Custom Lighting Spotlight: Salt Flats
Airports are rarely designed for stillness. They move with urgency—defined by scale, rhythm, and constant transition. So when a custom lighting installation invites a moment of pause—drawing the eye upward and softening the pace of the space—it becomes something more than functional. It becomes transformative.
At Salt Lake City International Airport, that moment belongs to a custom Hammerton chandelier—an expansive, sculptural installation inspired by one of Utah’s most surreal and famous natural landscapes: the Bonneville Salt Flats.
This wasn’t about creating another “large fixture.” The challenge was capturing something almost impossible to hold onto—the quiet, endless, reflective beauty of the Bonneville Salt Flats—and translating it into a physical form that could live indoors, within constant movement, and still feel grounded in nature.
That responsibility began with Davis Seegmiller, Hammerton’s head custom lighting industrial designer. Rather than simplifying the landscape, Davis leaned into its complexity—studying the fractured geometry, the layered textures, and the way light settles across the surface at different times of day. His concept wasn’t a literal interpretation, but an abstraction: a suspended field of organic forms that feels both expansive and intimate.
The Salt Flats aren’t uniform. They shift, crack, and evolve. To reflect that, the chandelier is composed of individually formed kiln-fused glass elements, each one shaped with subtle irregularities that echo the natural edges found across the terrain.
No two pieces are identical. That wasn’t a constraint—it was the goal.
But concept alone doesn’t create form. This is where process takes over—and where this fixture begins to distinguish itself.
To achieve the texture and dimensionality required, the Hammerton team developed a completely custom mold in-house. Led by Nate Srok, a tenured design engineer, the process started not with glass, but with material exploration—sculpting, refining, and engineering a mold that could consistently produce the organic, fractured surfaces envisioned in the original design.
This step is often invisible in the final product, but it’s foundational. The mold determines everything: how the glass flows, where it thickens, how it captures texture, and how it interacts with light once installed. It has to be precise, repeatable, and durable enough to support a large-scale installation—while still allowing each piece to feel unique.
Once the mold was finalized, the transformation moved into the kiln.
Kiln-fused glass is a slower, more deliberate process than traditional blown glass. Layers of glass are carefully arranged and heated over extended cycles, allowing them to soften, fuse, and settle into the mold. Timing and temperature are critical. Too much heat, and the texture collapses. Too little, and the form never fully resolves.
It’s a process that demands patience—and a willingness to iterate.
Working alongside the engineering team, Nick Conner, Hammerton’s glass production supervisor, brought 20 years of experience in warm and cold glass techniques to refine the final result. Each piece was evaluated not just for form, but for how it carried light—how it diffused, reflected, and shifted depending on perspective.
The result is a custom lighting design that feels alive.
Some surfaces read as soft and frosted, diffusing light into a quiet glow. Others reveal more depth and clarity, catching highlights and creating subtle variation across the installation. Together, they create a layered visual experience that changes throughout the day—much like the Salt Flats themselves.
The chandelier rises vertically through the space, forming a cascading composition that feels both structured and organic. Suspended at varying heights, the glass elements create a sense of movement—like a landscape unfolding midair.
And then there’s the scale.
Large installations often risk overpowering a space, but this piece was designed with restraint. It draws the eye upward without adding visual weight, creating a focal point that feels integrated rather than imposed. In an environment defined by motion, it offers something rare: a moment of stillness.
Travel is inherently transitional. Spaces like airports are designed to move people through, not hold them in place. But when craftsmanship and design are given room to speak, they can shift that experience—if only for a moment.
This chandelier does exactly that.
It’s not just a study in form or material. It’s a reflection of process—of what happens when design, engineering, and craftsmanship are fully aligned. From Davis’s initial concept to Nate’s custom mold development, to Nick’s refinement of the glass itself, every step was considered, tested, and executed with precision.
For Hammerton, this is the essence of custom.
Not replication, but realization. Taking an idea that exists in observation—in nature, in texture, in light—and translating it into something tangible, functional, and enduring.
Because custom lighting, at its best, isn’t just about illumination. It’s about creating something people feel, even in the middle of everything else.
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FAQ:
1. What inspired the look of this custom lighting design?
The fixture draws directly from the Bonneville Salt Flats—specifically their fractured textures, expansive scale, and the way light interacts with the surface. Rather than replicating the landscape, the design abstracts its natural patterns into a suspended, sculptural form.
2. What makes kiln-fused glass ideal for this project?
Kiln-fused glass allows for controlled texture and organic shaping that would be difficult to achieve through other methods. By carefully managing heat and timing, each piece develops subtle variation while maintaining structural integrity—resulting in glass that diffuses and reflects light in a dynamic way.
3. How was the custom mold created?
The mold was developed in-house by Hammerton’s engineering team, beginning with hand-sculpted forms to achieve the desired texture. It was then refined for consistency and durability, ensuring it could produce multiple unique glass elements while maintaining the integrity of the overall design.
4. How do you maintain consistency across a large-scale installation with unique pieces?
While each glass element is intentionally one-of-a-kind, consistency is achieved through controlled processes—custom molds, precise kiln cycles, and rigorous quality checks. This balance allows the installation to feel cohesive without losing its organic variation.
5. What challenges come with designing lighting for an airport environment?
Airport installations require careful consideration of scale, durability, and visual impact. The fixture must hold presence within a large, high-traffic space while integrating seamlessly into the architecture. It also needs to perform consistently over time, both structurally and in how it delivers light.