Setting Sun Circle ยท design presentation

DESIGN PRESENTATION
10 August 2026
Minds Over Matter · attn. Christopher Houchin
Setting Sun Circle · 210 W Holly St, Bellingham WA
Two systems on the cedar screen

Facade Lighting
& Projection

The cedar screen is the most distinctive surface on the building, and it can be lit two complementary ways. One puts light inside the screen so the wall itself glows. The other throws an image onto it from across the street. This page shows what each looks like, how each works, and what remains to be coordinated.

Facade band
72 ft 6 in × 20 ft 8 in
Fin field
194 fins at 4.50 in o.c.
Operation
Night & evening
Stage
Design development
System 1
Integrated Facade LED
Linear RGBW fixtures recessed inside the existing fin field, grazing the back wall. The wall glows; the hardware stays out of sight.
System 2
Front Facade Projection
Three projectors across the street throw imagery onto the same screen. Night only, and fully programmable.
They are complementary, not alternatives. The integrated LED makes the building read as a lit object every evening with no operator. Projection layers changing imagery on top of it for events and seasons. Either can be built alone; together they give you a quiet default and a loud occasion.

System 1Integrated Facade LED

Vertical runs 9 in on center Concealed RGBW, full color

Linear fixtures sit vertically inside the existing cedar fin field, one run in every second gap, aimed at the back wall from within the pocket. The fixture face stays behind the fin, so from the street you see lit cedar and a glowing wall, not a row of light fittings. The intent throughout has been an augmented facade rather than a screen bolted to a building.

The runs cover the full height of the screen, 278 of its 281 in, using 4 ft units with a short 1 ft tail to reach the head.

The existing screen makes this work. Its fins run vertically on a consistent 4.50 in grid that holds for the full height of the band, which gives a continuous 3.00 in channel for a fixture to hide in. Running vertically also means each fixture drains rather than collecting water, and thermal movement per run stays small enough that no expansion joint is needed inside a run.

Spiral movement, warm palette. A wave travels outward from the sun disc and wraps as it goes, so the facade reads as breathing rather than as a pattern scrolling past.
Rotating movement, warm palette. The same palette, with color sweeping around the disc like a beacon instead of traveling outward.
Color range
Spiral movement, full spectrum. The same movement as the warm version above, with the palette opened up across the full hue range.
Rotating movement, full spectrum. Color sweeping around the disc, at the full hue range.

The fixtures are full-color RGBW, so the palette is a programming choice rather than a hardware one and can change by season, event or time of night. The warm range above sits closest to an architectural reading of the building; the full spectrum reads more like a display. Both are available from the same installation.

Three candidate color palettes shown on the facade
Palette study. Three of the ranges under consideration, shown on the actual geometry: full spectrum, a warm-only range, and a near-monochrome ember range.
Close view showing fixtures concealed behind the cedar fins
Close view. The fixtures are only visible looking straight down a gap.
Solid model of the facade with every fixture shown in place
Every fixture in place. Modeled at real body size for coordination.
Layout
Street elevation showing the vertical fixture runs across the facade
Street elevation. Every bar is one fixture in its true position, drawn to its real length. The optic is selected per fixture from the measured cavity behind it, because the relief steps in terraces of different depths. The dashed semicircle is the sun disc.
Plan cuts through the fin field at the shallow and deep conditions
Plan cuts at the two governing conditions. The fixture sits in the 3.00 in clear gap between fins and grazes the back wall. The optic is chosen by throw, not by preference: a narrow beam over a 3.5 in throw would lay a hard stripe, so the shallow terraces take a wide optic, while the deep pockets use a narrower one that puts its light where it lands.
Specification summary
Integrated facade LED
FixtureMartin Exterior Linear Pro Cove QUAD and DV QUAD, 4 ft and 1 ft units
EmitterRGBW, 4-in-1 single package, so no color fringing
LayoutVertical runs at 9.00 in o.c., set out from the fin grid
Coverage1,332 fixtures, 3,597 ft of linear run, reaching 278 in of the 281 in screen
Connected load18.0 kW at the specified output mode
ControlPer-foot segment control, 16-bit, DMX/RDM or DALI-2
Color1800–12000 K plus full gamut, calibrated
EnvironmentalIP66, IK08, C5 corrosion class, suited to coastal Bellingham
Warranty5 years

System 2Front Facade Projection

Night only 3 projectors Fully programmable Across the street

Three projectors throw imagery onto the same cedar screen from positions already present in the building model, at 83 ft across the street. A position at facade height is blocked by the building opposite, which is why the high mounting points matter: one at 35 ft and two at 56 ft, aiming down onto the band.

Spiral movement, warm palette. The same movement as the integrated LED, projected. Rings travel outward from the sun disc and wrap as they go.
Rotating movement, warm palette. Color sweeping around the disc instead of traveling outward.
Color range
Spiral movement, full spectrum. The wider palette separates from the cedar far more strongly than the warm range does.
Rotating movement, full spectrum.
Projection on the facade showing the relief shadowing itself
The relief shadows itself. Light arriving at a down-angle is interrupted by every fin, so the image is naturally striped and the terraces cast into their own pockets. This is characteristic of projecting onto a screen like this one, and it is worth designing content to suit rather than fighting.
Two projector options
Both build the same system; only the projector differs
OptionResolutionLumens each 3× totalOn the cedar
Option APanasonic PT-RZ24KU, 3-chip DLP WUXGA20,00060,000 210 lx
Option BPanasonic PT-RQ35KU, 3-chip DLP 4K30,50091,500 315 lx

Projection is night-only by nature. Through twilight it washes out and in daylight it is invisible. That is a reason the two systems pair well: the integrated LED carries the building on ordinary evenings, and projection is brought up for events.

NextWhat we need to close out

The design is far enough along to price and build. These are the open items, most of which sit with the architectural and structural team rather than with the lighting.

A note on the imagery in this document. Every view here is rendered from the building's own model using the fixtures' published photometric data, in their true positions. They are a faithful guide to how the facade will read and how the movement behaves. Final appearance depends on the wall finish and on a site mockup, which we would recommend before fabrication.