There are some urban spaces and streets where typical streetlights are simply unsuitable. These places require special lighting treatments that emphasize grandeur, mood, or importance. To create those spaces, cities are starting to turn to professional lighting designers for custom streetlamps and lighting structures.
In Montreal?s Quartier des Spectacles (French for ?entertainment district?), seven white steel custom lighting structures tower over the streets like elegant landmarks. Created by Valmont Structures Canada, these poles provide illumination for both events and everyday urban activities. They also serve as a gantry for large speakers and art installations. The structures’ highest points create an invisible ceiling for the spectacle of creativity and urban vitality below. Because they fit the context so nicely, the poles’ frequency and positioning counterbalance their lack of human scale. Sometimes, urban spaces with custom lighting treatments have either too much lighting or not enough, both of which result in areas that never capture the designer’s intended ambiance. At the Quartier des Spectacles, not only is the quantity suitable to the area, but so is the scale.
When the Irish city of Cork redeveloped its main street in 2004, they wanted it to be more of a walkable plaza than a road. To achieve this effect, the city used streetlamps designed by Barcelona’s Santa & Cole, all of which consist of two painted, galvanized steel l...