Our History
Nine decades of American lighting innovation — from Brooklyn 1934 to Central Islip today.
About Our History
Two American lighting legacies, one engineering culture. Clear-Vu Industries (Brooklyn, 1934) and Lamar Lamp Company (Long Island, 1957) spent decades building specialty fixtures for the most demanding environments in the country — subways, tunnels, construction sites, hospitals, cleanrooms, institutions. In 2020 they unified as Clear-Vu Lighting, manufacturing today from a 100,000 sq ft facility in Central Islip, NY.
Nine Decades of American Lighting
Brooklyn Origins — Clear-Vu Industries Founded
Clear-Vu Industries is founded in Brooklyn, NY, manufacturing precision-machined lighting and signal components for the New York rail and transit industry. The original product line: brass and aluminum fixtures for IRT and BMT subway cars.
Long Island Expansion — Lamar Lamp Company Founded
Lamar Lamp Company is founded on Long Island, New York, producing specialty fluorescent and incandescent fixtures for industrial and commercial applications. This is the year Clear-Vu Lighting marks as its modern founding.
MTA Transit Supplier
Clear-Vu becomes a long-standing supplier of vandal-resistant lighting to the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, while Lamar builds its commercial and institutional fluorescent catalog — including vandal-resistant options with heavy-gauge end plates, tamper-resistant screws, and high-impact diffusers.
First Portable Lamp Bank Prototype
First-generation portable LED work-light prototype developed for utility and transit crews. Filed as US Patent application 12/498,xxx — granted in 2012 as US 8,313,211.
Occu-Smart Launches
First integrated occupancy-sensing LED fixture released to the higher-education and commercial markets. By 2015 the platform crosses 100,000 installed units.
LED Transition
Lamar Lighting transitions its fluorescent lines to LED, re-engineering optics and drivers for solid-state light sources while leveraging existing housings, and later adopts the Lamar LED name.
Harvard Art Museums LEED ID Credit
Clear-Vu's low-voltage FLEX SLS construction lighting system — 791 fixtures across the Renzo Piano-led Fogg renovation — earns a LEED Innovation in Design credit for temporary construction lighting, the first of its kind.
MTLx Tunnel Platform Released
Sealed-optic linear LED platform engineered for MTA, BWI, and large-scale tunnel projects. Becomes the basis for over 6,400 fixtures installed across NYC Subway tunnels and stations.
Smithsonian NMAAHC Opens
National Museum of African American History and Culture opens on the National Mall. Clear-Vu's FLEX SLS low-voltage system lit the 322,600 sq ft construction site, cutting construction lighting energy by more than 85% and supporting the project's LEED Gold certification.
Clear-Vu + Lamar Unification
Clear-Vu Industries and Lamar LED unify operations under the Clear-Vu Lighting brand at a 100,000 sq ft facility at 1150 Motor Parkway, Central Islip, NY 11722. Both clearvulighting.com and lamarled.com remain active sites for their respective specifier audiences.
NSF P442 First Certification
cleanLED becomes the first LED luminaire family ever certified to NSF P442 — the U.S. cleanroom standard — opening a new market in life sciences, food processing, and pharmaceutical manufacturing.
BABA Compliance Across Core Catalog
Build America, Buy America (BABA) compliance documented across the core catalog manufactured in Central Islip — including MTLx, clearNET, Occu-Smart, and Sentinel Guard.
Sentinel Guard Z4349 Launch
Sentinel Guard, a new anti-ligature fixture platform for correctional and behavioral health environments, is introduced with a tamper-resistant, IK10+ impact-rated housing and optional integrated emergency battery.
FLEX SLS v3.0 + CDB1 Concrete Deck Box
FLEX SLS 27.5VDC reaches v3.0 with expanded modular driver options. The CDB1 Concrete Deck Box launches as a pre-pour mounting system for embedded architectural and infrastructure lighting.