Luminaires Installed

Oklahoma City’s remarkable Project 180 moves the city’s perception from cow town to uptown!

Oklahoma City is a sprawling, car-obsessed community generally associated with
big-box architecture and large chain stores. Up until recently, the concept of boutique shopping was fairly foreign. That is definitely changing, thanks to Project 180.

Today, Oklahoma City is awash in a renewed emphasis on architecture and design. The downtown area, declared obsolete by the city-council back in the late 1980s, is currently home to an expanding population that regularly gathers for cultural events that include art exhibits, independent-film screenings, and live musical performances. Unlike many other places, Oklahoma City managed to thrive during 2009’s “great recession”, and is still going strong.

Poised at the hub of all this activity is the new Devon Energy Center, with many other dramatic changes currently underway, not the least of which is the $100 million redevelopment of SandRidge Energy. In just four years, all one-way streets are being converted to two-way, and curbside parking spots, bicycle lanes, landscaping, lighting, and other amenities are being added. Project credits: Design Architect/Pickard Chilton, Architect of Record/Kendall Heaton Associates, Landscape Architect/The Office of James Burnett, Lighting Consultant/Quentin Thomas Associates.

New lighting has been a huge part of making this renovation pedestrian-friendly. As one of BEGA’s largest projects to date, a mixture of hundreds of BEGA 9007LED Pole Top Luminaires and 9252MH wide beam pole top luminaires with Cosmopolis lamps create both attractive and efficient lighting throughout Project 180, illuminating the downtown streets, the front of the Thunder Dome, and the front of the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial.

The Myriad Botanical Gardens and Children’s Park walkways are graced with the elegant 8079 Pole Top with Clear Acrylic Diffuser. Our 8994P Light Building Elements are an integral part of the street entrance to the Devon Tower Business Building, while the 8220MH Pole Top Luminaires light both entrances to the new Skydance pedestrian bridge. Project credit for the Myriad Botanical Gardens: Landscape Architect/The Office of James Burnett, Architect/Gensler, and Lighting Consultant/Fisher Marantz Stone.

According to Jeff Speck, author of the forthcoming Walkable City, “Of the automobile-oriented cities in which I've been working, none has made such a dramatic commitment to reorganizing its street structure around welcoming pedestrians and bicycles in the way Oklahoma City has.” And BEGA is literally lighting the way!

Project Credit 180 Streetscape: Landscape Architect/The Office of James Burnett, and Lighting Consultant/Fisher Marantz Stone.