Nestled in the pristine hills outside of the Greater Denver area, a captivating lighting design project titled "Colorado Nights" seamlessly transformed a beautiful log home into a nocturnal masterpiece. This endeavor, a collaboration spearheaded by experienced lighting designers Tim Ryan & Nick Wojdack of The Lighthouse Group, aimed not only to accentuate the architectural brilliance of the residence but also to enhance the surrounding landscaping, including a synthetic putting green.
The project encompassed both architectural and landscape lighting, covering the entirety of the home and its surrounding natural elements, extending to the bocce ball court-a unique feature adding a touch of recreation to the scenic setting.

Architectural Lighting Considerations
The design process began with a meticulous exploration of the log home's architectural features. The challenge here lay in the fact that the home, though appearing to be constructed of wood, was in fact built with a simulated wood concrete mix-a strategic choice to safeguard against wildfires. The front of the home greets you with a beautiful timber frame type portico that has open beam construction, and the second floor of the home is outlined with dormers that give it a feeling of prominence.

On the back of the home facing the road, the home appears to be built on tall posts that run from the ground to the upper-level floors. These are a prominent feature along with some timber framing within the gables.

Landscape Lighting Considerations
Beyond the home's walls, the surrounding landscape elements were woven into the design to illuminate the natural elements surrounding the residence and to visually ground the home into the mountain context since it was sitting on top of a hill.

The synthetic putting green is a destination for the family and lighting needed to be considered in that space for after-hours enjoyment. The driveway to the house winds its way through stands of Colorado Blue Spruce and native Hawthorn trees which were selected in the illumination plan to add structure and dimension to the landscape at night.

 
Decorative steel bollard lights were strategically placed at intervals along the driveway to add waypoint markers and illumination for the owners and their guests as they arrive at the home.

Design Process
Because this home and landscape were already in place and established, it was a straight forward process of visiting the site and pre-visualizing the night-time effects of lighting from various vantage points around the property. We met with the homeowners directly for this project and established a hierarchy of importance for the areas they wanted addressed in the design and then we went to work to create the design for these key areas of interest.
The primary viewpoints considered were from the main road, the driveway and entry approach as well as from key rooms and windows inside the home. We really wanted the home to have a warm and cozy feel so we knew that we would illuminate the home in a 2,700K color temperature to accentuate the warm orange color of the simulated wood. Within the landscape, we opted for colors that ranged between 3,000K on most of the plant material because of the higher spectral saturation of green in that color temperature range versus 2,700K.

We experimented with the Colorado Blue Spruces because we wanted them to stand apart from the Hawthorn trees so we used 4,000K only on those select trees to accentuate the blue color more clearly for an eye-catching look coming in the driveway.

Once we had our concepts completed, we overlayed a series of pictures that we captured on site with arrows and notes to help convey the light placement and design objectives of the project to the homeowner. We also relied on our deep portfolio of images to help illustrate our design ideas, their specific intents and expected lighting effects for this installation.

Project Challenges
One difficulty faced by the designers was presented by the simulated wood concrete structure. The decision to construct the home with this type of building material, while a wise choice for fire protection, posed challenges for the lighting design. The material's unique properties required adjustments in fixture placement and mounting options for the home's vertical posts on the back of the house and some of the second-floor dormers because the concrete was not as easy to work with as real wood, which of course is much easier to drill through and mount to.

Another potential problem was access to the second floor and other architectural areas since the lighting installation occurred long after the home was already constructed, so it became a challenge of chasing wire through very tight and nearly inaccessible spaces.

Additionally, the inflexible nature of the home's concrete construction made laying electrical cable much harder than it would have been had the house been made of wood.

Lack of access was also an issue while trying to light key interior portico areas since illuminating the post and beam construction of this feature was not considered during the home's construction.

To overcome this challenge required some thinking "outside of the box" to get cable where we needed lights to be placed. Most of the inner post and beams of the portico are illuminated from flush-mounted ground lights that face up under the columns. These were core-drilled and set level with the finished concrete surface, which also required our teams to carefully grind select expansion joints in the concrete and set wire down inside before re-tucking to conceal the cables.

Conclusion
"Colorado Nights" stands as a testament to the fusion of technical expertise and creative vision in landscape lighting design. By overcoming the challenges presented by the house's distinct architectural choices and site constraints, the project not only fulfilled its scope but exceeded expectations. The log home, now bathed in the ethereal glow of carefully orchestrated lighting, is a testament to the harmony that can be achieved when nature and architecture dance in the delicate embrace of carefully crafted illumination.

TEAM LIST
Lighting Design: The Lighthouse Group
Designers: Tim Ryan | Nick Wojdack
Installation: Lighthouse Outdoor Lighting of Denver
Architect: Ken Piper and Associates
Landscape Architect: Environmental Designs