Downtown Salisbury, North Carolina, was recently enhanced with a much-needed park named Bell Tower Green. It is located on the grounds surrounding The Bell Tower, which was built in 1892 as part of the First Presbyterian Church and most recently bordered by a dilapidated parking lot.

Besides the tower, the park encompasses two other historic structures. The first one is known as the Female Academy, which housed classrooms from 1820-1825, turned into a residence for local businessman Maxwell Chambers, then Dr. Josephus Hall and purchased by Historic Salisbury Foundation in 1972. Also on the grounds is the Sessions House, a Presbyterian Church meeting facility erected in 1855 over the gravesite of the Maxwell Chambers' family who donated the land.

To illuminate the tower and site and make the space attractive and inviting at night, landscape architecture firm, LandDesign, teamed up with Hartranft Lighting Design, founded in 2013 by Andrea Hartranft after working as a lighting designer for 27 years. The company is based in Charlotte, North Carolina and has grown to 14 employees in eight different states.

Principal Paula Ziegenbein, who started with the company in 2014 and became a partner in 2022, served as the lead designer for this project.

Providing the Groundwork
Funding for the three-acre park with wide-open green areas of turf surrounded by various plantings including numerous trees such as Serviceberry, Eastern Redbuds, Washington Hawthorns, Honey Locusts, Crape Myrtles, Tulip trees, Southern Magnolias, Black Gum trees and Chinese Elms was made available through $13 million of private donations from dozens of companies and non-profits and hundreds of individual citizens.

Ziegenbein's design for most of lighting began in March of 2018 and took 13 months to be finalized. Then in 2020, the last piece of the plan, an illumination strategy for an outdoor stage that is situated near the middle of the park, was undertaken by Hartranft.

Installation of the fixtures and accompanying accessories took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, which Hartranft recalls as not really adding any challenges since it was an outdoor project.

 
Creating the Nighttime Environment
Overall illumination of the park is largely courtesy of ambient lighting from the extensive variety of sources.

"This project has multiple layers of light that contribute to the overall experience," states Hartranft. "Site poles and bollards define walking paths and organize travel routes. Landscape lighting supports definition of 'rooms' (separate areas of the park) and facade lighting highlights architectural elements. Layered lighting is critical to creating a safe, engaging and welcoming experience."

The fixtures included 3,000K uplights and tree lights, hanging perforated accent lights illuminated bollards along the pathways, street catenary lights over the dining area, steplights, RGBW floodlights and uplights, and miniature flood lights hidden in hedges.

For the tower, ground-mounted fixtures, including 124-watt fixtures were installed to bathe it in a glow that can always alter in hue thanks to these light's seven-color LED array. The color temperatures of these luminaires are either 3,000K or 3,200K. They feature medium oblong lenses and were placed six to ten feet away from the tower's base.

Higher up, small lights from Insight Lighting are mounted. They too can be programmed to emit a wide assortment of colors, as can the uplights and LED strip lights at the tower's pinnacles. The lighting control arrangement can facilitate six pre-programmed scenes. The park uses this color flexibility of the system to help mark holidays and other happenings.

A distinctive structure on the grounds is a large plant trellis. Targetti's surface-mounted, 3,000K JUPITER luminaires were installed to bring it to life.

Another construction, a stage with an arched covering located on the central lawn was a significant aspect of the lighting design, which not only illuminated the performance area with RGBW floodlights but highlighted the structure itself with RGBW linear lighting fixtures, steplights and Designplan projectors.

In the playground, SATURN uplights were focused on the climbing boulders, adding to the ambient luminosity that envelops the park.

Highlighting the Upshots
The overall focus of the park's design was to replace "asphalt for aspirations," and this goal was certainly reached as it is now where the "community gathers to celebrate, connect and engage," according to the City of Salisbury, which calls it their "most significant downtown green space" and a "shelter from the busy sidewalks and pavements of the surrounding streets. A place where everyone in Rowan County--children of all ages, their parents, four-legged friends, young adults, seniors, business partners and more-- can gather to find their own way to enjoy nature."

Ziegenbein was reported by Randy Reid of Lighting Design Magazine as stating, "What used to be kind of a vacant void is now a focal point and anchor for the community."

She concludes that the winning results highlight "the historic nature of the entire area."

"Bell Tower Park has had such a positive impact on Salisbury," enthuses Hartranft. "The park has become a destination, a playground, a meeting place for the residents. The landscape design, creating spaces within the overall park, adds intimacy, and the layers of light add interest and depth. There is an energy in the air when you are there - people are happy, laughing, comfortable - exactly the desired outcome."

Team List
Owner: Bell Tower Green
Landscape Architect: LandDesign
Lighting Designer: Hartranft Lighting Design, LLC
Architect: 505 Design
General Contractor - David E. Looper & Company
Electrical Contractor: MAV Electric
Engineer: Optima Engineering
Integrator: Barbizon Lighting Company - Charlotte