National Grid completes lighting upgrade on its downtown Syracuse building

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — National Grid (NYSE: NGG) has finished a lighting upgrade and maintenance project on its well-known building at 300 Erie Blvd West in Syracuse.

On Monday afternoon, local employees gathered outside and across the street to watch the company flip the switch on the new light-emitting diode (LED) lighting following the six-month project.

The effort included the installation of more than 880 “energy efficient” LED lights in the tower section and the building’s exterior, according to a National Grid news release issued at the event.

The project also included repairs to the lighting-control system.

Drivers and pedestrians may have noticed that the building’s “been somewhat dark through the last six months,” Doneen Hobbs, VP of U.S. shared services, said in speaking with reporters at the event.

“We went through an upgrade project to change the lighting to LED, energy-efficient lighting and it gives us opportunity to have a lot more patterns and a lot more color,” said Hobbs.

The lighting patterns are all programmed. “We can program as many as we need to,” said Hobbs.

She called the building “an icon in the skyline of Syracuse.”

Rochester–area-based O’Connell Electric Co. Inc., which has an office in DeWitt, handled the lighting installation, says Melanie Littlejohn, National Grid regional executive for upstate New York.

Nelson Associates Architectural Engineering of Clinton in Oneida County served as the architect on the project, Littlejohn added. She spoke with BJNN at the event.

Famed lighting designer Howard Brandston last “refreshed” National Grid’s Art Deco building in 1999, the company said in the news release. The building is listed on the “National Register of Historic Places.”

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com