CO2LED-2

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CO2LED-2 Arrives in Crystal City

July 31, 2007 - Crystal City (Arlington, VA) – Art has always been known as being good for the soul, but a new project also is good for the environment. The Crystal City BID and Arlington County proudly announce the arrival of CO2LED-2, an environmentally friendly and creatively illuminating art in Crystal City. The project is an extension of the CO2LED display, which was unveiled last month in Rosslyn.

CO2LED, created by artists Jack Sanders, Robert Gay and Butch Anthony, is a temporary public art project that promotes the use of alternative energy sources, recycling, and responds to Arlington’s environmental initiative, FreshAIRE (Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions). In Crystal City’s version of the display, a traffic island is illuminated using nearly 100 solar-powered LED’s (light-emitting diodes) secured to rods of varying heights. Each rod is topped with a reused plastic drink bottle. The poles’ slight flexibility, combined with the LEDs’ nebulous glow underneath the ridged surfaces of the plastic drink bottles, create a soft, undulating cloud of light. Being solar-powered, CO2LED produces long-lasting illumination, but with reduced toxic by-products, such as carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with the use of incandescent light bulbs.

 
“This project furthers our mission to inject light and vibrancy into Crystal City,” says Executive Director Angie Fox. “Crystal City is A Bright Place to Be. What better way to physically express this than with environmentally-friendly lighting, which is visible to the 48,000 cars that transverse this section of Route 1 every day.”
 
The BID partnered with Gould Property Companies and Arlington Cultural Affairs to erect “CO2LED-2” at the southern gateway entrance into Crystal City at Rt. 1/Jefferson Davis Highway and Crystal Drive. 

About the Crystal City Business Improvement District
Established in April of 2006, the Crystal City Business Improvement District (BID) is creating a soul for Crystal City. A public-private partnership, the BID is providing a higher level of service to visitors, workers and residents in Crystal City - driving to become world-class destination in both Arlington and the greater DC region. For more information, visit www.crystalcity.org. <