About Specialty & Feature Lighting
Landscape lighting sets the overall picture. Specialty and feature lighting deals with the particular things in it: the elements that need a specific technique, a specific fixture, or coordination with whoever is building them.
The same principle applies as everywhere else in our work. It is the right amount of light in the right place, controlled so you see the feature and not the fixture.
Many of these applications are as much a part of commercial properties as of homes: outdoor dining terraces and string lighting at restaurants, pool decks and water features at hotels and clubs, and entry features, fountains and walkways at retail centers, office buildings and community entrances.
Light near water
Water doubles whatever is lit beside it and punishes glare. Lighting a pool edge, a fountain or a dock is largely about what will be reflected, from where it will be seen, and keeping bright sources out of the sightline across the water.
Light built into structures
Steps, retaining walls, pergolas and outdoor kitchens are best lit from fixtures that are part of the structure. Where a project is still being built, we coordinate with the builder or hardscape contractor so wiring is planned in rather than worked around.
Outdoor event lighting
For weddings, private parties, corporate functions and other outdoor events, we can temporarily transform a property using the same design principles we apply to permanent lighting. It is a turnkey temporary service: design, installation, on-site service during the event where needed, and takedown.
Depending on the property and the event, that can include temporary landscape and accent lighting, temporary color-capable lighting, decorative tree wrapping, bistro / café string lighting, and lighting for the architecture, landscaping and gathering areas. Our role is the outdoor lighting environment only. We do not provide indoor event lighting, and we do not supply tents, tables, stages or other event rentals.
Applications
Some of the specialty and feature applications we design and install.
Dock lighting
Safe footing and a lit destination at the water’s edge, with attention to glare across the water and to neighbors.
Water-feature lighting
Fountains, waterfalls and ponds, lit so the movement of the water carries the effect.
Pool and screen-enclosure lighting
Lighting the pool surround and the enclosure so the space is usable at night without flattening the view beyond it.
Fence and perimeter lighting
Defining the edge of a property and giving the view from the house a background to end on.
Driveway and motor-court lighting
Guiding arrival and lighting the court for use, without runway rows of fixtures or glare for the driver.
Garage-door lighting
Even, comfortable light across the garage elevation, which is often the largest unlit surface on the front of a house.
Statue, sculpture and art lighting
Beam, angle and color quality chosen for the piece: its form, its material and where it is seen from.
Pergola and outdoor-structure lighting
Light to sit, eat and talk under, with fixtures concealed in the structure where possible.
Bistro / café string lighting
Professionally installed, custom-cut, low-voltage string lighting, dimmable so it can be set in balance with the rest of the lighting.
Outdoor-kitchen lighting
Task light where the work happens and softer light where people gather around it.
Steps, retaining walls and integrated hardscape lighting
Safety lighting built into the hardscape so level changes are clear and the fixtures disappear.
