ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN, AND MATHEMATICS

HARVEY J. STEIN

Abstract. It’s rare to have the opportunity to design a new synagogue. Em-
ploying low discrepancy sequences in the design is unique.

1. Introduction

By 2003, the congregation of Lincoln Square Synagogue was in need of a new

location. The existing building was too small and in disrepair. The board decided
to embark on a construction project to build a new synagogue down the street from
the existing structure.
The building was designed by CetraRuddy [Arc]. It ultimately won a number of
awards, including the 2014 International Award for Religious Art & Architecture
[Rel], the 2015 Architectural Lighting Design Award [Liga] and the 2016 Lumen
Award [Ligb]. In light of the last two awards, I would like to describe the lighting
element that I designed, which is the result of a unique application of mathematics
to lighting design.

2. Design

I remember when I first heard from the congregation’s president, Ruvan Cohen,
that the sanctuary would be lit by 613 lights to symbolize the 613 mitzvot. The
sanctuary is the center of Jewish worship. The 613 mitzvot are the 613 laws which
orthodox Jews follow. This has some great symbolism. Each light would bring
illumination to the sanctuary just as the performance of each mitzvah brings light
into the world.
But when I heard that the plan was to place the lights randomly on the ceiling,
I had to protest. While man often perceives the universe as random and chaotic,
Judaism says that God is active in all aspects of existence. If the lights are supposed
to symbolize the 613 mitzvot, the following of which is supposed to be part of God’s
plan, then they shouldn’t be randomly placed either. So I immediately asked to
arrange the placement myself.

3. Pseudo-random lighting

To symbolize the hidden existence of God’s plan, I chose to place the lights so that
they would appear random but in fact follow a plan as well. This was done by using
the (2, 3)-Halton sequence, a low discrepancy sequence.

Date: April 19, 2019.

1
 Low discrepancy sequences are commonly used in Monte Carlo analysis. They
produce sequences that randomly sample the space, but fill it out more uniformly
than purely random numbers would. This helps to preserve the properties of Monte
Carlo analysis while converging much more quickly than purely random sampling
would [Gla13].
Lighting design has similar needs. Aside from highlighting selected points of interest
(e.g., paintings in a gallery), it’s important for the lighting to be relatively uniform
throughout the space. Clustering of the lights would yield places which are too
bright. Similarly, if there is clustering, there will also be gaps, which will yield areas
that are too dark. Using a low discrepancy sequence allows the lights to appear to
be randomly placed while avoiding the clustering of purely random placement, as
can be seen in figure 1.

1 1

0.9 0.9

0.8 0.8

0.7 0.7

0.6 0.6

0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

(a) 613 random points (b) 613 (2, 3)-Halton points

Figure 1. 613 randomly placed points compared to those gener-

ated by the (2, 3)-Halton sequence. Note that the random place-
ment produces more clustering and larger gaps.

I chose to use the Halton sequence in particular because it has an especially simple
description. The n-Halton sequence is generated by counting. One counts in base
n, but flips the digits and puts a decimal place in front. For example, 11 base 3 is
102, so the 11th number in the 3-Halton sequence is 0.201. This yields a sequence
of numbers between 0 and 1 that can be used as a sequence of random numbers.
To be precise, if the base p representation of the integer n is given by
k
X
n= ai pi (3.1)
i=0

then H(n, p), the nth Halton sequence number for the base p is given by
k
X
H(n, p) = ai p−i−1 (3.2)
i=0
2
 N N 2 Halton 2 Halton N 3 Halton 3 Halton (2, 3)-Halton
base 2 base 2 base 10 base 3 base 3 base 10
1 1 0.100 0.500 1 0.10 0.333 (0.500, 0.333)
2 10 0.010 0.250 2 0.20 0.667 (0.250, 0.667)
3 11 0.110 0.750 10 0.01 0.111 (0.750, 0.111)
4 100 0.001 0.125 11 0.11 0.444 (0.125, 0.444)
5 101 0.101 0.625 12 0.21 0.778 (0.625, 0.778)
6 110 0.011 0.375 21 0.12 0.556 (0.375, 0.556)
7 111 0.111 0.875 22 0.22 0.889 (0.875, 0.889)
Table 1. First 7 (2, 3)-Halton points.

