Featured
Featured Product
Cree Guideway
In 2008 Cree Lighting helped initiate a quiet revolution in roadway lighting when it introduced the LEDway street light. Their new Guideway® Series is another game changer: a superior product for the mainstream market. In developing the Guideway, Cree asked their customers for their list of essentials – what they absolutely must have in a street light. Their response is the Guideway Series. The Guideway Series with NanoComfort® Technology is a game-changing LED roadway lighting solution that brings levels of performance, comfort, and control previously out of reach. The Guideway family delivers noticeably better visual comfort with reduced glare and maximum performance for the money, available in Cree’s largest array of CCT options ever offered.
- Low Glare
- High efficacy
- Advanced optical system with dirt-shedding flat glass protecting the primary optic.
- Broad offering of color temperatures and optical distributions.
With the launch of Guideway, Cree legacy cobrahead roadway luminaires LEDWay, XSP, and RSW are no longer available. Contact GBL for details.
Learn more about the guideway series here.
Featured Projects
Capitola Wharf
Capitola is a small seaside town in Santa Cruz County, located on the northern shores of Monterey Bay. The city is a popular tourist destination with vibrant shops and restaurants and a centrally located beach. Capitola was named a best California beach town by “USA Today” and is also recognized as the inspiration for the film “The Birds”; in the summer of 1961 hundreds of birds attacked the town, thus inspiring Alfred Hitchcock, a nearby resident, to direct the film.
A key infrastructure feature of Capitola is the wharf which dates back to the 1850s, originally serving as an outlet for the produce and lumber grown in the interior. The wharf sustained significant damage from severe winter storms in January 2023, including a section being torn in half by powerful waves. The community of Capitola organized, and the wharf underwent a year-long $8 million reconstruction, reopening in September 2024.
GBL worked with local firms Triad Electric and Fuse Architects, along with city staff, to help with the re-lighting portion of the project. The luminaire selected for the wharf was “LIO”, an International Dark Sky Association (IDA) compliant, pedestrian scale luminaire from Lumca. Lumca’s LIO redefines what it means to ‘light life’ outdoors and brings the coziness of indoor light fixtures to outdoor LED lights for a wide array of applications, including smart cities, urban development or renewal projects, city parks and waterfronts, and businesses. A visually comfortable luminaire, LIO incorporates diffusing glass lenses technology to reduce jarring glare by hiding the LEDs’ point sources of light, thereby creating a comfortable, milky-way-like candescence. LIO luminaires were tastefully integrated into Lumca’s “Railpole” system for lighting. The Railpole rail system allows adjustable height for multiple accessories, such as Surfline’s video cameras, eliminating primitive straps that can damage the surfaces, and restores the aesthetic appearance of a decorative urban pole. Using standard hardware, this unique versatile system has been designed to install accessories quickly and securely. To ensure long-life in this harsh coastal environment, LIO and Railpole incorporate low copper content aluminum alloy, and are polyester powder coated, complying with ASTM B117 and ASTM D2247 standards. All hardware material is stainless steel.
GBL looks forward to continuing to work with the city on the eventual development of the “Head of Wharf” master plan.
Gunner Ranch Trail Solar Lighting Project
GBL collaborates with Madera County’s Valley Children’s Hospital on Gunner Ranch Trail solar lighting project.
