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ProjectsBuildings by TypeSnapshotMultifamily Housing ArchitectureResidential Architecture

Snapshot: A Sacramento Apartment Complex's Striking Lighting Element Bridges Community

By Matt Hickman
17_LIGHTBAR + 4-1-1.jpg
LightBAR. Photo © Jason O’Rear
May 16, 2024

Architects & Firms

REgroup

Dedicated recluses needn’t apply to LightBAR, an intimate rental development in the New Era Park neighborhood of Sacramento, California. The signature architectural feature of the courtyard-style apartment complex, designed by local studio REgroup, is a roughly 60-foot-long lighting element—a steel box-truss structure wrapped in translucent polycarbonate panels with LED strips lining the interior—that spans the entire length of the building while bridging above its front entrance from the street. After dark, the installation serves as a beacon and, from inside the courtyard, doubles as a projection screen for outdoor movie nights and other events. A gently sloping patch of turf, equipped with built-in landscape speakers, serves as “theater” seating. “It has allowed all the tenants to really get to know each other,” says Gary Lewis, one half of REgroup alongside wife and partner Julia Lewis, of the screen-activated outdoor gathering space. “It’s surprising when you know everybody that lives in your building—even if it’s just 13 units.”

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KEYWORDS: California modern residential architecture

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Matt hickman
Matt Hickman is senior news/digital editor at Architectural Record. Previously, he served as Senior Editor at The Architect’s Newspaper and has over a decade of experience as a freelance writer and editor specializing in historic preservation, public space, and the intersection of the natural world and built environment. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Matt holds an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from The New School.

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