Landscape lighting offers a natural progression for Landscape Contractors interested in expanding their services. Often, however, they find themselves elbow-deep in a project before they realize the demanding nature of landscape lighting. No arena of lighting presents more obstacles to a successful results. Gardens are continually evolving; the equipment is expensive; and no matter how much planning you do ahead of time, much of the final work must be done after dark.

Here are some guidelines to help make landscape lighting installations successful.

Initial Concerns

At this parking courtyard, the stone is grazed with USHIO 600 candlepower FSV MR11 lamps and the tree is uplit with eight 50 watt 24° MR16 medium flood lamps in Lumiere fixtures. Lighting Design: Jan Moyer.

First, a little bit of light goes a long way. It doesn’t require much wattage to create a successful lighting effect—a 20-watt MR16 is often all you need. While it is common knowledge, today, that low voltage lighting is more effective in most instances than standard voltage, this depends on the source type. The effectiveness is based on how the lamp filament and reflectors are constructed.

“MR” (multi-mirror reflector) lamps have better optics than the vast majority of low voltage “PAR” (parabolic aluminized reflector) lamps used for landscape lighting. This is because they produce a wider beamspread with stronger candlepower in medium and wide flood distributions when compared with “PAR” lamps.

Second, keep the "visual composition" simple. Light one area of a site effectively, rather than lighting the whole thing poorly (in other words, don't spread your quantity of fixtures too thinly over the landscape). When faced with a tight budget also, select one area rather than trying to do a little here and there. Landscape lighting easily allows expansion, so, suggest to a client that you do the most important area and add on to the system over a number of years or other timeframe that is comfortable for their budget.

Whether you do a project in stages or all at once, size the "infrastructure" for expansion. This includes the size of the transformers, the size and type of cables, the distribution of power throughout the site, and the capacity of the controls. Over time, as plants grow for example, the wattage in a fixture may need to be increased. Leaving spare capacity on the transformer allows for this as an inherent flexibility for the system.

Remember that this lighting allows the owners to use their space at night. Talk with your client and then think about how people might use the area: visitors approaching the site and its entrance; views out windows from inside a home, restaurant, resort; one or more activities on decks, patios, or at remote entertainment locations; movement from one area to another. Plan a solution that will address all of these issues at once.

Design Solutions

Class of 2002 Lighting Research Center Graduate students—Peping Dee, Brian Fuller, Francisco Garza, Sumi Han, Rohini Pendyala, and Insiya Shakir installed this full scale mockup (previous page photo also). Three fixtures with 20 watt bi-pin halogen lamps wash the fence. Four fixtures with 50 watt 38° MR16 lamps, between six and seventeen feet from the canopy edge, define the "front" of this young Willow. This composition provides a distant vista approximately 500 feet from the house.

A typical "design solution" uses "path fixtures." Problem encountered: in order to create an even, soft effect along a path requires so many fixtures that during the day it will look like a "runway." Instead, think about mounting adjustable, accent fixtures above ground level in a trellis, an eave/roof overhang, or in a tree. This fixture location will cover more area and present a more natural appearance than path lighting. At the same time, consider lighting vertical surfaces—trees, hedges, shrubs, fountains, sculptures, and/or structures. This vertical lighting approach covers more of the human visual field than horizontal light on the ground.

Generally, clients don’t understand the cost of lighting. Responding to this issue by offering inexpensive fixtures causes long term discontent toward our industry. Inexpensive fixtures are not manufactured to respond to environmental and site challenges. Fixtures need to withstand continual wetting and drying conditions, especially in landscapes that have irrigation systems. Sockets fail, mounting arms break, and aluminum spikes eventually disintegrate in the ground (depending on soil conditions such as minerals, chemicals and Ph level). All too often, aiming angles are lost because fixture-locking mechanisms cannot withstand shovels or rakes. Or, worse, after aiming the fixtures at night the locking mechanism can’t tighten solidly enough to hold the desired angle.

Be Flexible

These three sets of day and night images show the strength of soft, sculpting light. The Maple, uses nine 50 watt and six 35 watt MR16 stake mounted uplights and five 20 watt MR11 tree mounted up/down lights to capture the full three dimensional form and the incredible bloom of this Norway Maple.

Documenting fixture location(s) on drawings can verge on the impossible. How do you show the intended location or the actual installed location for a tree mounted fixture on a lighting plan? Changes in architecture, hardscape, and planting that occur during design, documentation, and construction affect a potential lighting layout. For example, the lamp type, fixture quantity, and exact fixture location(s) for uplighting a specific tree cannot be finalized until that tree has been planted. During the design or installation of the garden, the tree may change from one type to another; it’s location may shift slightly or dramatically; one tree may become three or vise-versa during plant procurement/installation. Placement orientation of the tree’s branching structure affects fixture placement. To best accentuate the tree’s form, texture, and character, fixtures need to respond to the branching structure. Sometimes, a few inches make a dramatic difference in the appearance of the lighting. Because of these types of project variations, there is no definitive way to prepare specific layout plans for landscape lighting.

