Hidden Emergency Lighting Preserves
Building Aesthetics While Meeting Code
Designs that stay out of sight until needed provide more attractive options
for new builds, retrofits, and historic properties
While emergency lighting is critical to life safety and must function to code, no one wants to see the devices ruin the aesthet-
ics of a building’s interiors. So industry professionals are increasingly keeping the lights hidden or camouflaged until needed
to ensure it artfully blends in with its surroundings.
“From the standpoint of interior architectural aesthetics, traditional wall or ceiling-mounted emergency lighting systems
can be sort of an eyesore that establishments with a more refined look want to eliminate because it can take away from the
architectural experience,” says John Decker, IALD of Lighting Design Studio, a multi-disciplinary firm. The company has
completed lighting projects for a variety of commercial spaces including resort hotels, spas, casinos, restaurants, retail and
office spaces.
Now an innovative option, fixtures completely hidden behind closed door panels on walls or ceilings, is helping to meet
emergency lighting code. Only in the case of emergency or power outage do the doors open and the emergency lights
emerge to ensure sufficient light along the path of egress, as mandated by the NFPA and International Building Code (IBC).
For even greater discretion, the panels can be painted, wallpapered over, and placed in locations out of the line of sight to
make them completely inconspicuous.
Enhancing Aesthetics and Ensuring Safety
Design professionals often meticulously plan the aesthetics of various building elements including style, form, and materials
in a wide range of structures. This can involve upscale hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail centers, office buildings, and con-
cert halls as well as historic courthouses, museums, city halls, state and federal buildings.
A challenge, however, occurs when urgent project timelines lead to unfortunate compromises in building aesthetics, often in
the area of emergency lighting, at the last minute.
22 NCP Magazine • February ‘19