Tree lighting is one of the most superb forms of lighting design. Any landscape with large enough trees will be enhanced by this highly sophisticated and innovative lighting technique. Tree lighting is done by concealing mercury vapor lights in the higher branches of the tree where they cannot be seen by viewers on the ground. Mercury vapor lights give off a blue-white light very similar to moonlight that filters through the leaves and branches and rains down onto the ground. Tree lighting’s close approximation to natural moonlight adds a romantic, almost mystical element to a place, and contributes to a feeling of time being suspended under the ambient radiance of the trees.
Illuminations Lighting and Design has worked for many years as an outdoor tree lighting and landscape lighting design firm. Over the years we have developed a number of strategies for using tree lights in almost any commercial, municipal, or residential environment to create specific benefits for a wide variety of clientele.
Municipal Parks
Tree lighting is an essential component of outdoor park lighting. Parks are special places people seek out to escape the pressure and mediocrity of the mundane world. Parks help ground and center the mind in the energies of Nature and release the stress that accumulates within the self during after prolonged activity in offices and industrial environments. It is very important that a public park visited at night be sufficiently lit to provide clear visibility for walking, conversation, and safety. As a close approximation to natural moonlight, tree lighting extends the romantic and sentimental nature of the moon itself into the general landscape. Benches located beneath tree lights or other commercial outdoor lighting are excellent places to have a meaningful conversation with a significant other, and they are much safer as well.
Academic Institutions
The architecture and landscapes of academic institutions often suggests Old World and Classical Motifs. Although America is a young country and its academies nowhere nearly as old as those of Europe, larger trees help add a sense of antiquity to these institutions because they are obviously older, and contribute greatly to the university’s image as a place of established learning and credibility. Tree lighting is needed on college and university campuses because many trees grow outward as well as up as they age. Simple up lights installed near the trunk of a tree will not adequately light its branches and leaves. Tree lights, on the other hand, can be positioned in key locations throughout the lower branches and upper canopy, creating a sublime and stately presence for students and faculty to enjoy and admire throughout the night.
Commercial Properties
Tree lights will also create a feeling of established presence for a corporate landscape. A brand new company surrounded by a canopy of mature trees will look older than it really is, and possibly gain a competitive advantage in a marketplace that often emphasizes experience over talent a bit too much. They are vital to commercial security lighting, too, because of the fact that shadows under trees allow vandals and burglars too much room to maneuver in secret.
Tree lighting helps emphasize a company’s dedication to environmental concerns. As more and more companies seek to enhance their public image by either going green or supporting green initiatives, illuminating trees around the building helps harmonize the architecture with Nature.
Hospitality Industries
All major hospitality industries depend greatly on resort tree lighting in their outdoor landscape design. Landscapes around hotels, resorts, country clubs, and five star restaurants contribute to a feeling of refined escape and elegance. Country club diners look out of clubhouse windows onto landscapes that appear sublime and timeless under the surreal ambiance of tree lighting. Guests at warm weather resorts can enjoy the site of palm trees from their window throughout the night, and hotels with tree lighting create the illusion of both a larger edifice and a more remote getaway from the pressures of life.
Tree lighting, however, does a great deal more for hospitality industries than provide decoration. These lights can actually contribute significantly to general outdoor garden lighting in a number of ways. Many resorts host events at night on a pavilion or stage under lighted trees. The illumination from the mercury lights provides an exotic compliment to general lighting that improves visibility without diminishing the feeling of escape and altered reality that a vacation is supposed to create. Golfers who play at night will especially appreciate the additional lighting under trees for those shots that are hard to make under moonlight alone. Restaurant diners who prefer the patio also will enjoy the added general lighting that comes down from the trees and fills the spaces between tables with a warm glow.
Custom Homes
Custom very often to have high fences and ornamental, gated entrances that open into a long winding drive leading up to the house. Trees that grow along these driveways sometimes arch over the pavement and mesh together into a canopy. Placing lights in these trees creates a sense of removal from the rest of the neighborhood, and the feeling that you are entering an estate and not just another home.