Residential projects are more understanding of the need not to show fixture locations on the plans. More field design decisions are tolerated in residential projects. Yet changes do occur, and regularly, on commercial projects. Today, both the design and construction teams for these projects are less understanding of the need to accommodate for the tentative nature that such changes produce in the lighting. Noting or describing power requirements and an anticipated quantity of fixtures saves the clients’ budget, so that more time is available during construction for fixture placement and aiming.

Making Plans

Downlighting the stair setting, using four 20 watt MR11 fixtures clearly identifies the stairs while revealing the planting around the stairs. At bottom, three 50 watt MR16 uplights outline the tree canopy and one 20 watt MR11 defines the trunk structure.

Every project requires strategic planning for documentation. On any scale project, having an ‘area’ name designation allows the various parties involved in the project to communicate at a distance and provides the initial identification hierarchy for the lighting plans, details, schedules, and wiring documentation. Within the designated areas, all major trees/important elements should be numbered/identified for easy reference. Transformer Groups and Electrical Groups throughout the site need to be developed and shown in a consistent and logical manner that provides the flexibility for change ad infinitum.

Some fixture information can be scaled and shown. Path fixtures can be located on a large enough scale drawing (1/4-inch minimum) with dimensions from paving edges and with typical paving pattern indicated. Fixtures mounted on structures such as walls, eaves, and trellises can be dimensioned on the plan. However, each installation type requires at least one detail to express the actual location. For wall-mounted fixtures, an elevation is required to show the height to the center of the junction box and the coordinating horizontal distance from some architectural reference.

When the designer chooses to show each fixture on the plan, the scale of the plan will need to be at least 1/8 inch equals one foot; but preferably 1/4 inch equals one foot or larger. Most landscape drawings are shown at 1/8” equals one foot/1:10 scale/1:50 metric scale, or smaller. Using a scale smaller than these, it gets difficult to show the fixture, its wiring, and controls information clearly.

Notes often make sense for an "initial" lighting plan. For example, place a descriptive note on the plan next to a numbered tree including the quantity and type of fixtures. Another idea is to make a list of numbered notes that includes the quantity and type of fixtures along with all the installation or aiming needed to install and pre-aim this equipment. This will produce less clutter on the plan and allows for as much descriptive installation direction as necessary.

Tree-mounting Fixtures

For tree-mounted fixtures, this type of notation is all that can be shown on a plan unless someone is willing to draw one or more section or elevation drawings showing the trunk and branching structure of the tree. This could become prohibitively costly.

A field layout session is the best way to approach locating tree-mounted fixtures. The designer meets a professional arborist on site and familiarizes them with the lighting concepts/techniques and how the equipment works. That way as the arborist climbs the tree to locate each fixture at the designers’ direction, he can understand the nuances of fixture location and preparing the aiming. In this approach, the installing contractor should make-up the electrical connections including a cable long enough to reach from the ground to a designated distance beyond the expected fixture location. The fixture can be pre-mounted during daylight hours with a preliminary lamp selection, aiming, and hood shield positioning. This will reduce, and possibly eliminate, aiming time after dark.

Take Some Photos

Another option is to photograph the desired location(s) using a Polaroid or digital camera (if an appropriate printer is available either on site or locally). The designer then marks two copies of each photograph with the fixture location(s), lamping, controls designation, and preliminary aiming. These photographs become useful when members of the team are widespread geographically and cannot easily meet on site.

Some projects can be handled with very little or no initial documents. For a small site with no existing site plans, the designer may walk the gardens with the owner, landscape designer, and installing contractor and make all the lighting decisions as they go. Next, the designer records these decisions by writing a project description that lists all the information that is necessary for contracting, purchasing, and installing the lighting system. During such a site meeting, the contractor can take the responsibility to note the design and mark the fixture location, eliminating the preliminary write-up.

In this case, no drawings are prepared until the Record Documents (see below). If no one physically marked the fixture locations with flags or other marking techniques, then the locations can be shown with photographs accompanying the write-up—or a subsequent visit to check locations will be required. Using one of these approaches often saves time in this early phase of a project, making more of the budget available for thorough installation and aiming sessions.

