I considered Street lamp design during a a trip to the Queens Night Market today. Around 20 to 30 small merchants sell street food from tents, creating a hectic scene full of photo opportunities.
For some reason, I looked up and noticed the street lamps. These New York street lamps are everywhere and usually go unnoticed. But today, I saw the lamp as a design artifact. Its symmetry struck me as beautiful, and its minimalism felt calming. I captured a photo from the pedestrian’s perspective, which disrupts the lamp’s otherwise harmonious design.
New York City’s Street Design Manual describes the Davit pole as “an elegant, curved alternative to the Octagonal pole that can be used in the same streetscape contexts.” The manual also mentions an aluminum version of the Davit used on highways, though it doesn’t cover that version in detail.