GE Lighting, Nela Park, Ill., sponsors the popular Edison Award competition annually to recognize excellence and quality in lighting designs that use GE Lighting products. All qualifying entries are judged on the basis of functional excellence; architectural compatibility; effective use of state-of-the-art lighting products and techniques; and energy and cost effectiveness.

The 1998 award was presented to Francesca Bettridge of the Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design group for her renovation of the Santa Fe (N.M.) Opera Theatre. The thirty-year-old open-air facility was essentially razed and a new structure built on the existing footprint. A new design element, not part of the previous theatre, is a roof. The new sweeping wooden ceiling acts as a giant acoustical reflector which presents two contradictory challenges.

First, for aesthetic and waterproofing reasons, the lighting was not permitted to penetrate the ceiling structure. Second, since the building does not have any walls, the lighting burden falls on the roof alone. Bettridge overcame these challenges by lighting the ceilings with a variety of 300W- and 500W halogen uplights cleverly integrated into the front of the balcony, the bottom of the clerestory and the rear wall of the theatre. In addition, the few downlights used over the lower seating area are either fully integrated into the steel structure at the clerestory edge or recessed into the wood ceiling where it's suspended below the roof structure. These downlights use a variety of A-line incandescent lamps for a soft diffuse distribution of light. Completing the design is a fully automated dimming system that adjusts the lighting in relation to the setting sun.

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