We are now facing the challenge of sustainable development. This thesis focuses on the building illumination of one downtown hospitality building, the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel (RVH), to demonstrate three options for sustainable development of architectural lighting. The thesis employs architectural exterior lighting based on the technology of light emitting diodes (LEDs) as a vehicle to demonstrate how to reduce the energy consumption and maintenance costs of decorative lighting on building façades via three transformative lighting strategies. These three transformative lighting strategies demonstrate three possibilities of applying LEDs to develop architectural creativity and energy sustainability for an outdoor decorative lighting system. The first transformation utilizes LEDs for the retrofit of existing compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) on the RVH’s façades and rooftop, in order to improve and diversify the building’s illumination in a sustainable manner. The second transformation optimizes the yearly programming of the new outdoor decorative LED lighting in accordance with differing seasonal and temporal themes in order to save energy, demonstrate architectural creativity via versatile lighting patterns, and systematically manage the unstable generation of renewable energy. The third transformation explores the potential of on-site electricity generation in an urban context instead of its purchase from BC Hydro. Photovoltaic (PV) panels will generate the electrical requirements of the RVH’s decorative exterior LED lighting. This transformation will transfer daytime solar energy to electricity for night outdoor building illumination; consequently, it can encourage outdoor activities in the nighttime for Vancouverites, and is a means of compensating for the limited daytime hours in Vancouver’s winter months.