Edition Hotel – Paradise Club

The Paradise Club has many uses; it may be rented out for product launches, meetings, luncheons, etc.. Its primary function as a nightclub, positioned as an entire floor, in a new high-rise hotel located Times Square, the most overlighted corner of America. Its first long-term tenant, the House of Yes, is an edgy Brooklyn-born “cabaret-burlesque.”

Total flexibility was required, and so both fixed architectural and flexible theatrical lighting were merged into a single digital control universe. The rear wall of the stage is a high-resolution video screen, and the ceiling is a custom-designed, low-resolution video-driven RGB starburst composed of thousands of individual pixel domes. The backlit bar art glass wall completes the enveloping environment, as all three main elements may share video or other DMX programming sources.

The room is completed with mysteriously highlighted murals and pinpoint lights directed at each table. FMS designed various environments for space, including dining and pre-show shows. For the entertainment events (cabaret, music performance, dance club) the mandate is for harmony and dissonance to inhabit the same space and are available to the talented designers who create each moment.

Similarly, all the qualities of light are available to the performer. The addition of large LED pixel arrays to the lighting and scenic designer's toolkit represents a new light source challenge. As with music, all the “notes” are available; how they are employed is a moment-by-moment design decision. The lighting system here is a toolkit which the many lighting designers who use it must master.

Our profession is still in transition from the analog world to the digital realm. This project is built on the structure of a digital backbone…there is no single fixed sequence of light experiences.

The real innovation and challenges in this project are reflected in the control programming and total integration of all the diverse sources used. There are many human talents collaborating at every moment of performance to achieve the desired result.

The Paradise Club has been very successful. In the world of hospitality and show business, that is the measure of success.

FMS | Fisher Marantz Stone
Architect: Adamson Associates Architects
Interior Design: Yabu Pushelberg
Concept: Ian Schrager Company