This season, Diana Kesselschmidt has transformed the Winter Village ice rink at Bryant Park into a setting full of charm. With a vibrant and colorful lighting design, she has turned this popular 1,580-square-meter rink into a luminous gem that can be admired even from the skyscrapers surrounding the park.
For the thousands who visit the Winter Village every day, it is a welcome sign of the season.
PRG supplied over 100 CHAUVET Professional fixtures, including U5 COLORado 2-Quad Zoom LED Wash lights, and eight Ovation E-2G0WW ellipsoidal, units for this transformative display.
In addition to performance, weather resistance was key to selecting fixtures. The fixtures are out for an extended time in New York City. Also, all the cabling to the towers gets loaded in about a month ahead of time ,before the deck is put in, so there is no access to those cables once the deck is in place. Some years we focus outdoors during a hurricane. Many years I have focused on full weather gear with laminated magic sheets. This year, things went smoothly, not only because of the weather and lighting fixtures, but also thanks to our great team, including Dan Fishman of Bryant Park’s Urban Management, Keith Romaine of PRG, and David Favorita the Production Electrician, as well as our electricians Yuriy Nayer and Brendan Quigley, said Kesselschmidt, of Diana K studio.
Kesselschmidt used her Ovation ellipsoidal fixtures for projecting the snowflake gobos that decorated the ice rink around its perimeter enhancing its seasonal image. The 2-Quad Zoom fixtures were used to colorize the ice rink and an area called The Overlook, where public and private events are held.
Among Kessleschmidt’s favorite things about this project is the chance it gives her to transform the ice rink with different colors. There are six different colorized looks at the venue based on the night of the week. In addition, there some override buttons to change things up for special occasions. “I particularly love this year's Wednesday night color ,and when we override and use ‘80s night look”, said Kesselschmidt.
The ‘80s night gives visitors a chance to travel back in time, providing them with a delightful escape. But anyone can feel this kind of magic any night as they glide across the ice in the middle of Manhattan.
