A sneak peek of Raleigh’s shimmer wall … lit up

18 Aug

Workers were testing the LEDs that will back light the shimmer wall that adorns Raleigh’s new convention center on Monday night. They appeared to only be testing one panel, at least when I stopped. So I snapped the photo below.

The plan is to officially light up the entire waving Oak Tree on Sept. 5, when the convention center officially opens.

When fully lit, the wall can shimmer in tons of colors. They can even tailor the colors to match holidays (say green for St. Patrick’s Day) and special events (say red if the Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup).

Here’s a sneak peak of a single panel.

Can you imagine how beautiful this will look when it’s all lit up?

10 Responses to “A sneak peek of Raleigh’s shimmer wall … lit up”

  1. Abby August 18, 2008 at 11:59 pm #

    I’ve honestly been pretty nervous about the lights on the shimmer wall, because I’m so taken with the way it looks now. My fear is that it will go from stylish to tacky. My fingers are crossed for stylish though.

  2. Brandy August 19, 2008 at 4:35 am #

    I bet it will look so good! I can’t wait to see it!

  3. Matt August 19, 2008 at 12:17 pm #

    Quick question (and I posed it over at my blog as well): Can the Oak Tree design be changed? or will it always be the Oak Tree? (not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

  4. ginny August 19, 2008 at 1:11 pm #

    @Matt That’s a good question. I’m sure it’s possible to change it generally, but my guess is that would be a pretty expensive endeavor, given the amount of individual flapping pieces that make up the design.

  5. Matt August 19, 2008 at 3:20 pm #

    Thanks for the response. I think I assumed that it would be more of a projection screen, meaning the subject matter could change if need be.

  6. Jennifer Wig August 19, 2008 at 4:44 pm #

    It could end up being too Vegas or like the Eiffel Tower after they installed lights, which didn’t work out quite right in my opinion. But I’m optimistic that it’ll look just amazing!

  7. RaleighRob August 20, 2008 at 8:51 am #

    Abby– I don’t think that’ll be too much of a problem…it’ll only be lit up at night. During the day, it’ll still simply reflect sunlight as it does now.

  8. Abby August 20, 2008 at 12:37 pm #

    Well that’s good to know.

  9. Camille August 21, 2008 at 10:14 am #

    I was part of a group that got to meet with Thomas Sayre this past Tuesday. It was really interesting to hear about the evolution of the shimmer wall and it’s progression from “design element” to public art. I love the wall and I think it’s exciting for Raleigh!

Trackbacks and Pingbacks

  1. The shimmer wall light up party is tonight | 30Threads.com: Highlighting the Triangle Online - September 4, 2008

    [...] up party is tonight Result 1 Discovered September 4, 2008 at 7:45 am By now you probably know I’m a big fan of the shimmer wall that adorns the side of the Raleigh Convention Center.  At 8:45 tonight it [...]

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