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New York City Picks New Streetlight DesignTwin acorn-shaped bulbs hang from a Y-shaped green mast near Madison Square Garden. Blocks away, the ornate black "Shepherd's Crook" curves downward like a candy cane. And throughout the city, "Cobra Heads" crane their steel necks toward the roadways below.
But New Yorkers, purposeful in their pursuit of the next destination, rarely notice the city's roughly 330,000 streetlights. They illuminate the way but remain strangely invisible.
Now the lowly fixture is getting a rare moment in the spotlight as the city prepares to add a new, updated design to its roster of about a dozen models, continuing an evolution that began when the oil lamps of the 1700s gave way to the gas lights of the 19th century.
The design, created by Thomas Phifer and Partners, was chosen last week from more than 200 submissions to an international competition. It can be fitted with Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs, which are touted as a cost-effective alternative to the high-pressure sodium bulbs used in most streetlights today.
"I think the most important thing we wanted to do was embrace technology," said Phifer, who led the winning design team. LED lights, he said, "have a beautiful color, they don't use as much energy and the cost is going down and down and down."
The new lights also look different. Unlike most streetlights, which omit li
more: www.nyc.gov/html/ddc/html/citylig... (633)
October 28, 2004 | Viewed 26,227 time(s)
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