The (2, 3)-Halton sequence is the sequence of points in the unit square, where the
nth point has x coordinate being the nth 2-Halton sequence, and has y coordinate
being the nth 3-Halton sequence. The first 7 (2, 3)-Halton points are given in
table 1.
The (2, 3)-Halton sequence is fairly simple to describe and generate. In fact, it’s so
simple that a 12-year-old child could do it by hand. I would know, as the students
in my math circle had done precisely this1. However, it is extremely difficult to
discern the plan from observation of the pattern, which appears random. This
observation yields further symbolism for the ceiling – as in life, the existence of an
underlying plan is hinted at by the fact that were there no plan, things would be
even more random and chaotic than they appear to be.

4. Back to reality

But designing a synagogue ceiling takes more than just an idea. people needed to
be convinced. While Ruvan Cohen said yes, I also had to convince Ed Stark to go
along with it. Ed was the congregation’s liaison with the architect. Ed was very
busy, but I was very persistent and fortunately, Ed was unhappy with the results
of random placement, so I was ultimately able to convince him to go along with
my plan.
Next, the ceiling was not a unit square. I needed the blueprints for the ceiling
and a method for using the (2, 3)-Halton sequence on something other than a unit
square. Ed got the blueprints and mapped them into a coordinate grid which I
could then use. Figure 2 shows the blueprint for the first floor of the synagogue,
and its abstraction onto the coordinate plane.
As you can see, the ceiling is not a simple shape. Moreover, the lights could not
be placed anywhere within the entire ceiling. There was a limit to how close they
could be to the walls. And most of the ceiling was comprised of a large, inverted
dome. The lights could not be too close to the edge of the dome either.
Mapping the unit square into the acceptable region would be difficult. More impor-
tantly, it would distort the distances between the lights. Instead, as is commonly
done in random number generation, the rejection method was used. The accept-
able region was placed inside of a square. The Halton sequence is used to select
1Some of the details are available at https://www.facebook.com/LSSMathCircle/

3
 PL
1 2 3 3A 3B 3C 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 15A 16 17 18 19 20 21
PL
40
Lincoln Square
LIGHTING FIXTURE LEGEND RCP SYMBOL LEGEND Synagogue
LOBBY ROOM LABEL
LOBBY TA RECESSED CEILING MTD FLUORESCENT FIXTURE 100 C7 CEILING TYPE
100 C8 8'-0" AFF A.F.F. CEILING HEIGHT
19' - 6" AFF TA-1 RECESSED CEILING MTD FLUORESCENT FIXTURE ROOM NUMBER 180 AMSTERDAM AVE
W/ DIMMING BALLAST A.F.F. CEILING HEIGHT
TB RECESSED ADJUSTABLE DOWNLIGHT NEW YORK, NY
TC NOT USED 8'-0" AFFC7
(ABOVE FIRST FLOOR) 19' - 6" AFF C7
TD COVE MTD CONT FLUORESCENT UP-LIGHT CEILING TYPE
PL PL TD-1 COVE MTD CONT FLUORESCENT UP-LIGHT
A A

NO CEILING WORK
TBB TAL

S
10
A-754
TAM-1
SU SU SU
MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT
SUSPENDED
SU FROM ABOVE
SU

MECHANICAL
SU SU SU SU TE
TF
W/ ELECTRONIC DIMMING BALLAST
RECESSED MTD MR-16 WALL WASH
RECESSED MTD MR-16 SHOWER LIGHT
START FULL TILE

