Notre Dame Cathedral Just Got an LED Makeover

Many things look better with crisp-edged LEDs – traffic signals, airplane cabins, perhaps even Christmas lights. But what about the moody, atmospheric interior of a 12th-century French-Gothic cathedral?

The architectural world can find the answer to this question this week by strolling into the Notre Dame de Paris, the historic Catholic church that stands on a Seine River island in Paris. From when its first stone was laid in 1163, the towering structure has basked in all the standard forms of illumination from candles to incandescent bulbs. But it's just received a retrofit for the modern world, thanks to an array of more than 400 luminaires that look like this thing: