This evening tour has been designed to permit symposium attendees to experience full-scale urban lighting environments that include the usual lighting for safety, security, vehicle and pedestrian traffic to lighting designed for selling and social situations where outdoor restaurants, show windows, parks and walkways involve personal interaction, selling and promotional functions or entertainment and relaxation.
The tour area is Cleveland’s historic Public Square which is surrounded on three sides by enclosing tall buildings, but open to wide streets and a large grassy mall on the fourth side looking north to the broad expanse of Lake Erie in the distance. The 4-block area dates from the founding of Cleveland in 1796 and is modeled after the open green spaces commonly found in 18th-century New England towns.
Public Square was one of the first public spaces in the world to be lighted with electric light (carbon arc lamps invented by Charles Brush in 1879). Now, for festivals and holiday celebrations, the LED-lighted Terminal Tower becomes a back-drop for outdoor performances and community events. During such times, streets are closed to traffic and the area becomes pedestrian only.
On the outdoor lighting tour, which consists of five stops where different lighting conditions can be experienced, there will be a special opportunity to contrast the visual and non-visual effects of traditional broad-distribution luminaires with street and sidewalk illumination levels of 30-50 lux to the more recent and energy-efficient practice of targeted lighting with minimum spill and upward light and with illumination levels of 0.5 – 1 lux. Mixing in lighted windows, signs, building floodlighting and decorative lighting results in quite a different effect that impacts vision, visual comfort and behavior.
Meet in the hotel lobby at 7:45pm. Dresss: Warm attire and comfortable shoes.