SUPPLY DIFFUSER

RETURN/ EXHAUST REGISTER

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SPACE TG READERS TABLE LIGHT
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TX-1 TX-1 TX-1 TX-1
105M C14 2 TH COVE MTD CONT FLUORESCENT UP-LIGHT FLOW BAR
B 4 9' - 0" AFF BELOW
B TH-1 COVE MTD CONT FLUORESCENT UP-LIGHT CL CENTERLINE íKONOKVQNKVUMN
A-754 W/ LUTRON DIMMING BALLAST
WALL MOUNTED SU SU
TX-1
SU SU SU
TX-1
SU SU SU SU TJ SURFACE MTD UNDER CABINET LIGHT UPRIGHT SPRINKLER HEAD ÑKONOKVQNKVQQM
LIGHT FIXTURE SU
C SPK-3 C TK NOT USED S CONCEALED SPRINKLER HEAD
TX-1 TX-1 TX-1 TX-1 TM NOT USED
TN LIGHT INSIDE ARK SPK - 1 RECESSED CEILING SPEAKER STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
S S W/ HIGH LEVEL OUTPUT
SHAFT A GOLDSTEIN ASSOCIATES, PLLC
TO NOT USED
D TX-1 TX-1 TX-1 TX-1 TX-1 TX-1 TX-1 TX-1 TX-1
D SPK - 5 EXTERIOR SPEAKER 31 West 27th Street
MOCK-UP TP SURFACE MTD MR-16 WALL SCONCE W/ HIGH LEVEL OUTPUT New York, NY 10001
SU SU SU SU SU ZONE SU SU TX-1 SU TX-1 SU TP-1 SURFACE MTD MR-16 WALL SCONCE W/ CUSTOM SPK-3 RECESSED CEILING SPEAKER 212-545-7878

20
6 CANOPY MP -1
MOTORIZED PROJECTION SCREEN CONSULTING MEP & FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEER

E A-754 E TQ PENDANT MTD ETERNAL LIGHT

P-2 AMA CONSULTING ENGINEERS, P.C.
SU SU TR NOT USED MANUAL PROJECTION SCREEN 250 West 39th Street, 9th Floor
F TAW TAW TAW TAW TAW TAW MOCK-UP 3 F
TAW
TAW
TAW
TAW
TS CONTINUOUS SURFACE MTD FLUORESCENT S-1 New York, NY 10018
SPK-3
SANCTUARY CEILING B ZONE BELOW SUN SHADE 212-944-7722 516-365-6966
TAW TAW
S S
SU TAW 7 19' - 0" AFF C9 (ABOVE FIRST FLOOR) TAW TS-1 CONTINUOUS SURFACE MTD FLUORESCENT
TAW TAW W/ ELECTRONIC DIMMING BALLAST EXIT SIGN - WALL MTD
TYP 4 SU SU FOOD SERVICE CONSULTANT

G ELECTRICAL G TT WALL MTD FLUORESCENT WP

TX TAW A-756 TAW EXIT SIGN - WATER PROOF WALL MTD BEER ASSOCIATES
ROOM S S S S S S
TU NOT USED 300 Merrick Road, Suite 210
H 104M C1 TAW
H TV CONTINUOUS RECESSED MTD FLUORESCENT EXIT SIGN - CEILING MTD Lyndbrook, NY 11563
TAW TX-1
WALL COVE W/ HVAC RETURN 516-593-2270
J 8' - 4" AFF TAW J
TX s TAM-1
TAW
TV-1 CONTINUOUS RECESSED MTD FLUORESCENT PR RECESSED PROJECTOR HOUSING
LIGHTING CONSULTANT
WALL COVE W/ HVAC RETURN & LUTRON TILLOTSON DESIGN ASSOCIATES
S TAW TAW DIMMING BALLAST JB JUNCTION BOX
S S 40 Worth Street, Suite 1680
S SHAFT C3 TV-2 CONTINUOUS RECESSED MTD FLUORESCENT New York, NY 10013
K S
TAW SPK-3 SPK-3 SPK-3 SPK-3 TAW K WALL COVE W/O HVAC RETURN DT FOLDING DOOR TRACK
(212) 675-7760
SPK-3
TV-3 CONTINUOUS RECESSED MTD FLUORESCENT CT CURTAIN TRACK
TYP WALL COVE W/O HVAC RETURN & W/ LUTRON ELEVATOR CONSULTANT

