Taylor Avenue Pedestrian Streetlights 

The Central West End Midtown Development Infrastructure Committee is going back to the drawing board after St. Louis city officials nixed its choice of the Providence pedestrian lighting fixture for the Taylor Avenue lighting project. The chosen fixture will first be installed on Taylor between Lindell and Forest Park Avenue, with plans to eventually install the lights on residential streets throughout the CWE South as funds become available.

At the March 2009 CWEMD Infrastructure Committee, members chose four fixtures from the city’s list of pre-approved pedestrian lights. CWEMD staff will research pole options and photometrics for each fixture for review at the next Infrastructure Committee meeting, while committee members will view the lights in the neighborhoods where they are currently installed.

The lights currently being considered by the committee:

Kim
Lumec
ELA/Sterner
King Luminaire

CWEMD lighting consultant Ron Kurtz recommended the Kim Lighting Solitaire as the fixture on the city's pre-approved list that best follows the committee’s lighting standards, followed by the Lumec and the ELA/Sterner.

The Infrastructure Committee first choice was the Architectural Area Lighting’s Providence light fixture. However, city officials rejected the fixture, citing cost and the fact that the fixture was not already stocked by the city.

Committee members chose the Providence, which features an indirect halide lamp, primarily for its ability to maximize night vision for pedestrians.

The Providence’s benefits are:

• greater peripheral vision
• consistent light levels
• excellent facial recognition
• superior color rendition
• light focused on the street and not up in the sky

Choosing the fixture is the culmination of a process that involved a great deal of study by the Infrastructure Committee, with input from neighborhood residents and city officials. Two public meetings were held to present lighting options. At the first meeting last fall, more than 40 residents ranked five fixtures. At the second meeting, 11 residents came out on cold, rainy night to evaluate the lighting produced by five fixtures.

To help choose the best lighting fixture for the area, CWEMD hired Randy Burkett Lighting Associates to conduct a lighting study. The study reported existing lighting conditions and recommended lighting goals for the neighborhood's residential and commercial streets.

Click here to read the lighting study.

Click here to see the Taylor Avenue lighting summary.

Click here to see survey results from the public meeting.

The Taylor Avenue Lighting Project is funded by: