Lighting Upgrades Across Campus

This spring, approximately 1,178,750 square feet of lighting coverage was added to our campus. Led by FPDC's Carl Parsons, this is phase 1 of an ongoing effort to improve student safety and walkability at night. This area encompassed:

• Avenue C (Hickory - Maple)
• Lot 5 (behind McConnell Hall)
• Lots 12 and 13 (behind Legends Hall)
• Lot 27, including Clark Park and the adjacent Highland Street
• Exterior of Bruce Hall, including the alleyway between the Life Sciences Building and Sycamore Street
• Lots 1, 2 and 3, and Chestnut Street (adjacent to Hurley)

At street level, the lighting is between 1.0 - 3.0 footcandles​ (measurement of luminous intensity from a uniform light source on a one square foot surface), with some spots recording over 5.0 footcandles. These measurements are 3 - 5x the typical standard amount of footcandles used for exterior lighting.

While that may sound like an overwhelming amount of light, these new fixtures are dark sky compliant. These more focused light patterns help protect our native bird and wildlife populations by significantly reducing light pollution while still providing visibility and safety to our students.

Additionally, Carl's team assessed multiple exterior campus 100' tall high mast installations (you may have previously seen these in the parking lot next to the Coliseum) and removed three, which were expensive to maintain and created as much light pollution as it did useful light.

Going forward, Carl and his team are aiming to remove high masts around campus and replace them with this same level of lighting. We would like to encourage students to participate in our annual Safety Walk, which contributed to the decision making during this process, to help us determine the next areas that need to be prioritized the most in future phases. The next Safety Walk will be hosted in November, so follow our social media accounts for the official date announcement.

Please note: these before and after photos are NOT edited. They are direct​ly converted from the raw camera images - the upgrades are just THAT SPECTACULAR.