10
TAW TAW
TA TA 1 DIMMING BALLAST VDA
S MS MOTION SENSOR - CEILING MTD
(ABOVE FIRST FLOOR) 4 TW CONTINUOUS RECESSED MTD FLUORESCENT 5 Regent Street, Suite 524
L TAW SPK-3
S SPK-3
TAW L Livingston, NJ 07039-1617

CURVED CEILING
S S S S
SECURITY CAMERA

(SEE SECTIONS)
TYP TW-1 CONTINUOUS RECESSED MTD FLUORESCENT
PT-XX W/ ELECTRONIC DIMMING BALLAST (973)-994-9220
IT ROOM WIRELESS ACCESS POINT - ABOVE CEILING
6 TAW TAW TX SURFACE MTD FLUORESCENT W/ LENS
103M C1 TA TA
A-754 BIMAH W/ RAMP BELOW
WAP ACOUSTICAL / AUDIO VISUAL CONSULTANT
S S TX-1 SURFACE MTD FLUORESCENT W/O LENS FLOWBAR WITHIN LIGHT COVE CERAMI & ASSOCIATES, INC.
8' - 4" AFF 5
TAW
A-756
TAW TY RECESSED FLUORESCENT DOWNLIGHT 404 Fifth Avenue
BP MULTIMEDIA CEILING CONECTION & RIGGING New York, NY 10018
S S S TY-1 RECESSED FLUORESCENT DOWNLIGHT W/ POINT (212) 370-1776
M TAW TAW M LUTRON DIMMING BALLAST
7
SPK-3 SPK-3 SPK-3 SPK-3 SPK-3 SPK-3
TZ NOT USED RP RIGGING POINT
SECURITY / TELECOMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT
TAW TYP SANCTUARY CEILING A - CURVED TAW SHAFT
TA TA TAA RECESSED CEILING MTD DOWNLIGHT TM TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS, INC.
S SPK-3 17' - 0" AFF C9 18'-5" AFF C9 7 C2 RECTRACTABLE OUTLET
250 West 39th Street
TAW LOW POINT AT CENTER HIGH POINT AT PERIMETER TYP TAW
TAB RECESSED CEILING MTD FLUORESCENT FIXTURE os OCCUPANCY SENSOR - CEILING MTD New York, NY 10018
S S S S (ABOVE FIRST FLOOR) S (ABOVE FIRST FLOOR) S S SHAFT (212) 398-2424
S (ABOVE FIRST FLOOR)
S TAW TAW C1 TAC SURFACE MTD LED STRIP LIGHT @ RIBBON GLASS os OCCUPANCY SENSOR - WALL MTD
SHAFT B
N SANCTUARY N TAC-1 SURFACE MTD LED STRIP LIGHT @ INTERIOR
TAW TAW S LOCAL SWITCH

0
SHAFT RIBBON GLASS
TV-1 115
C5 TAD FENCE MTD FLUORESCENT AREA LIGHT S LOCAL SWITCH
O 1
TY-1
TAW
SPK-3 SPK-3 SPK-3 SPK-3 SPK-3 SPK-3
TAW O 3
A-501.2 TAE SURFACE MTD FLUORESCENT STRIP-LIGHT
P TAW
2
TAW W/ LUTRON DIMMING BALLAST CEILING ACCESS HATCH
S
CUR
(SE PT-XX
P TAF MR-16 DOWNLIGHT SURFACE MTD TO FENCE POST
A-756 LING
NS) E VED
R TAW CEITIO SEC CEI TAW
PT-XX
R
TY-1 VEDSEC TIO LING TAG CONTINUOUS WET LOCATION FLUORESCENT AT
S SPK-3
S S TAW CUR
(SE
E NS)
MOCK-UP TAW S EXTERIOR WALLS & PLANTERS
TAM-1 ZONE
7 19' - 7 1/2" AFF C7 TAH CONTINUOUS CEILING SLOT MTD LED
T A-754 TBB TAW S S S S S TAW T CEILING TYPE KEY
TAL
TAJ NOT USED
TY-1 SPK-3 SPK-3
TAW TAW TAK NOT USED
UP 9
C1 2' x 2' ACOUSTIC TILE -
A-754 TAW TAW TAL COVE MTD HALOGEN WALL GRAZER
S STAIR SOUND CONTROL
TY-1 TAW TAW TAM COVE MTD LED STRIP LIGHT
X C10 S TY-1 TY-1 S
OPEN TAM-1 COVE MTD LED STRIP LIGHT C2 2' x 2' ACOUSTIC TILE -
TV-1 TY-1
8' - 6" AFF
TAW SPK-3 S SPK-3 SPK-3 S SPK-3 TAW
STAIR X STAIR TAN CEILING MTD FIBEROPTIC LIGHT W/ ILLUMINATOR KITCHEN
TAW TAW Y C14
U U TAO NOT USED

