i couldnt see a light downtown.

zuluwarrior0760
11-06-2005, 02:43 AM
part of the problem is most of the comparisons to other beams
such as the Luxor etc....have been "white light only" including
the world trade center beacon.....

This 10,000 watt xenon bulb does "NOT" have a billion candlepower...
but it does have a couple of million......

The problem comes when you put a dichroic green filter on top of it, which
subtracts elements of white light to make green (or actually to show
what green is left from white).......

this reduces approximately 65 percent of the potential output of white light.....

bottom line though is WHO CARES if it can be seen for miles........I think
we should be asking if it can be seen from Stiles Park, which it most
certainly can......

I can also assure you it can be seen from Rand Elliott's office door......

Karried
11-06-2005, 07:54 AM
Can it be changed to white easily or would that be cost prohibitive?

zuluwarrior0760
11-06-2005, 01:16 PM
Absolutely it could be changed easily to white.......except for one thing

The designer decided it should be green....

There are all sorts of other elements in that park that are worth seeing
as well.....I would go walk around before passing summary judgment
by just viewing the whole thing from I-40...

brianinok
11-06-2005, 01:43 PM
I drove down the Broadway Ext'n/I-235 from Edmond last night, and I did not see it until I was exiting on 6th. And it puny even from that range.

JOHNINSOKC
11-06-2005, 03:54 PM
I don't see how they can say that this is OKC's equivalent to the St. Louis Arch. I drove by on Friday night around 8:30 and it looked like the farthest it went up was a couple of hundred feet. Plus, it was VERY dim. What a joke! I was impressed with the actual beacon itself where you could clearly see the green light. I envisioned the same type of light that was used for the symbolizing of the twin towers in NYC. I wonder if the architect and whoever else was involved in this project is aware of the lack of a beam of light that is supposed to be a skyline changer for OKC. If I'm not mistaken, there was originally supposed to be two lights, one on either side of I-235. At any rate, this is not what most people were envisioning. With all the good news in OKC lately, this was a dud. I really hope that a developer comes in and buys the First National building soon and turns it into condos or apartments. That one building being as vacant as it is really hurts the downtown office occupancy. If you take that building off the market, we might actually see new construction soon on a new signature tower. Why they are keeping that building on the office market is beyond me! It's been many years and nothing has been done, so I say we either get rid of it altogether or find another use for it. If a developer can transform the former Citizens Tower into condos, then I don't believe it is impossible to do the same for the First National building. Aside from the airport, our downtown needs a new tower of at least 50 stories.

BDP
11-07-2005, 10:14 AM
In its own way, the Beacon of Hope is the kind of landmark comparable to the St. Louis Arch and San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, said James Pickel, co-owner of Smith and Pickel Construction Co.

I think statements like that is what has really hurt this project. Even if it is really nice, it has been way oversold. Clearly, it is a nice small attraction, but not a defining landmark like the ones above. At it's current visibility it will never be a symbol instantly recognized and associated with the city as the GG bridge and the STL arch are. Suggesting that it will be trivializes it and seems silly.

soonerguru
11-07-2005, 10:29 AM
This seems to be a classic example of the buyer skimping on the funds to do the job right. They're probably too cheap to pay what it costs to make this a real landmark.

To the poster above who suggested this has been "oversold," RIGHT ON.

We were promised a landmark visible for miles and we end up with something that isn't even as noticeable as CityWalk's "Beacon for Hos."

Too bad. This was a great concept, it was just very poorly executed.

darktowerjunkie12
11-07-2005, 01:10 PM
This seems to be a classic example of the buyer skimping on the funds to do the job right. They're probably too cheap to pay what it costs to make this a real landmark.


the people that paid for this just donated to get their name on the sign and to be able to say that they had a part in it...just ONE of the people that donated probably could have paid for it theirselves...i don't think it was a question of skimping...

Patrick
11-07-2005, 03:46 PM
I drove by today, as I'm a medical student at the HSC. Although I didn't see it at night, I wanted to see what it looked like during the day. I do agree that comparing this to the St. Louis arch is a joke. I mean, it's just a tube sticking up out of the ground, and it's not very tall.

