St. Louis, MO – February 3, 2020 - Downtown STL Inc. (DSI) recently invited local media to a demonstration of Labyrinth Technologies new Lux Urban Lighting Solution being deployed throughout a 360-square-block area in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.

“I’m thrilled to mark a significant milestone in the development of Downtown St. Louis with the completion of the first phase of #LightMySL,” said Missy Kelley, President and CEO of DSI. “These new lights represent another step for us into the future of city life by revolutionizing the way downtown residents and visitor enjoy our downtown.”

DSI organized the Project #LightMyStL press event on the evening of Monday, January 20th to demonstrate the smart infrastructure control technology of Labyrinth’s system.

“It is so much more than just lighting,” Kelley said. “These state-of-the-art lights are a building block of smart city infrastructure that once completed will become one of the largest smart lighting grids in the United States.”

Labyrinth Technologies was hired by DSI to develop a customized lighting solution for St. Louis as part of Project #LightMyStL, a volunteer led community initiative started in 2015 to make downtown St. Louis safer, smarter and more beautiful.

“Based on the feedback of business owners around St. Louis and the downtown area we tried to integrate all the stuff we have heard from them to try to make a system that St. Louis really wants and that we feel will be good for other cities as well,” said John Stegeman, Chief Technology Officer of Labyrinth Technologies. “One of the cool features we’ve implemented in our lighting technology is the ability to broadcast beacons and provide some location based services. There could be better Google maps and services like that that help you precisely locate in cities where GPS isn’t available.”

Labyrinth’s Lux Urban Lights independently light both the streets and sidewalks, are eight times brighter than the city of St. Louis’s typical high pressure sodium streetlights, while using only 2/3rds the power. Each streetlight can be independently controlled from a central location to allow the city to increase lighting in one area for large special events like hockey or baseball games, while also decorating different areas based on the desire of the neighborhood.

“I think they will add energy to the streets,” said Chris Zimmerman, President of the St. Louis Blues. “We talked about ways to continue to push downtown forward to make people feel comfortable.”

Organizers of the lighting initiative, which is funded entirely through private donations, say that the desire to improve public safety drove their efforts.

“We all know that lighting can have a big impact on safety,” said Renee Kreismann, Captain of the 4th District which includes downtown St. Louis.  “Not only do people feel safer, they are safer.”

“This is a great step forward for Downtown St. Louis,” said Bob O’Loughlin, CEO of Lodging Hospitality Management. “I think people will look back five years from now in downtown St. Louis and say wow.”

---StorySMART reporting for Labyrinth Technologies

StorySMART Client: Labyrinth Technologies

StorySMART Reporter: Julie Tristan

Disclosure:  Project #LightMyStL was conceived and initially led by Ron Watermon, Founder & CEO of StorySMART Creative Social Media, when he was VP of Communications for the St. Louis Cardinals. You can learn more about how Project #LightMyStL started here.