-10
TAW TAN TAW
TY-1 TY-1 TT
TAP CONTINUOUS EXTERIOR SOFFIT C3 2' x 2' ACOUSTIC TILE -
W TE
TAM-1
MP-1
W MTD WALL GRAZER MINERAL FIBER
TY-1
TQ
TAQ COVE MTD LED STRIP LIGHT
X ELEV A TE
MS
S S S ELEV B X C4 4' x 4' COMPOSITE CORE
DN 5 MS
TAR SURFACE MTD FLUORESCENT STRIP LIGHT
STY-1 TY-1 S OPEN W/ DIMMING BALLAST ACOUSTICAL PANEL CEILING
TE
TAS CONTINUOUS RECESSED HALOGEN TROUGH No. Description Date
6 C5 WOOD (WV-01)
(2)TAC TOP&BOTTOM TAT RECESSED WALL MTD INCANDESCENT SCONCE
(2)TAC TOP&BOTTOM
2 TAU NOT USED
Y TAP TAP (2)TAC TOP&BOTTOM Y
PL A-412
PL TAV TABLE LAMP C6 PAINTED GWB W/ PLASTER FINISH
NOTE: RIBBON 3 6 RIBBON 2 ARK BELOW TAW RECESSED MTD LED
FOR ENLARGED A-756 TAX SURFACE MTD LED STRIP LIGHT BEHIND ARK
RCP OF STAIR X TAY NOT USED C7 PAINTED GWB
SEE DWG A-500.4 TYPICAL
(613) TAN (TOTAL IN CEILING) TAZ FLOOR LAMP
TBA NOT USED C8 PAINTED GWB w/ TYPE 5 FINISH
TBB WALL MTD FLUORESCENT UP-LIGHT

RCP KEYED NOTES

C9 GFRG w/ CUSTOM PAINTED FINISH
-20
C10 PAINTED SEAMLESS ABSORPTIVE
1 2 3 3A 3B 3C 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 15A 16 17 18 19 20 21 1 CONCEALED DRIVER FOR LED LIGHTING SYSTEM IN THE PLASTER CEILING
SANCTUARY CEILING A
PL PL 2 4' x 4' 2HR RATED ACCESS HATCH C11 STRETCH FABRIC CEILING SYSTEM
9 ISSUED FOR CONSTRUCTION 12 . 01 . 09
3 2' x 2' 2HR RATED ACCESS HATCH 8 ISSUED FOR BID 02 . 02 . 09
4 CONT. ARCHITECTURAL SLOT IN FASCIA ABOVE DOME C12 2' X 2' ACOUSTIC TILE -
7 ISSUED FOR BID 07 . 11 . 08
ABOVE C11 CEILING
5 ALUMINUM PANEL BY CURTAIN WALL MANUFACTURER 6 ISSUED FOR PROGRESS 02 . 01 . 08
(SEE DETAILS DWG A-752)
6 ALUMINUM PANEL SOFFIT 5 ISSUED FOR PROGRESS 12 . 17 . 07
7 REMOVABLE FROSTED LENS - "ICE WITH RESIN" BY C14 PAINTED EXPOSED STRUCTURE 4 ISSUED FOR FILING 10 . 26 . 07
LIGHTBLOCKS W/ 2" WIDE WD FRAME ALL AROUND (WD /STRUCTURAL SLAB DECK
3 ISSUED FOR PROGRESS 09 . 19 . 07
VENEER TO MATCH WALL PANELS)
C15 STONE
2 ISSUED TO LSS 08 . 21 . 07
1 ISSUED DESIGN DEVELOPMENT 04 . 20 . 07