I walked around the so-called park. What park are you referring to? There's some nice grass and some paver stones around the beacon, but there's really nothing else there.

I think for the $250,000 or whatever they spent, the money should've gone to creating a real park, instead of a laughing stock beacon. There still isn't a park at Stiles "Park." If we're going to create a real park there, we need playground equipment, picnic tables, benches, walking trails, etc. Right now, most of Stiles Park is simply wasteland, except for the small round-a-bout where the beacon sits.

Patrick
11-07-2005, 03:47 PM
I'll go by tomorrow and take a picture just to show everyone how big of a joke this is.

darktowerjunkie12
11-07-2005, 03:52 PM
I don't think it was meant to be a "park" as in the real sense of the word...it's meant as a place to reflect...there are alot of "parks" in america that has not one piece of playground equipment and it's not like there is a whole lot of room to do a whole lot with...i mean it's a 50' circle at the most i would imagine...and there are benches there...there are in fact 4 :)

BDP
11-07-2005, 03:57 PM
playground equipment

[cringe] Nothing ruins a good park like playground equipment.

;)

darktowerjunkie12
11-07-2005, 04:00 PM
lol

Patrick
11-07-2005, 04:13 PM
Here's a picture of it being brought it on a semi trailer! Guess, that gives you the idea of the size of this thing! Let's try putting the St. Louis arch on a trailer! :)

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/FoundersPlaza/P6160004.jpg

Here's a pic of in it place:

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/FoundersPlaza/P6160086.jpg


http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/FoundersPlaza/P6160072.jpg

Karried
11-07-2005, 05:00 PM
Thanks Patrick, cool pics - great concept, still a work in progress I hope -

I still vote to change the light to a brighter white light - what's the point of a green light (even if it chosen by the designer) if you can't even see the beam?

writerranger
11-07-2005, 05:19 PM
Thanks Patrick, cool pics - great concept, still a work in progress I hope -

I still vote to change the light to a brighter white light - what's the point of a green light (even if it chosen by the designer) if you can't even see the beam?
I agree.

Patrick
11-07-2005, 07:35 PM
I'll try to stop by tomorrow and get some pics of what the park actually looks like now. I'll post them.

Patrick
11-07-2005, 07:40 PM
Here are some pics at night. As you can see, you can see the top of the tube okay, but you really can't see a beam coming off of it. I'll try to take some pics from a distance.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/FoundersPlaza/dsc01351a.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/FoundersPlaza/dsc01350a.jpg

zuluwarrior0760
11-07-2005, 08:10 PM
I think the whole thing comes down to this:

This project's outright success or mediocrity seems to hinge
on one thing:

How far does the green pencil-wide beam reach up into the sky.......??

There's probably a trillion reasons why this beam didn't do what it was
envisioned to do...my theory is that the dichroic glass filter actually "diffused"
the light, taking that pencil wide beam and turning it into a 3 foot wide beam.....
and a weaker one at that....

However:

I don't lay that at the feet of the designer.......

Whoever the manufacturer was of that fixture is going to hear some grief from Rand
Elliott......and my suspicion is, they'll give him a bunch of excuses and in the end,
Mr. Elliott will rally some of the benefactors into using another manufacturer
who will "guarantee" that their green beam of light will be visible hundreds
of feet in the night sky....

As to comparisons with the World Trade Center Tribute, we should bear
in mind that the lighting inside this tube is approximately 1/160th of the
power of the ARRAY of 88 fixtures that made up the Tribute

Here's a page with some photos that show just "how many" fixtures it took
to make up that display, and oddly enough....to me, even that didn't look
as bright as I thought it would.....

http://www.spacecannon.it/Img_Gallery/Gallery_America/evento_New_York_2002/newYork_event.htm

So:

1/160th the light of that display and filtering it to be green.....those
two things alone would make me "shocked" if you could see it up broadway extension....
but there's actually one more reason:

These types of light fixtures are actually not visible in and of themselves....their
light output being visible hundreds of feet in the air is actually a function of them
illuminating the "dust" in the air.....notice I didn't say clouds....

