Project Profiles: Offices and Warehouses

Cincinnati City Hall

The city hall has a lot of character that the lighting engineer wanted to emphasize with contrasts and shadows while saving energy.

Retrofit Team

Lighting Engineer: Eco Engineering Inc., Cincinnati

Materials

The city of Cincinnati sought to reduce soaring energy usage and refresh the building’s nighttime presence.

“The building’s lighting setup was very costly with 38 assembly poles holding two to six fixtures each for up to 4,000 watts a pole,” recalls Matt Minard, lighting engineer at Eco Engineering. “The priority, therefore, was to reduce energy use. But we also wanted to enhance the facade of the building, which had been lit in a way that threw light into windows and gave the building a cold, bland appearance.”

Eco Engineering replaced 1000W and 400W high-pressure sodium floodlights with Lumenbeam LBX and grande luminaires. The switch reduced energy consumption by 84 percent, cutting more than 265,000 pounds in annual carbon-dioxide emissions.

“Lumenbeam fixtures … had the right mix of performance and sustainability, and their low profile was a huge advantage, letting us hide the fixtures from view,” Minard adds.
To accent the architecture, Eco Engineering decided to floodlight the facade in warm 3000K light.

“The building has a lot of character, which we wanted to emphasize with contrasts and shadows. It also has a natural stone, terra-cotta finish that is distinctive and I wanted to render that at night,” Minard notes. “Instead of grazing and running cable around the building, we went with a flood-lighting approach to provide uniform light, which we carefully aimed to avoid hot spots and glare inside.”

Eco Engineering replaced 1000W and 400W high-pressure sodium floodlights with Lumenbeam LBX and grande luminaires.

Minard says luminaires are mounted on the same assembly poles as the original design. “We did a one-for-one swap but, with the efficiency and distribution of the Lumenbeams, we could significantly reduce the total wattage,” he says.

Lumenbeam LED Manufacturer: Lumenpulse Lighting Inc.

The Retrofit

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Cincinnati City hall has been an iconic Ohio structure since 1888.

The new LED lighting design has slashed energy consumption while giving the building a fresh new look. “The savings are huge, but more importantly, the building has a whole new lease on life,” Minard states. “It’s phenomenal to see.”

PHOTOS: Josh Beeman