1st Floor Mezzanine -30

THIS DWG SHOULD BE READ IN RCP
CONJUNCTION WITH THE FOLLOWING
DWGS:
Project number 0617
-MEP & FIRE PROTECTION
Date 04 . 20 . 07
-SECURITY/AUDIO-
VISUAL/TELECOMUNICATION Drawn by VUK
-FOOD SERVICE Checked by TMG

A-201M -40
Scale As indicated

-40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40

(a) Synagogue blueprint (b) Ceiling outline

Figure 2. Ceiling blueprint and outline of the permissible light

placement region.

points within the square. The first 613 that land in the acceptable region define
the positions of the lights, as is illustrated in figure 3.
Handling these complications required more than simply generating the (2, 3)-
Halton sequence. Custom software had to be written to generate the lighting loca-
tions, which then had to be translated back into the blueprint for the architect and
the construction team.

40

30

20

10

-10

-20

-30

-40
-40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40

Figure 3. Final light placement.

4
The second issue was confirming all of the lighting details. How do we know the
lighting will be adequate and sufficiently uniform? While using a low discrepancy
sequence is, in some sense, as uniform as you can get while still being random, the
uniformity is also impacted by the throw of the lights. Should the 12°throw lights
be used? Or 17°, 25°, or the 38° ones? People also had other design questions
that they wanted answered, such as “what about using more narrow lights over
the aisles and the bimah (the focal point of the sanctuary) to light them more
strongly?” Would this make the neighboring areas too dark? Not necessarily, but
it certainly increased the amount of analysis that needed to be done.
To check the uniformity of the lighting and analyze these myriad scenarios, one
needs software to compute the illumination at the level of the floor given the bright-
ness of the lights, the throw of the lights, the falloff of the illumination towards the
edges of the light cone, and the slope of the ceiling and the floor. There are lighting
analysis packages designed for this, but these packages are rather sophisticated and
have a steep learning curve, so it was easier to just write the software needed to do
the calculations.
Figure 4 illustrates the sort of analyses that were done. They were compared to
the results of using uniform light placement to confirm that the lighting would be
sufficiently uniform. The drop-off in the brightness around the edges was acceptable
because there would be additional lighting around the walls. I also analyzed the
distribution of inter-light distances to double check that no two lights were too close
together.
The end result is in figure 5. I think it worked out well.

(a) Light density heatmap (b) Illumination surface plot.

Figure 4. Various analyses were done to ensure the lighting would

be sufficiently uniform.

5
 Figure 5. End result.

References
[Arc] CetraReddy Lincoln Square Synagogue project. url: http://cetraruddy.
com/project/lincoln-square-synagogue.
[Gla13] Paul Glasserman. Monte Carlo Methods in Finance. Vol. 53. Springer
Science & Business Media, 2013.
[Liga] 2015 Architectural Lighting Design Award. url: https://www.archlighting.
com / design - awards / 2015 - al - design - awards - lincoln - square -
synagogue-new-york_o.
[Ligb] 2016 Lumen Award. url: https://iesnyc.org/content.php?page=
2016_Lumen_Awards.
[Rel] 2014 International Award for Religious Art & Architecture. url: https:
//faithandform.com/feature/2014-international-awards-program-
religious-art-architecture/.

Harvey J. Stein is head of the Quantitative Risk Analytics group at Bloomberg, an adjunct
professor at Columbia University, and a former member of Lincoln Square Synagogue.