RDG in the Media: Illuminating an Iowa Landmark
ia Magazine speaks with RDG Planning & Design Lighting Designer David Raver to discuss designing the exterior floodlighting for the Figge Art Museum.
In its recently published 2025-2026 issue, ia Magazine highlights the completion of “Evanescent Field” at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa. Recognized as Iowa’s largest public art installation, “Evanescent Field” celebrates a decade of collaboration with artist Leo Villareal and honors the Figge’s 100th anniversary. Spanning nearly a mile in linear length, the dynamic light sculpture wraps all four sides of the building with more than 1,000 full-color LED nodes programmed to display continuously evolving, never-repeating patterns. RDG Lighting Designer and Senior Partner David Raver, IALD, MIES, LC, MFA, collaborated with Villareal to bring the vision to life.
The design team was tasked with transforming a technically demanding concept into a functional, lasting installation. Raver identified three primary considerations for designing the art installation: optics, environmental conditions and resolution.
The Figge Art Museum revealed “Evanescent Field” on May 17, 2025, at a public unveiling. Villareal and RDG’s design collaboration addresses the challenge of evenly illuminating the Figge’s multilevel glass facade by precisely calibrating fixture placement to accommodate the building’s uneven catwalk heights. To withstand the desert-like conditions between the double curtain walls — where temperatures reached 175 degrees — RDG lighting designers selected high-performance, environmentally resilient fixtures capable of delivering the smooth, high-resolution lighting effects.