Harvard Art Museum (Fogg) — Renzo Piano Renovation

Temporary Lighting That Could Match a World-Class Renovation

The Harvard Art Museums consolidation united the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler Museums under a single roof in a sweeping renovation led by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano. The multi-year construction effort required temporary work lighting for hundreds of trades operating across galleries, conservation labs, study centers, and back-of-house spaces — all while preserving the historic 1927 façade.

Conventional 120V construction stringers would have burned thousands of incandescent lamps over the project lifecycle, drawn substantial power, and required constant re-lamping by an electrician at $80–120 per service call. Harvard’s sustainability mandate demanded a fundamentally different approach — one that could match the ambition of the architecture itself.

A Low-Voltage LED Construction System Engineered for a Museum

Clear-Vu Lighting deployed 791 low-voltage LED construction fixtures on its 27.5VDC FLEX SLS bus-line system across the entire renovation footprint. The plug-and-play architecture allowed general laborers — not licensed electricians — to extend, relocate, and reconfigure lighting as work progressed through different phases of the building.

The system’s 50,000-hour rated LEDs eliminated re-lamping entirely. Daisy-chained low-voltage runs reduced the copper and conduit footprint by orders of magnitude versus traditional stringer lighting, and the 24V architecture meant zero shock risk in active demolition zones.

• 791 FLEX SLS low-voltage LED modules deployed across galleries, labs, conservation studios, and corridors
• 24V DC bus-line architecture — no licensed electrician required for moves, adds, or changes
• 50,000-hour rated LED life eliminated all re-lamping over the multi-year renovation
• Daisy-chain topology allowed general laborers to extend lighting as construction progressed
• Earned LEED Innovation in Design credit #10270 — the world’s first LEED ID credit awarded for temporary construction lighting
• Manufactured at our Long Island, NY facility — full Buy American supply chain compliance

$350,000 Saved and a First-of-Its-Kind LEED Credit

By the project’s completion, the FLEX SLS deployment had cut construction lighting energy consumption by more than 80% versus the conventional baseline — saving Harvard $350,000 in direct utility costs and eliminating hundreds of pounds of CO₂ emissions over the construction window.

More importantly, the deployment earned LEED Innovation in Design credit #10270 from the U.S. Green Building Council — the first time in the program’s history that temporary construction lighting had qualified for an ID credit. The precedent now informs sustainability planning on cultural and institutional projects nationwide.