Control System Concerns

This photograph easily documents the two fixtures in this tree for future maintenance. Below, using PhotoShop (or any computer photo editing program) Insiya Shakir photographed the Lumiere fixtures and then imported the fixture images onto the eave photo. As a detail accompanying the lighting plans, this photograph clarified the exact mounting location and fixture canopy positioning required for this project.

The control system, an important aspect of any lighting project, often gets out of hand. For most landscape lighting projects, both residential and commercial, controls should be simple. Think about how the owner will utilize the lighting. There might be views out windows, which means that the interior and exterior lighting need to be controlled simultaneously—dimming down the interior and keeping the landscape levels high.

In many cases a simple on/off switch is all that is necessary. For some people, automatic controls are desirable. The lighting turns on at dusk (or a designated time after sunset) with a photocell and/or timer and turns off at a designated time. Astronomical time switches track sunset for a particular geographical location, eliminating resetting timers several times a year. For properties with multiple uses, pre-set scenes become useful.

The documentation form for illustrating the control strategy will vary with the project. The more complex the function and use of the space, and the physically larger a project, controls become more complicated and computer-driven. This translates to more than switch symbols and switch looping. Load designations need to be determined, identified on the plans, and shown in all necessary schedules—load, zone, panel, circuiting, and/or scene schedules. Any changes that occur during installation and the final lamping need to be recorded or updated in the record documents for future maintenance and expansion reference.

Drawing It Out

Regarding the medium for drawings, AutoCAD offers advantages over hand drawing:

• Electronic documents are easily translated from the foot/inch scaling to metric

• The drawings are easily electronically transported between team members

• Plans can build on other team member layers

• Layers with information not relevant in a document from another team member can be turned off to keep drawings more easily readable;

• More information can be included in a clean, readable manner

• The ‘original’ becomes everlasting and easily updated or revised

Notice I said nothing about saving time. The computer allows us to include more information and appear more professional, but they won’t save us time.

When the project is being hand drawn by the landscape architect, a good format for adding lighting is a reverse-reading, half-tone, erasable original which includes both hardscape and planting layouts from the landscape architect. The reverse-reading format provides physical separation between the landscape and lighting information, allowing either to be easily updated without affecting the other. However, it requires a blueprinting process and that process is disappearing due to the availability of oversize coping. Getting the plan half-tone allows the lighting information to be most easily read. Having the hardscape and planting allows the intent of the lighting to be more easily understood by everyone during the initial project installation, for the on-going maintenance over the years, and to accommodate landscape/lighting changes at any time.

Another issue to remember about landscape plan scale is the physical size of the drawing. These plans spend an enormous amount of time outdoors at the site. It will invariably be moist, which deteriorates the quality of the drawings. Typically there is not a good ‘work surface’ for laying out large drawings to reference on the site. So, consider preparing a set of drawings in 11 by 17 inches or 8-1/2 by 11 inches. This allows areas to be planned individually and handed out to an installer assigned to a specific area. This size plan is easy to work with on site and can be easily laminated. Other size plans can be laminated at printers or using clear contact paper, but will still be awkward.

Communication Is Key

This brings up the point that landscape lighting intersects with several designers on the project team including the architect and interior designer. The lighting designer NEEDS to be informed by all these designers of changes that they are making that will potentially affect the lighting. Structural changes from the architect; window changes from the interior designer; planting and pathway changes from the landscape architect. Any breakdown in communication diminishes the end result. All team members need to accept the responsibility of keeping each other informed.

Documentation for landscape lighting needs to communicate to the installing contractor(s) (General, Electrical, and/or Landscape Contractor) all they need to know to properly purchase and install the lighting system. The plans can be formal or informal depending on the project size, style, and contractual requirements.

Consistency and thoroughness are most important, but how documentation is done, how many drawing sheets are needed, and how many schedules are prepared depends on the appropriate format to communicate well and best control our clients’ expenditure. If no other drawing is produced, a plan of the final layout and lamping MUST be provided to the owner and all team members for future maintenance.

A complete set of Record Documents is critical to keep the lighting system functioning as originally conceived and aimed; to allow for responding to landscape changes due to plant growth, garden renovation, environmental degradation, and lamp burnout. Because these documents cannot be prepared until the end of the project, it requires a strong commitment by the designers, installers and owner. Fees must be allocated during the proposal phase to make sure this work is done.

Just in the past week, I have worked on revising a 7-year-old installation due to the loss of a massive, mature Oak tree; re-aiming a project originally installed 12 years ago; and expanding the scope of a project installed four years ago. This last one required knowing the size, path, and wattage on each cable; the size and loading of the transformers to allow for planning how to add load onto the system. Without thorough, concise, and clear record documents, working on any of these projects now would be very discouraging!