Consultant Plans To Light Up Spokane Landmarks Cathedral, Paulsen Building, Bank To Be Bathed In Colored Light Tonight

Parts of Spokane will look more like Reno tonight.

Using equipment that lights the exteriors of casinos and other buildings around the world, Doug Davidson plans to flood colored light over St. John’s Cathedral, the Pavilion in Riverfront Park and other city landmarks.

Davidson, a Spokane theatrical consultant who helps companies design interiors and sets for special events, will haul the computerized equipment from building to building in the back of a pickup, starting shortly after dusk.

He doesn’t have a schedule but said people at high spots overlooking downtown should be able to see one or more of the displays.

In addition to the cathedral and Pavilion, he plans to light the U.S. Bank and Paulsen buildings. As of Wednesday, he still was hoping to get permission to light up the castlelike county courthouse and the Spokane River falls.

Kevin Talbott, a Seattle salesman who hopes Spokane business leaders will decide to invest in his equipment, will join Davidson in the pickup.

To demonstrate his products, Talbott said, he has flooded light onto Seattle’s Aurora Bridge, industrial smokestacks and other structures. Irideon Inc., the Dallas-based company that’s sending the equipment to Spokane for the demonstration, boasts customers in England, Australia and several U.S. cities.

“We can have an edifice change from purple to red in one second or in an hour or in a day - so smoothly that the change is imperceptible to the eye,” Talbott said.

“Suddenly, a building begins to have a lot more character. It’s breathing, it’s moving as the light changes color.”

Davidson, a downtown resident and owner of Admit One Productions, says he thinks a permanent display wrapping downtown Spokane in “a sense of celebration, wonderment” would be a good tourist draw.

But people should catch tonight’s show, just in case, he said. “This may be the only time it happens.”

, DataTimes