Tree lights also play an important role in home-based entertainment. Trees that overhand a patio can create an aura of accent lighting around the patio itself, and tree lights installed above flower beds and gardens provide a layer of ambient down light that overlaps the garden and path lights installed within the foliage itself.
Twenty Seven Years of Service Experience
These brief summaries provide a quick visual of just a few of the many things we can do with tree lights as part of our larger services in landscape lighting design and commercial exterior lighting. Our multi-specialization in five major disciplines has won us many a number of awards and established us as a leader in the design industry throughout Texas. Illuminations Lighting Design specializes in art lighting, advanced electrical wiring, lighting design, and home automation.
Where are your main offices?
We are located in Houston Texas but provide lighting and design services in Austin TX, El Paso Texas, San Antonio TX, College Station Texas, Beaumont TX, Dallas Texas, Midland Tx and points beyond. Call us today at 713-863-1133, visit our lighting blog or request a consultation online using our contact us form.Labels: Hospitality Lighting Central Texas, Hospitality Lighting Houston, Landscape Lighting Consultants, Landscape Lighting Professional, Landscape Outdoor Lighting, Tree Lighting
San Antonio hospitality lighting design services by Illuminations Lighting focus on emphasizing the keynote features of five star hotels and restaurants along San Antonia’s world famous River Walk. Our multi-disciplinary approach to lighting emphasizes a unity between natural and architectural themes that creates a blending of phenomenon bound together with layers of light.
Lighting is as important to hospitality both as an industry and an experience. Designing a lighting system for any location requires first an understanding of its many elements, and, secondly, planning and developing a lighting design and installation that will establish and elevate the essence of place, time, and action.
Exterior and Landscape Lighting
Hospitality lighting begins with architectural and landscape lighting that make the hotel edifice clearly visible along the River Walk and distinguish it as an area of unique excursion and romantic adventure.
After many years of partnership and cross-training with leading architectural firms, ILD has developed a number of proprietary landscape lighting techniques that enable us to conceal lighting fixtures in such a way as to highlight building features with apparently sourceless light.
We also balance the edifice with the surrounding landscape by combining four layers of light around waterworks, sidewalks, piers, and outdoor dining areas. We seek to unite natural and man made features by emphasizing what has been there before the landscaping crew and treating it with equivalence to what has since been sculpted.
Trees with lights figure prominently in our outdoor hospitality lighting systems, providing both boundaries for the property and special points of interest. We are one of the few companies that take special care not only to use “green” equipment that is environmentally friendly, but also to rely upon proprietary installation methods that do not harm the trees in any way.
Landscape lighting contractors further accentuate pathways, walkways along the river, fountains, and outdoor sculptures to blend the man made with the natural. This synthesis contributes greatly to the feeling of genuine “getaway” that so many people come to San Antonio to find.
Lobby Lighting
ILD Hospitality lighting designers work with mathematical precision to establish points of expression, areas of task, and moods of decorum that unite furniture and interior design into an aesthetic of welcome. We design the lobby lighting system in such a way as to produce a minimum of reflective glare, so that guests may comfortably enjoy certain key elements as ornate antique furniture, display cases, bookshelves, and especially fine art lighting for works of art and statuary from recessed art lighting without having light reflected back into their eyes.
We also work to create an upbeat atmosphere of activity accomplished through soft, direct surface lighting and stronger, low voltage recessed lighting from above that “washes” surfaces in light without blinding the eyes. All desk areas and corridors leading to and from the lobby area can be lit by multiple desk, wall, or suspended luminaries that eliminate pockets of shadow and glare by striking surfaces from multiple angles of lighting incidence.
Restaurant Lighting
Many of San Antonio’s finest restaurants overlook the River Walk and utilize a view of the landscape as an important element for establishing atmosphere and ambiance.
In order to provide diners with a clear view of the exterior, hospitality lighting designers have to overcome the reflection that interior lights sometimes cast upon the windows without inadvertently diminishing indoor lighting.
