Starting July 4, Calgarians and visitors will see updated lighting in the Municipal Plaza. The need for lighting updates came from a crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) review that suggested increasing lighting levels of the exterior plaza to meet new building code standards. The upgrades also support the Downtown Safety initiatives to ensure physical design principles are applied to improve real and perceived safety in public spaces.
The lighting upgrades work towards our goals of creating a fun and inviting destination for Calgarians to visit, as well as provide the ability to show support for community and city events, as the new light fixtures have also been designed to incorporate some limited ability for coloured accent lighting.
“We continue to invest in improvements to our existing infrastructure that are responsive to the needs and uses for Calgarians, in ways that are fiscally responsible and environmentally conscious” says Susan Specht, Acting Manager of Building Infrastructure, Facilities.
The plaza upgrade project, which included the installation of 20 new lights among other lifecycle activities, was scheduled to align with existing operational funding for lifecycle sustainment and cost nearly $445,000. In the long term, the upgrades will reduce both the operational costs in terms of power usage, lower maintenance costs and service time as the upgrades use higher-efficiency lighting.
