Image: Acuity Brands Lighting
Winona Lighting's Trilia OLEDs, complemented by rectangular Origami LEDs, accent the 2nd floor lounge at Meissner Filtration Products headquarters.
Winona Lighting's Trilia OLEDs, complemented by rectangular Origami LEDs, accent the 2nd floor lounge at Meissner Filtration Products headquarters.
Winona Lighting's Trilia OLEDs, complemented by rectangular Origami LEDs, accent the 2nd floor lounge at Meissner Filtration Products headquarters.
Winona Lighting's Trilia OLEDs, complemented by rectangular Origami LEDs, accent the 2nd floor lounge at Meissner Filtration Products headquarters.
Winona Lighting's Trilia OLEDs, complemented by rectangular Origami LEDs, accent the 2nd floor lounge at Meissner Filtration Products headquarters.

OLED Lighting Turns Heads in Company Lounge

Sept. 29, 2015
Meissner Filtration Products, a maker of advanced microfiltration and single-use systems, recently built a new headquarters and manufacturing plant to handle expanded production. For its marketing lounge, lighting designer Annie Reis went with a new line of OLED luminaires from Winona Lighting.

Meissner Filtration Products, a maker of advanced microfiltration and single-use systems, recently built a new headquarters and manufacturing plant to handle expanded production.

According to Eric Meissner, manager of supply chain operations, the 180,000-square-foot building had to reflect the company’s cutting-edge image. “We are recognized globally for our expertise as a technology company, and the new building needed to reflect that,” explained Meissner.  “We wanted the space to be both functional and vibrant.”

A key element in the design of the new headquarters would be its lighting. Annie Reis of JMPE Electrical Engineering and Lighting Design had the challenge of creating a contemporary, stylish lighting design for the project that met the company’s diverse workplace needs.

According to Reis, lighting throughout the building needed to be tailored to serve a variety of functional areas, such as manufacturing cleanrooms and the administrative offices. A particularly challenging area was the second-floor marketing lounge, which doubled as an informal meeting space for visiting clients and vendors.

“It’s a very dynamic space. Funky couches line the walls, and there’s warm wood throughout,” she explained. “We needed lighting that would accentuate the space without overwhelming it.”

After considering round pendants at different heights in the room, Reis came across a new fixture: Trilia OLED from Acuity Brands’ Winona Lighting. OLED lighting can provide distinctive design statements for a wide variety of interior lighting applications, including corporate, hospitality, healthcare, and residential. They can enliven any environment with focal points of sculpted light, while providing appropriate horizontal and vertical illumination for a range of tasks, Acuity says in a release. Trilia luminaires can be mounted in grid and hard ceiling conditions for a variety of customizable configurations appropriate for each work space. Also, the easily-linked organic patterns seem to form and flow gracefully throughout a space further integrating lighting with architecture.

“There’s a real trend with companies seeking to upgrade from standard lighting fixtures,” said the project’s lead architect, Patrick McIlhenney, principal at Square One Architecture. “As soon as we saw it, we knew the Trilia would provide a memorable experience. It’s not something you expect.”

Glowing softly and seemingly floating from the ceiling is soft light from two thin, multi-dimensional Trilia OLED fixtures. A trio of rectangular, red-framed Origami LEDs surround and complement them.

To some, the Trilia designs resemble distinctive puzzle pieces; to others, they bring to mind a geometrically-inspired molecular shape. But to Meissner, they are evocative of a Benzene ring, a hexagon-shaped representation of bonded carbon atoms – images perfect for a filtration technology company.

“This is exactly what we were looking for in the lounge,” he noted. “An elegant look that is also functional.”

Even more importantly, the lounge lighting helps further the energy-efficiency goals Meissner sought throughout the building. As a manufacturing company that heavily consumes electricity, Meissner needed lighting that would blend function with form. The new solution is expected to deliver energy savings of up to 40 percent.