The City of Belle Plaine wanted inspiration and design ideas to refashion the holiday lights in the downtown core. City staff was burdened with the labor and materials needed annually to string holiday lights around downtown street trees.

Bolton & Menk identified concepts and design solutions that put maintenance and life-cycle costs at the forefront. Multiple accent lighting products were vetted to ensure the proposed system could be incorporated into the existing downtown infrastructure. Once a final product was selected, Bolton & Menk coordinated an evening with city staff and council members to demonstrate how the accent lights worked.

While keeping all existing trees and electrical conduits in place, intelligent LED accent lights and a control system was incorporated into the downtown. With the click of a keyboard, the city can change color, adjust brightness, direction, and timing, and refine the schedule to fit various festivals or holidays. The success of this project was not only in the accent light aesthetics, but also in incorporating the lights into the existing streetscape infrastructure at an affordable cost.