Upgrading a Legend: Boston's Iconic TD Garden

TD Garden

If you’ve been anywhere near greater Boston lately, you’ve likely passed by or seen media coverage of TD Garden’s gargantuan expansion and renovation. Dubbed the TD Garden Legendary Transformation by Garden Owner & Operator Delaware North, this project is estimated to take two years and multiple AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) teams to fully complete. Our Architectural Lighting department at Port was honored to play a role—upgrading the aisle lights and a few other areas inside the arena.

Their old aisle lighting featured an odd voltage, which meant the entire arena’s wiring would have to be replaced to complete the aisle light upgrade—at an astronomically high cost. Understandably seeking an alternate option, the TD Garden team looked to Madison Square Garden’s recent renovation. MSG had bypassed a similar issue by instead installing LED ellipsoidal lights from the catwalk, projecting down on the aisles.

Required lighting calculations confirmed the LED ellipsoidal solution would comply with TD Garden’s code regulations, and soon, an excellent, bright white fixture was earmarked for installation to light the aisles.

That’s where we came in. Right away, we realized the specified white fixture would not comply with the National Fire Protection Association’s National Electrical Code (NEC) section 700.24—a new requirement stipulating that fixtures installed for emergency lighting must be specifically listed for use in emergency lighting. We suggested the team instead consider the UL-924-listed ETC ColorSource Spot LED fixture, which would meet code, provide aisle lighting for all uses including emergencies, and offer both white and color-changing options—flexibility we know the Garden team has always favored in order to readily display appropriate colors for Bruins games versus Celtics games versus events calling for standard white light and so on.

We outlined how we would integrate the the ColorSource Spots into our three previously installed lighting control systems—a Pharos Control System (the brain engine running everything), a Sylvania Encelium (operating the building’s main white lighting), and a Hog Lighting Console (for game presentations). In the event of a power surge or console crash, our built-in fail-safe and backup generators already ensure the systems will restore control within milliseconds. The aisle lights, we proposed, would operate from a separate emergency system. When triggered, they would bypass all other systems and immediately illuminate the aisles per pre-set, code-compliant levels, allowing people to safely exit the building.

The TD Garden team approved this plan, and this summer, we commenced and completed the aisle lights upgrade, added master control elements to Levels 2 and 9, devised and installed a new lighting solution for the Coors Light HUB Bar, and are preparing for additional upgrades as construction progresses.

We are deeply grateful to our invaluable operations and warehouse crew for teeing up every detail, for our entire architectural installation team—as virtually everyone contributed some degree of help, to Matt Teuten for capturing these photos, to collaborators ME Engineers, CES Inc., A. Murphy Inc., Gilbane, SCI Architects, and of course, to the wonderful team at TD Garden—it’s an honor and a privilege to participate in this legendary project with all of you.

TD Garden Legendary Transformation

Collaborators
ME Engineers – Lighting Engineers
CES Inc. – Electrical Engineers
A. Murphy Inc. – Electricians
Gilbane – General Contractor
SCI Architects – Architects

Port Lighting Team
Ron Kuszmar – VP, Architectural & Theatrical Lighting
John Beaulieu – Senior Lighting Technician
Sean Harding – Senior Lighting Technician 

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