It looks like the first lamppost produced by industrial design firm Thomas Phifer and Partners, the winner of the City Lights contest administered by the Museum of the City of New York to replace the familiar octagonal pole with cobra head or straight mast lamppost has been installed on Church Street near Warren, south of the WTC site.
Eschewing the “head” or luminaire that previous lamp models have had going back to electric lampposts’ beginnings in the 1890s, the post sports a grooved shaft that would suppost signage, once they are applied.
The base is bottle-shaped and displays the manufacturer, Lumec. I don’t know if the date of installation will be stamped on these posts, as it is on the octa-poles.
No question, it’s the most revolutionary lamp design since the first curve-necked, groove-shafted Donald Deskey post first appeared on Broadway and Murray Street in 1958. Without a “head,” though, these posts don’t have much of a personality. The entire bottom side of the mast is lined with lamps, unlike light emanating from a single head as has been done previously.
Will flocks of these posts take over the streets? Wait and see.
10/17/11