This is where our multi-specialty offers San Antonio hotels and restaurants something truly unique. We are able to install low-profile outdoor lights with lighting control systems that penetrate the glass just enough to overcome reflection and enable a clear view of patios, sidewalks, and the river itself.
Within the interior, we employ a high level of affect lighting to create atmosphere, illuminate wall art, and provide ambient lighting for booths and tables. This constitutes a blended lighting array that extends the exterior into the private space of the restaurant, utilizing San Antonio’s rich scenery as an adjunct to interior design.
Imagine how your guests will feel sitting inside, but feeling like they are outside.
For restaurants that also have meeting rooms, we utilize sophisticated overhead lighting controlled by dimmer switches and home automation lighting controls that allow hosts to turn the lights down for audiovisual presentations, or to adjust them and place a spotlight on a keynote speaker.
Banquet room lighting involves a similar approach to overhead lighting that is user controlled, although the fixtures here tend to be more formal in nature. Classic chandeliers and candelabras not only provide excellent sources of down lighting, but they also create a formal sense of hospitality and refined sensibility that sets the banquet room apart as a special place within a special place.
Contact us toll free at 800-863-1184 to learn more about the many dimensions of hospitality lighting that ILD’s award winning team delivers to restaurants, hotels, and country clubs throughout The United States.
Labels: Commercial Lighting Designers, Hospitality Lighting Central Texas, Hospitality Lighting San Antonio, Hotel Landscape Lighting, Resort Lighting Design
The Austin hospitality industry reflects both the idyllic surroundings of the Texas Hill Country and the eclectic, forward motion of one of America’s most creative and progressive urban environments.
Austin resort hotels, bed and breakfasts, and five star restaurants attract visitors from all over the United States, and they are popular weekend getaways for Texans throughout the state that may not live in Austin, but nevertheless love Austin almost like a second home.
Considering theses facts, it is readily apparent that lighting is an essential component of Austin hospitality services both as a functional necessity and a refined aspect of design
Developing a lighting system for any location requires first an understanding of its many elements, and, secondly, planning and developing a interior lighting and exterior landscape lighting system that will establish and elevate the essence of place, time, and action.
Restaurant Lighting
Almost every Austin hotel has a restaurant that requires high end lighting design to create atmosphere special attention from a decorative and lighting perspective. Indirect and colored lighting play pivotal roles in creating a sense of romantic excursion to an evening where time feels suspended in a moment where light creates emotion as well as visibility.
ILD offers a number of very specialized and proprietary restaurant lighting services that you may read bout by clicking here.
Meeting Room Lighting
Meetings represent a major service offering of the Austin hospitality industry. Many companies and executives utilize hotel meeting rooms and boardrooms to hold important meetings and seminars for keynote presentations.
Hospitality Meeting rooms and executive office lighting requires exceptionally bright lights for motivation and presentation, but they also require lighting controls to lower lighting levels for any audio/visual segments of an event.
Lighting Interior Guests Rooms
The Hospitality Association of Texas represents a prominent authority in Hill Country inns, bed and breakfasts, and five star hotels. ILD’s team works to engineer lighting systems in full compliance with local codes. Meticulous attention to advanced electrical systems such as reading lights, task lighting for safe movement within the room, kitchenette lighting, and adequate, cost effective bathroom lighting all figure prominently into our designs.
Additionally, Illuminations Lighting and Design’s extensive experience working in the residential indoor lighting design services industry enables us to introduce a variety of lighting elements that contribute to the experience of convenience and comfort and reflect the decorative elements of the interior to create a sense of balance and comfort.
This creates a feeling for guests of being home away from home when they first arrive in their rooms. The feeling sense of total privacy and safe, isolated comfort adds to a sense of sanctuary to the essence of luxury.
Hotel Lobby Lighting
The human element of hospitality begins here, in the lobby. The lighting must focus on detail as much as it does grand design.