In Los Angeles, I can promise you this display would be more visible......
but we actually have fairly clean air, especially this time of year.........

If you go out to Stiles Park at night and look up in the sky from that vantage point,
it really is a very cool display to see the green reaching up into the sky....

but everyone is correct to say this thing was overpromised.......

but:

We had a field before.......and despite it's shortcoming, I think the area is
very beautiful.....and impressive......I do wish they'd get rid of the ugly donor wall
at some point......people who donate money to these types of things should
stipulate that their donating be done under the radar without a gaudy sign to
screw up the reverence of the design....

I still think Rand Elliott is one of the 10 or 15 most talented architects in the U.S.
and certainly the most talented in Oklahoma by a very wide margin....

Someone selling him a pig in a poke light fixture won't change that......and
I just bet as I said above, that he puts some significant pressure
on that company to deliver what was promised....

Patrick
11-07-2005, 08:26 PM
Problem is Randy sounded like he was happy with the project. Not sure if he doesn't have eyes or what, but you simply can't see the beam from miles away. If he isn't aware of that, someone needs to tell him.

JOHNINSOKC
11-07-2005, 08:35 PM
Perhaps a blue light would beam further into the sky at night like the one in NYC. That is what ours is supposed to look like. Surely, the architect has seen what it looks like at night. If I were to design something like that, I know I would want to see it every night that I had a chance.

jbrown84
11-08-2005, 12:05 AM
Patrick, I think it should be clarified that the only piece of land designated as Stiles Park is the inside of the roundabout. If you look on maps that is what is shown as Stiles Park. The land around it may be barren like much of that area but it's because it's undeveloped.

My dad is a professor at the HSC and he thinks a nice hotel should be built in that area for scientists visiting the Research Park and potential residents and med students visiting the campus.

metro
11-08-2005, 08:42 AM
I drove by last night, its definetely the green light that keeps you from seeing it from a distance, it looks really cool up close but you can barely notice it from deep deuce just 3 blocks away. we should rally rand elliot and party to change the color or get higher wattage bulbs

Patrick
11-08-2005, 11:56 AM
Here are some more pictures that I took today. This way you get an idea of what the area looks like.

http://www.okctalk.com/gallery/data/500/medium/IMG_0022.jpg

http://www.okctalk.com/gallery/data/500/medium/IMG_0023.jpg

http://www.okctalk.com/gallery/data/500/medium/IMG_00251.jpg

jbrown84
02-04-2006, 12:40 AM
A friend from school (a Texan) saw the beacon and was really impressed, and he told me it was really bright, so I thought maybe they had made some changes.

I drove by tonight at 10 or 10:30 and it wasn't even on! What is going on with this thing? I'm very disappointed.

Midtowner
02-04-2006, 08:50 AM
Nothing better to remember 'ol Gaylord by than a giant phallus.

Urban Pioneer
02-06-2006, 08:10 PM
I saw it during testing. They had the green lense off. It was pure white light. You could see it for miles. You know, when you add color to light, it immediatley looses 40% of its candle power. Green is somewhere around 50%. I wish Rand would take that lense off. The electricians were in there fooling around. I actually got to go inside of it and look at the light. If it wasn't green--- it would work.

urban address
02-20-2006, 10:01 AM
I have a lot of respect for Rand Elliott and his work, but has anyone else noticed the "beacon" looks like the end of a hypodermic needle? Probably another tie-in to the medical community, but perhaps it should be re-named...a "Shot in the Park."

Jack
02-20-2006, 10:04 AM
I don't see why everyone got so excited about this. It's nothing spectacular. Not even the architecture. Folks, it was brought in on a flat bed semi. Give me a break.

Patrick
02-20-2006, 10:28 AM
I know the green light was a good idea, but I agree with you guys.....let's remove the green lens and make this a real attraction that can be seen all around the downtown area.

jbrown84
02-20-2006, 01:50 PM
I don't see why everyone got so excited about this. It's nothing spectacular. Not even the architecture. Folks, it was brought in on a flat bed semi. Give me a break.

We got excited before we saw how lame it was.