The renovation of one of Yale’s most beloved study spaces, the Linonia & Brothers Reading Room, thoughtfully blends sustainability with historic preservation. While the room’s historic character was cherished, the design team faced numerous challenges in refurbishing its original lighting. The most imperative need lay in resolving the historic decorative fixtures’ short lamp life and excessive glare, the limited task lighting, and the high contrast resulting from daylight streaming through tall windows.

Original pendant fixtures were carefully refurbished and retrofitted. The central chandeliers were restored with diffuse glass cylinders that glow with new LED A-lamps.  A modern addition is the tilted uplights concealed in the tops of the pendants, which gently illuminate the beautifully ornamented Gothic ceiling. The reimagined lighting creates the impression that all illumination comes from the diffuse glass in the chandeliers. Custom-designed table and floor lamps, wall sconces, and LED picture lights create layered ambient lighting, all controlled by a preset dimming system.

Along the mezzanine, a continuous line of linear LED uplights integrated into the floor’s interior edge softly highlights the tall Gothic windows. Each reading alcove features an arched barrel-vault ceiling with a refurbished LED pendant disk uplight, balanced with translucent table lamps for a comfortable, home-like ambience.

Careful restoration, sensitive retrofitting, and discreet integration of modern LED technology preserves the Reading Room’s historic attributes while delivering flexible, energy-efficient illumination that meets the needs of today’s students and faculty.