The venue, featuring contemporary casino, The Dining Room restaurant, bars and cocktail lounge has been reopened on two floors in Mayfair's Old Park Lane - 30 years after it closed - and now joins the portfolio of London Clubs International in a partnership with Playboy Enterprises International.
It is in The Cottontail Lounge, where the legendary playboy bunnies administer table service to their premium weekend guests, that two 5m diameter SGM LED ceiling starbursts, each comprising 866 tiny 34mm white LED balls, change the atmosphere by dramatically colour washing the venue through the spectrum of the rainbow. This is accompanied by a vertical SGM LED curtain at the rear, the reflection of which adds further depth and dimension to the space.
In total just under 2500 balls have been strung along four-core cable, vertically and horizontally, clipped together by integration company TMC, who won a competitive tender after working regularly on LCI's casino portfolio over the years.
Responsible for the original concept of the room were interior designers / architects Jestico + Whiles. However, it was after London West End club consultants, Marc Merran and Dan Ferris were brought into the equation that the newly-named Cottontail Lounge started to take shape. "They were adamant that they didn't want any conventional disco-style moving heads - and in any case the low ceiling height wouldn't permit it," noted Shaun Doyle, whose company Shaun Doyle Management has project managed the fit-outs of LCI's last six casinos.
He tasked TMC's Martin Tarpy, who led the installation team, with finding an innovative and dynamic ceiling effect that would be manipulative, flexible, and could be customized to display graphics such as the club's famous Bunny head motif and specially created events like the Gumball Rally 3000 which Playboy Club London has hosted.
"Our objective was to flood the venue with LED colour and have the gauze curtain at the back part like a theatre reveal - and this we have achieved," summarized Shaun Doyle - who provided much of the creative input, along with the venue's operations director, Adam Roberts. "This product has been very well thought out and with this level of control easily available we can write messages and put logos up at will. We are all delighted with the tremendous impact the SGM balls have created."
(Jim Evans)