Situated atop the San Joaquin River bluffs and surrounding Valley Children’s Hospital (VCH), Gunner Ranch West is a development project in Madera County, California, encompassing residential units, commercial property, hospital-related services, and recreational spaces including the Gunner Ranch Trail. The parks, trails, and open space components connect into a cohesive community, providing ample passive and active recreational opportunities as well as access to the San Joaquin River Parkway. The final element in the project recently completed was to expand the use of these “wellness path” trails into the evenings through the integration of solar lighting. VCH and the County of Madera design team at Westwood Professional Services worked with GBL and its manufacturing partner Grid Shift, to develop a solar lighting solution that would provide ample, uniform lighting along the paths. The Grid Shift “Siege” All In One (AIO) system was selected for its robust design, proven performance and reliable lumen maintenance, assured by Grid Shift’s Burn Time Testing™. To provide incremental power to a small weather station on the site, Grid Shift also designed a unique ‘power station’ pole which consisted of the conventional Siege solar lighting luminaire and a supplemental panel/battery pole-mounted assembly to generate the power for the weather station. To reduce the cost of the system, motion sensors were incorporated into luminaires. GBL and Grid Shift provided the client the conceptual design, photometric design, product selection and specification details, and the structural engineering. GBL’s project management team coordinated the overall project which included documentation management, quote and order placement, shipment, delivery, installation support and commissioning. The project was recently completed to the delight of the area’s residents and visitors.
To learn more about this project or solar projects in general contact GBL. For more information Grid Shift Siege you can download this datasheet.
For more information on Valley Children’s Hospital’s commitment to energy resilience and environmental stewardship click here.
South Lake Tahoe ‘Dark Sky’ 2200K Lighting Upgrade
GBL collaborated with the city and its various agency partners in re-lighting bicycle paths along U.S. Highway 50. U.S. Highway 50 is a prominent gateway road to the region’s alpine skiing and entertainment venues. The city owns, operates, and maintains approximately 700 pedestrian light fixtures and approximately 200 metal halide pedestrian light fixtures along roadways, walkways, parks, and trail networks. According to the city, Phase One of the project was completed in 2023 which included the conversion of aging first generation 5000K LED luminaires pedestrian lights to more energy efficient, ‘dark sky’ friendly 2200K light fixtures. The application of 2200K light sources, a warmer color of light, is believed to be one of the largest decorative conversions in the state. GBL’s partner, Lumecon, a lighting manufacturer based in Farmington, Michigan (Detroit) developed the 2200K retrofit “engine” to meet the city’s photometric, installation, and reliability specifications. The Lumecon kit improves the luminaire’s ‘cut off’- the directing of all its light to the ground-and provides improved uniformity to enhance visibility. Phase Two* is for additional sections of Highway 50 and includes completely new Lumecon 2200K decorative luminaires and specially designed steel poles from GBL’s partner Valmont, based in Valley Nebraska (Omaha). Steel poles are often used in place of concrete poles due to their light weight, availability, and reliability. To ensure long life in the harsh Sierra climate, the steel poles will be finished with Valmont’s proprietary “V-Pro” finish. Valmont’s V-Pro Protection Systems were developed utilizing comprehensive testing and are evaluated under numerous environmental conditions by an independent laboratory.
City of South Lake Tahoe press release link
https://cityofslt.us/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1895&ARC=2951
Lumecon https://lumecon.com/midtown-decorative-pendants/
Valmont https://www.valmont.com/
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
The Oakland Bay Bridge project highlights Valmont’s ability to bring a concept to reality while maintaining a time-tested level of product quality. The Valmont Structures team was a cross-functional group from various disciplines within the company whose ease of doing business with the customer and inspectors lent to the success of the project. Today, Valmont’s custom manufacturing capabilities stand on display with over 250 poles which line the bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland.
Bay Bridge – Oakland, CA (urlisolation.com)
https://mtc.ca.gov/operations/programs-projects/bridges/san-francisco-oakland-bay-bridge
Valmont https://www.valmont.com/
Featured News
Meet with GBL at SALC 2025 in New Orleans
The IES Street and Area Lighting Conference is the only event of its kind dedicated to improving the outdoor lighting business of electric utilities and energy service companies. All our attendees are vitally interested in learning about your products and services and include decision makers from investor owned, regulated electric companies, unregulated marketing affiliates, cooperatives, municipal utilities independent contractors and consultants.
Over 900 attendees will in New Orleans this summer. Contact us and RSVP to meet with the team from GBL and learn more about our outdoor lighting solutions!