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Upon completion in 1991, 120 Collins Street stood as the tallest building on the Melbourne Skyline. Comprising 52 floors and a 42 metre high communication tower, the building attained numerous awards for design and building excellence. 
Initially the tower was lit with upward facing metal halide floodlights which, partly due the nature of the lights and partly due the open structure of the mast, wasted energy and contributed to light pollution. Melbourne City Council now enforces a 'dark sky policy' and this type of lighting is no longer acceptable. Furthermore, the inefficient lighting used consumable lamps with a typical life of approximately 1,000 hours, requiring carefully detailed procedures to address the safety issues faced by specialist riggers who had to climb the mast to replace them. 
To overcome these difficulties a new lighting system was designed and installed by Laservision, with commissioning completed just prior to the Commonwealth Games where the lights played a prominent role in the opening and closing ceremonies. A Light Emitting Diode (LED) tube has been installed at the core of the mast providing a prominent and bright feature that is energy efficient and without light pollution. Very narrow LED wash lights have been used to illuminate the outside pillars of the mast, but in a downward pointed focus, again without light pollution. The new LED lighting will achieve a 26% energy saving and deliver a lamp life approximately 100 times longer than the previous technology, thereby delivering significant maintenance savings as well. |
