Hotel Jerome

The owners of this project contacted us to update the façade lighting on the Hotel Jerome, a historic building in downtown Aspen, Colorado. The hotel has been an iconic landmark in the Aspen core since 1889 and is the only hotel to survive the silver crash, the Depression and the harsh winters for over a century. The façade lighting was last updated in 1985, and the ownership group, Auberge Resorts, was interested in updating to a more energy efficient and aesthetically pleasing solution.

The City of Aspen has a dark sky compliance mission, so uplight was off limits with the exception of the original or historic power locations on the building’s façade. So, the challenge was to find a one for one replacement that worked optically, was compatible with the existing power, had the correct warmth and color temperature and could mount with the least amount of impact to the historic façade.

An extensive mock-up was done with different linear and point source products to find the correct solution for the application. The final solution provided an even distribution of light onto the upper cornice of the building as well as a point source solution for the stone sections between the windows on the façade. Also, because of the City’s Dark Sky Initiative, it was very important to find a solution that highlighted the building without washing it out, as the contrast is very high against the night sky and it is important to be conscious of the feel of the Aspen core – it needed to be striking to draw attention to the hotel and the brand while still subtle and beautiful to meld with the environment around it. The wattages and lumen packages were carefully selected to achieve the desired effect.