(Above Image: Missouri History Museum)

Over the weekend, prominent buildings across North America and the world — including the Empire State Building in New York City and the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada — turned their lights blue to raise awareness for autism and commemorated World Autism Awareness Day on Saturday, April 2.

Over the past few weeks, HOK Lighting Group in St. Louis has been assisting Autism Speaks’ awareness campaign by involving St. Louis on a grand scale for the first time.  The Light-It-Up-Blue campaign has been running strong across the nation (and world) for a few years, but 2011 saw a 400%+ jump in the total number of projects participating thanks to cities like St. Louis.

We started with a list of potential projects 40+ deep and began making phone calls and emails to friends, clients, buildings owners, colleagues and even some cold calls.  We needed to see what was possible.  Certain projects were simply not feasible this time around, including the Gateway Arch, but the overall response was amazing.  By and large, everyone wanted to participate, and nearly half of the targeted projects did. 

On Thursday, March 31, we held a preview ceremony at the Missouri History Museum where families with autistic children flipped the switch on for the blue lights for the first time.  The color blue means so much to these families – you can just tell.  On Friday night, I witnessed it again while driving around from project to project.  I came across more families at each stop, and they were having so much fun trying to find the next blue building.

By participating in this endeavor, I’ve had the opportunity to understand just how broad-reaching the condition is among children and adults.  I invite you to learn more about the Autism Speaks organization as well as the Light-It-Up Blue awareness campaign at the below websites:

http://www.autismspeaks.org/

http://www.lightitupblue.org/

Thank you to everyone who helped support this effort.  I especially want to thank the Missouri History Museum for being gracious hosts last week.  I also was very impressed with the St. Louis Cardinals, who were able to participate on home-opening weekend of the baseball season.  Thanks also to fellow St. Louis lighting designer, Randy Burkett, for helping connect me with a few of his firm’s projects.

Note: HOK Lighting Group was the original lighting designer of the Missouri History Museum, Busch Stadium Streetscape, Civil Courts and the Big Brothers Big Sisters building.  Randy Burkett Lighting Design Inc. was the original lighting designer of the Chase Park Plaza and Tower Grove Park Ruins.

(Above Image: Missouri History Museum)

(Above Image: Missouri History Museum)

(Above Image: Tower Grove Park Ruins)

(Above Image: Tower Grove Park Ruins)

(Above Image: Big Brothers Big Sisters Building)

(Above Image: Civil Courts Building)

(Above Image: Lumen Event Space)

(Above Image: Chase Park Plaza)

(Above Image: Busch Stadium Streetscape)

(Above Image: The Corner Building)

(Above Image: Lighting Associates Office)

(Above Image: Metro Lighting)