The Big [Green] Apple: New York City’s Top Five LED-Laden Sites

The Big [Green] Apple
New York City’s Top Five LED-Laden Sites
New York City residents are seeing green these days. And no, we’re not talking about the river of cash from Wall Street, or the green from Central Park trees. Thanks to recent environmental initiatives by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, several famous Big Apple landmarks will glow brighter and use less energy with newly installed state-of-the-art LED lighting systems. New York City is so eco-friendly that if it were a state, The Big Apple would rank eighth in population, but 15st in per capita energy consumption, according to The New Yorker. Here are the Top Five sites to bask in LED’s eco-friendly glow in New York.

1. Times Square’s “New” New Year’s Ball: Shining Gem in the Sky
The iconic sphere will descend into 2009 with a kaleidoscope of hues courtesy of 32256 low-energy Luxeon Rebel LEDs from Philips Lighting that use the equivalent of traditional ovens worth of energy per hour. One billion television viewers worldwide will watch multi-colored light beams bounce off and dance through 2,668 Waterford Crystal triangles, celebrating the one hundred-and-one-year anniversary of the Ball’s first New Year’s drop.
The new LED-wrapped energy saver is 10-20% more efficient than last year’s already-efficient LED ball. 2008’s Times Square Ball replaced 2000’s famed “Millennium Ball,” which was illuminated by a combination of halogen and incandescent bulbs, as well as strobe lights.
“Luxeon LEDs provide same or better color mixing with much finer granularity, much faster on/off/dim response, and better digital program flexibility,” said Jeff Strauss, President of Countdown Entertainment, the owner of The Ball. Designed to scintillate the eyes in person or on television, the twelve-foot glitzy, yet “green” globe essentially will behave like a color video screen wrapped around a ball.

2. Empire State Building: From Nine to 16 Million Colors
One of the premiere skyscrapers in the world will glow even brighter when The Empire State Building will supplement its current fluorescent apparatus with energy-efficient computer-controlled “intelligent illumination” LED system. Part of Mayor Bloomberg’s well-received PlaNYC 2030 sustainability initiative, the longer-lasting LEDs will produce very little heat and generate 16 million colors, programmable in real time with nearly infinite light patterns available – a stark contrast from old-fashioned floodlights that used to take six maintenance workers six hours to hand-change different sets of colored plastic lenses.
The Empire State Building has long observed a complex annual lighting calendar that bathes its exterior limestone panels in green for St. Patrick’s Day, blue and white during Hanukkah and red and green for Christmas. Seasons will change atop King Kong’s towering jungle gym with one single keystroke thanks to dynamic LEDs.

3. Prospect Park: Winter Wonderland in Waves of LED
Brooklyn’s Prospect Park glowed in simulated snow flakes in 2006’s holiday season as more than 600,000 LED net and string lights frosted the edges of four of the park’s entrances, including Bailey Fountain and Memorial Arch and its tree. LED*Waves custom designed and produced every blue and white LED of the Prospect Park in Lights project, which was sponsored by Prospect Park alliance and officially switched on by Mayor Bloomberg himself.

4. Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree: Dreaming of a Green Christmas
Half a million New Yorkers and tourists a day are dreaming of “Green Christmas” this holiday season as the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree sparkles with five miles of multi-colored LED lights. Powered by 363 GE Solar Panels installed atop 45 Rockefeller Plaza, the more than 30,000 low-energy LEDs are the second consecutive year the famed NYC evergreen has upheld its “green” roots. The switch from tungsten lights to LED in 2007 reduced energy consumption by 60% from the previous year. Even better, after the 72-foot Norway spruce wishes visitors a merry season, the evergreen will turned into lumber used to build homes for Habitat for Humanity.

5. Brooklyn Bridge: Bridges Need Bling Too
In early 2009, the Brooklyn Bridge’s famous necklace lights will “Go Green” as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s goal to reduce New York City greenhouse gas emissions by 30% in the next decade. 160 energy efficient 24-watt LED lights will shine on cars and pedestrians instead of previous 100-watt mercury vapor bulbs. “Because of longevity, they're not going to have to change these [LED] lights for years, and that will save maintenance costs on top of electricity,” said Bloomberg. The modern LED necklace lights will keep an estimated 24 tons of carbon dioxide out of the Earth’s atmosphere a year – a perfect birthday gift for the Brooklyn Bridge which turns 125 years old this year.

Extra: Burst*008, Museum of Modern Art: A Burst of LED
Burst*008 is one of five pre-fabricated homes designed by world renowned architects as a part of 2008’s Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling exhibit by The Museum of Modern Art. Burst*008 uses bright, modern and energy-efficient 1W and 5W recessed LEDs and LED Mississippi Strip Lights to light up the crazy angles and complex geometry of its modern and eco-friendly interior.

Photos courtesy of Times Square Alliance, Gothamist and NYC Daily Photo.