The lobby area is definitely an area where hospitality lighting designers have to be almost mathematical in establishing points of expression, areas of task, architectural lighting and moods of decorum that both differentiate and unite into an aesthetic of welcome. It must be brightly lit with minimal reflective glare, so it is necessary to often use very sophisticated and proprietary lighting fixtures to illuminate certain key elements as ornate antique furniture, Fine art & display lighting, bookshelves, and especially rare works of art and statuary.
Illuminations Lighting and Design specialists also pay very close attention to the practical demands of booking guests and customer service. Hospitality lighting in these areas will create an upbeat atmosphere of activity accomplished through soft, recessed lighting and stronger, indirect lighting from above that “washes” surfaces in light without blinding the eyes.
Read more here about other key elements to truly superior Austin hospitality lighting that ILD now offers to all of Central Texas and the surrounding Hill Country.
Labels: Hospitality Lighting Austin, Hospitality Lighting Central Texas, Hospitality Lighting Designers, Hospitality Lighting Hill Country
Boardroom lighting design by ILD shines the light on key elements essential to professional meetings and communications. Improperly designed boardroom lighting can unconsciously set a bad tone that puts meeting participants on edge and creates negative energy that works against teamwork and profitability. Designing effective lighting for a boardroom requires a systematic layered lighting approach where different sources, levels, and forms of light both fill the room with visibility and clarity for task-oriented focus. It should compliment task with aesthetic highlights to highlight unique features, decorations, and artwork. Designer boardroom lighting must also deliver a higher level of user control than standard office lighting because most boardrooms are used not only for meetings but also for presentations that require ambient lighting as backdrop to audiovisual presentations and keynote speeches.
Because the boardroom plays host to different individuals with varying degrees of eyesight and comfort levels, boardroom lighting design requires a field of clear, softer light disbursed evenly throughout the room. ILD lighting designers achieve this lighting effect - known as indirect lighting - by shining light onto the ceiling so it reflects downward in dispersed, albeit sufficiently visible amounts. This eliminates pockets of shadow that can create unconscious negative emotions and damage rapport between attendees. We can then enhance this field of light with task and accent lights that facilitate specific actions and showcase prominent decor. Our clients have reported that after our designers filled the entire boardroom with light and added personal touches of accent and differentiation that the general tone of meetings became more upbeat, focused, objective, and characterized by more effective communication between attendees.
While it is very important to establish appropriate tone and atmosphere, truly effective boardroom lighting design has to evolve beyond the merely emotional and psychological into the task-oriented and functionally aesthetic. Comfort and amenities play an important role in setting the tone for meetings and presentation, but focus and productivity must remain paramount if meetings are going to generate tangible results. An absolute must for truly customized, designer boardroom lighting systems is the ability to seamlessly shift illumination from meeting mode to presentation mode. Whenever Power Point or video comes into play, the bright light of meeting space has to dim in all areas of the room, leaving only enough ambient lighting to avoid total darkness and focus the eyes toward the screen. The lighting system must also enable meeting coordinators to "spotlight" the speaker in a field of light around podium or lectern, or when standing in front of a whiteboard. These effects require specialty fixtures installed with dimmer switches that allow meeting facilitators to control lighting levels both throughout the room and at individual points within the room. Our team of lighting designers brings a number of user friendly controls to the boardroom table to ensure that meetings flow smoothly into presentations without the embarrassment of having to fiddle with lights for minutes at time.
Organizations from a wide range of industries turn to Illuminations Lighting for boardroom design solutions that utilize light as a functional design element with a purpose that also conveys a pleasant and sophisticated aesthetic due to our proprietary methods of layering the light in precise proportions to a specific room and the activities therein. Chambers of Commerce, executive meeting areas, and hotel and resort planning committees can all benefit from the psychological and practical elements brought to the boardroom table courtesy of ILD. Call today to begin the process of lighting your facility for maximum performance, teamwork, and communication.
Labels: Architectural Lighting Houston Texas, Boardroom Lighting, Commercial Lighting Designers, Executive Office Lights, Hospitality Lighting Central Texas, Houston Texas Lighting Designers
