Conceptual Lighting for Rockefeller Park 
and the Cleveland Cultural Gardens
Cleveland, Ohio

Click here for a full-view photo.

Rockefeller Park is one of the truly great urban green spaces linking two of our greatest assets, Lake Erie on the North and University Circle to the South.

The goals of the lighting initiatives for Rockefeller Park are threefold. First we are improving the illumination and safety for pedestrians utilizing the park by incorporating new pedestrian scale walkway illumination along Martin Luther King Drive and East Boulevard. Secondly we will provide a concept for improved illumination of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens. Third improve the illumination of the bridge facades.

New lighting for the lower garden walkways along Martin Luther King Drive and similar walkway lighting for the upper gardens along East Boulevard would take place from the North at Shoreway through to Euclid Avenue at the South. Decorative HID light poles will replace the “cobra-head” luminaires currently mounted on the utility poles. The smaller scale will provide a more pedestrian feel and improve the illumination of the walkways. The pole spacing and light distribution will allow roadway illumination as well. The luminaires shall be cut-off type to eliminate light trespass and the style would be similar to the decorative pole and lantern at Wade Oval.

The Cleveland Cultural Gardens are one of a kind cultural exhibit that should be celebrated with light, to provide viewing enjoyment and safety for those passing by at dusk or throughout the evening. Improved illumination of the footpaths, and grounds of each of the gardens would be provided by unobtrusive ground mounted luminaries for illumination at the footpath level. Light bollards with directional optics would provide illumination at strategic points within the gardens, to better define direction or changes in elevations. The various sculptures and architectural features of the Gardens will be illuminated with narrow beam ground mounted luminaries.

Presently HID Floodlights on either side of Martin Luther King Boulevard illuminate each of the four Charles F. Schweinfurth stone arched bridges carrying Superior Avenue, St. Clair Avenue, Wade Park Avenue and the Conrail tracks to the north over Martin Luther King Drive

Advances in luminaire and lamp technology will allow for the illumination of these bridges to be dramatically improved. Greater uniformity of illumination with more complete coverage of the facades surfaces and less trespass into driver’s field of view. To fully realize the impact of the lighting improvements the stone facades will be cleaned and repaired where necessary.