Empire State Building, Edinburgh Castle, the London Eye, and now St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church in Kyiv. What do these architectural landmarks have in common? They all have illumination designed by the same company, Philips Color Kinetics. Can you guess which one of these buildings got their illumination through MacPaw’s efforts?

That would be the St. Nicholas Catholic Church, of course. It is a small but beautiful gothic cathedral right across the street from our office. Its construction took place in 1899-1909, and now it is the second oldest standing catholic church in the capital. Today the church premises are also home to the National Organ and Chamber Music Hall of Ukraine.

Our colleagues get to admire the church’s architecture every day. However, many passers-by overlook it because of its frail state. That’s why we decided to make something special for this landmark so that the city dwellers and tourists would notice and appreciate it more.
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The illumination initiative started in 2018 and took us a whole year, from collecting information and advocating for the changes to setting up the lights. The project was also backed by Ring Ukraine, SD Capital, and Toronto-Kyiv Complex and executed by Expolight. Now these lights bring the public’s attention to the building and accentuate its architectural features without damaging the facade.

The whole illumination system is extremely energy efficient. Itʼs hard to believe, but it uses 1.5 times less electricity than an electric kettle. The lights are controlled by the app and turn on automatically when it gets dark. The colors and intensity can be adjusted through the app.