GK Lightrail
George Kovacs GK Lightrail lighting system represents a new take on traditional rail lighting systems for any space in your house. The new and improved GK Lightrail system offers a wide variety of pendants with unparalleled ease of shade use and sophistication. The GK Lightrail system allows you to light your home with modern and contemporary fixtures that are dimmable and modern in both standard and low voltage applications. The innovation of the GK Lightrail system is that it allows the end user flexibility in placing lighting in disparate locations connected and operated by one power source. The GK Lightrail system requires a bit more hardware than your typical rail lighting or pendant lights. It also offers seven customizable features such as rail design, the transformer or power source, finish style, and shade color and texture. The gain in flexibility with the GK Lightrail system, however, outweighs the additional hardware required.
GK Lightrail Ceiling Lights
The GK Lightrail system is comprised of seven types of components. When selecting a GK lightrail System, you must first choose a rail design, which is available in 48 through 96-inch sections in brushed nickel and sable bronze. The second piece of hardware you will need for your GK Lightrail System are called standoffs. Standoffs are available in sizes ranging from 2 ¾ inches to 96 inches and are telescopic to accommodate different ceiling heights. Third, the transformer is the power source for the GK Lightrail System and is available in a variety of sizes, shapes and finishes. Fourth, connector pieces allow your imagination to run wild and provide limitless configuration options for your GK Lightrail System. Fifth, GK Lightrail offers either brushed nickel or sable bronze patina fixtures specifically designed for the GK Lightrail System. Sixth, you will need to decide on shades for your GK Lightrail System fixtures. Shades come in styles and colors to match every design aesthetic. Finally, you will need a power feed. The GK Lightrail power feed delivers power to transformer and is offered in a variety of styles.
GK Lightrail History
George Kovacs was born in Vienna on Dec. 23, 1926to Oscar and Ottilia Neuwald Kovacs. A young George Kovacs was one of the many Jewish children placed on what were called “Kindertransport” trains and sent to foster homes in England after the Nazis occupied Austria. Oscar and Ottillia divorced soon after. Ottilia remarried, Fred Rotter, an interior architect, who later taught his young George Kovacs the basics of lighting. When the war ended, family immigrated to the United States and
George began working at a lamp store in Manhattan. George Kovacs returned to Europe with his wife in 1953, and rented an attic apartment in a building owned by J. T. Kalmar, a prominent Austrian lamp manufacturer. George Kovacs returned to the United States in 1954 with an agreement to market Kalmar lamps. Soon after, George Kovacs opened the first of a succession of three stores on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Eventually, he opened a lamp factory in Glendale, Queens. In 2000, Mr. Kovacs sold the rights to his brand name to the Minka Group, based in Corona, Calif., and retired.
GK Lightrail Designers
Ingo Maurer has found great success all over the world, but mostly in Germany and the U.S. After founding and running his own business, Design M., which developed and manufactured his own lamps he developed adjustable lighting elements with halogen bulbs. Creating LED and Organic LED lamps as well as designing lighting plans and installation processes for public or private spaces are among the accomplishes of Ingo.
Harry Allen was born in 1964 has helped design decorative art sconces that use metal and glass finishes.
Karim Rashid has over 3000 designs in production and has won over 300 awards. He is greatly respected in the design community and is a frequent guest lecturer and universities and conferences globally. He has been featured in literature in magazines such as Time, Vogue, Esquire, GQ, Wallpaper and more.
Robert Sonneman’s modern and clean designs have been at the forefront of the design world for over four decades. Beginning his career at George Kovacs, Sonneman learned design techniques that he carries with him today and uses in his own design group. His current lighting collections include over a thousand designs ranging from Warm Contemporary to Ornamental Modernism and Modernist styles.
Alecia Wesner was the director of design for George Kovacs after growing up in suburban Philadelphia and studying architecture and industrial design at Syracuse University. Always being interested in discovering new design techniques, she has found a new career in jewelry design, which is inspired by nature and strong geometric angles and clean lines.
Why Lamps.com loves this brand:
We love giving our customers options and choices when adding lights or lamps to a room. Choosing each one of the seven components that make up GK Lightrail fixtures, is an artistic challenge for our customers! We want YOU to join George Kovacs’ GK Lightrail design team and piece together your new favorite light fixture!
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