Waterloo, Iowa
Designed by renowned architectural lighting artist, Rob Shakespeare, the Waterloo River Lights Experience comes to life at sunset. Colored light flows from plazas with lighted totem towers, across the canopy of the 4th Street bridge, and spills dramatically over the water cascading over the adjacent Cedar River dam. Inspired by the spirit of Waterloo and the beauty of the river, light bridges connect the two halves of the city in arrays of seasonal, holiday and special celebration colors. At the top of most hours, a colorful tribute to Veterans flourishes in red, white and blue, celebrating this segment of a larger Veterans Way corridor along 4th Street and connecting adjacent memorial parks. RITLAND+KUIPER was hired to assemble a multi-disciplinary team to assist Shakespeare Lighting and Design in the implementation of the artist’s vision. The team designed two curved, colored-concrete plazas on either end of the bridge that each host three light “totem” tower sculptures loaded with colored LED fixtures. These systems are combined with the bridge canopy lights with an innovative control system that can be operated and maintained remotely using web-based software.