Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI; “Company”), a market leader in innovative energy-efficient lighting and control solutions, is proud to announce that products from its Winona® Lighting unit, a leader in custom luminaire design and manufacturing, have been included as part of the National September 11 Memorial at New York’s Ground-Zero. The Memorial was architecturally designed to feature twin reflecting pools marking the exact footprints of the fallen towers. The pools are illuminated by 1500 feet of Winline™ 607 LED Submersible luminaires. Also, Winline™ 203W Surface Linear Wet luminaires provide illumination to the Names Parapet, a low wall projecting from the edge surrounding the pools where the names of the nearly 3,000 victims are memorialized. The Memorial, part of a permanent tribute called “Reflecting Absence”, was dedicated at a ceremony held on September 11, 2011, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
 
The illumination of the twin reflecting pools, with their cascading waterfalls, as well as the lighting of the Names Parapet surrounding the pools, are critical parts of the emotional experience and design of the Memorial. In 2005, the design of this enormous illumination undertaking was awarded to the architectural lighting design firm of Fisher Marantz Stone in New York City. For Paul Marantz, founder and design principal, the scope of the project posed many challenges. Marantz imagined that LEDs would be an appropriate lighting solution, but in 2005 a LED linear submersible luminaire that could be placed beneath a thirty-foot waterfall, offering low maintenance, proper heat dissipation, and high quality light output was years away. As the project developed, Marantz and the Winona Lighting team began discussions on the characteristics required for such a demanding application. After several years of engineering and custom innovation efforts by Winona Lighting, the resulting solution was the Winline 607 LED Submersible light.
 
As Memorial visitors approach the pools, the names of the victims glow through the bronze stencil cutouts in the surrounding parapet. The names are illuminated by three-hundred and fourteen Winline 203W Surface Linear Wet LED luminaires in varying lengths, installed inside the bronze parapet. These fixtures have a very small profile and offer superior light output.
 
“We can think of no greater honor than to have our Winona Lighting luminaires included as part of the 9/11 permanent tribute,” said Ron Schimmelpfenning, Acuity Brands Lighting, Director of New Product Engineering, Winona Lighting. “We were able to look into the future to create the appropriate lighting solution for the 9/11 Memorial,” Schimmelpfenning continued.
 
All Winona Lighting products, including the Winline 607 LED Submersible and Winline 203W Surface Linear Wet luminaires are available nationally through the Company’s sales representatives and authorized distributors. For more information on these products, click here.
 
About Acuity Brands

Acuity Brands, Inc. is a North American market leader and one of the world’s leading providers of luminaires, lighting control systems and related products and services with fiscal year 2010 net sales of over $1.6 billion. The Company’s lighting and system control product lines include Lithonia Lighting®, Holophane®, Peerless®, Mark Architectural Lighting™, Hydrel®, American Electric Lighting®, Gotham®, Carandini®, RELOC®, Antique Street Lamps™, Tersen®, Winona® Lighting, Syner¬gy® Lighting Controls, Sensor Switch®, Lighting Control & Design™, Dark to Light®, ROAM®, Sunoptics®,  acculamp™ and Healthcare Lighting®. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Acuity Brands employs ap¬proximately 6,000 associates and has operations throughout North America, Europe and Asia.