New York City To Be Lit By LED’s (Hopefully)

It was announced on Wednesday that New York City will be participating in a test program to install new LED streetlamps around town. Lighting design group the Office For Visual Interaction has created a super efficient, good looking lamp that could be a huge boost for both the city’s bottom line, and the visual landscape. Only six of these high tech green beauties will be rolled out at first, but hopefully all 300,000 will be replaced in the future.

The New York Times reports:

L.E.D.’s can last more than 50,000 hours, obviating the need to have workers change the lights. (Insert your own bulb-changing joke here.)

The OVI contract is not just to switch the city’s current crop of high-pressure sodium lamps for L.E.D.’s, but to introduce a completely redesigned lamp pole as well. Today’s poles have become a designer’s nightmare, with signs, traffic lights, control boxes and other accessories hung willy-nilly from them. The OSI approach envisions a sleek design that includes dedicated channels to hang the various accoutrements of city life.

In addition, up to four adjacent L.E.D. light sources and multiple lenses will direct the pole’s light to different places; one unit may illuminate the street while an adjoining one will shine upon the sidewalk.

New York Times: “Lighting the Big Apple With L.E.D.’s”