Grant Park Gateway parking deck exterior, Atlanta, Georgia

Case Study:

An Architect's Approach to Lighting a Civic Threshold

Grant Park Gateway Parking Deck, Atlanta, Georgia

Background

The Grant Park Gateway parking deck sits at the edge of Zoo Atlanta, in one of the city's most beloved green spaces. The project replaced an aging surface lot with a multi-level structure that accommodates approximately 500 vehicles while preserving half the site as green space and restoring pedestrian connections to the surrounding park. Smith Dalia served as architect of record, with HGOR leading the landscape design. Lighting was led by Pam Banister, a Georgia Tech-educated licensed architect working in specification sales, whose design thinking shaped every lighting decision on the project.

Challenge

Most parking structures are lit for code compliance. Grant Park Gateway demanded something more. The design team needed a lighting solution capable of serving vastly different conditions across the same structure: open upper decks exposed to daylight, enclosed lower levels requiring consistent illumination, busy vehicular lanes, and quiet pedestrian paths. Each required its own approach, and the solution had to hold together as a unified whole.

Sustainability added another layer of complexity. The project required meaningful reductions in energy consumption and long-term maintenance costs, all while meeting the safety standards expected of a civic structure serving Zoo Atlanta visitors, park users, and daily commuters.

Solution

Lighting representative firm Ardd + Winter, with Winfield Littleton serving as Director of Sales, partnered with the design team to build a complete Cooper Lighting Solutions specification. Every luminaire on the project was supplied by Cooper Lighting Solutions, giving the team the consistency needed to serve architectural, garage, and site conditions without switching systems or compromising performance.

Cooper Lighting Solutions products used for this project included:

McGraw-Edison Top Tier High-performance LED parking fixture with WaveStream optical technology that directs light precisely onto horizontal planes while controlling glare. Approximately 400 fixtures were deployed across the main parking bays. Each is equipped with occupancy sensors that enable responsive dimming in unoccupied areas while maintaining continuous illumination along pedestrian routes.

Neo-Ray Define Architectural linear slot luminaire integrated into ceilings and soffits along upper-level circulation paths. The Define provides continuous visual guidance while maintaining a restrained presence that serves the architecture rather than competing with it.

Metalux SNLED Low-profile LED linear strip installed along pedestrian walkways within the parking levels. Delivers uniform, consistent illumination for pedestrians moving through the structure at any hour.

McGraw-Edison Galleon Architectural area luminaire used for exterior site and perimeter lighting. Reinforces the landscape design and anchors the deck within its civic setting without drawing attention away from the architecture or the park.

McGraw-Edison Top Tier LED fixtures illuminating parking bay at Grant Park Gateway, Atlanta

Results

Grant Park Gateway was featured in Designing Lighting Magazine as a model for how architectural thinking applied to lighting specifications can transform civic infrastructure. The recognition reflects what the project achieves in practice: a parking structure that feels like a considered part of the urban landscape rather than an afterthought.

Occupancy-responsive controls cut energy consumption during off-peak hours. Precise optical distributions allow wider fixture spacing while preserving uniformity and safety standards throughout. The design team chose controlled optics and fewer fixtures at every decision point, placing performance above redundancy.

Visitors, zoo staff, and park users experience the result as a structure that is calm, readable, and welcoming at every hour of the day. That outcome does not happen by accident. It is the direct result of treating lighting as a spatial and experiential tool from the very beginning of the project.