Landscape Architect Articles

Tree Canopy Masterpieces11-07-16 | Feature

Tree Canopy Masterpieces
Michael Miyamoto, LC/DBM

Pennsylvania Paradise

Garrett Churchill Inc., of Willow Grove, Penn., installed nearly 100 light fixtures as part of an outdoor lighting system for this 1.5-acre estate. Andy Sykes, CLP, PCH and president and owner of the company, said it was his largest lighting job to date. His client, in nearby Rydal, Penn., "wanted to highlight the beautiful plantings on the property and create more of a sense of arrival when you pulled into this beautiful home," Sykes said. He used mostly MR-16 and MR-11 bullet lights. The sycamore tree on the right is uplit with three MR-16 ground fixtures, four MR-16 tree mounted lights, and three MR-16 tree mounted downlights. The two larger trees on the left, Kousa dogwoods, are uplit with three MR-11 bullets.
Photos: Felicia Mariah Photography

When the owners of a 1.5-acre homestead in Rydal, Penn., wanted to highlight their beautiful landscape with an elaborate lighting system, they called on Andy Sykes and his company, Garrett Churchill Inc.

Sykes and his crew installed nearly 100 light fixtures in all, and now his clients have the luxury of enjoying the outdoor beauty of their home at night as well as during the day.

"Our client wanted to highlight the beautiful plantings on the property and create more of a sense of arrival when you pulled into this beautiful home," said Sykes, CLP, PCH. "This was our largest lighting job to date."

Garrett Churchill, started in 1999, is a full service landscape company, excluding irrigation services and large tree work. Its services include design and installation of lighting, planting, and hardscapes such as patios, walkways, retaining walls, etc.

"We do drainage work, water features, custom fencing, maintenance work, and some other oddball things for clients," said Sykes, who is the owner and president of the company, which employs between nine and 11 people, depending on the season.

Six low-voltage transformers and 93 light fixtures from the same company were installed on this estate. The bulk of the fixtures are MR-16 and MR-11 bullets, with a few path lights, wall wash fixtures and well lights.

On the grounds are four very large sycamore trees along the driveway "?u three are at the entrance and one more is near the garage. There are also several Kousa dogwood and Atlas cedar trees on the estate. For most of the trees, including all of the massive sycamores, Sykes installed either three or four ground-mounted uplights, three or four tree-mounted lights approximately 30 feet in the air to illuminate the canopies, and two or three downlights to showcase their trunks and wash the ground with light.

Blue Atlas cedar trees are uplit with two MR-16 bullets near the trunk. There is an additional MR-16 off to the side. There are also three well lights in the lawn to wash the outer edge of the trees with light. The blue hew of the cedars is enhanced with a 3000 K light.

Sykes said the newest lighting products feature marine-grade, o-ring connections, with no wire nuts or heat shrunk crimp connections. Also, some of these lamps can change to 15-, 30- or 55-degree beam spreads because they have three different optics. All tree-mounted fixtures were secured with two stainless steel hanger bolts offset from each tree, to allow for tree growth. All the wires were secured to the trees with stainless steel screws and zip ties. The zip ties were left loose, also to allow for growth of the trees.

The lighting system is controlled entirely with Z-wave switches in the house, so the lights can be turned on and off with a smart phone or tablet.

"We had installed the paver driveway the previous year, and lighting was already being discussed, so we placed sleeves under the driveway in anticipation of the lighting project," Sykes said. "This alleviated one major issue." It took three full days to complete the job. Six people worked on the project for the first two days, and three workers finished the job on the third day. Aiming of the lights took an additional five hours.

California Gleaming

Imagine Lighting Company, San Pedro, Calif., revamped the entire outdoor lighting system for a sprawling estate in Pacific Palisades, Calif., using exclusively CAST Lighting fixtures and Brilliance LED lamps. Nearly 500 fixtures were removed from the 5.5-acre property, and then nearly 600 new lighting fixtures were installed. The trees in the back of this photo are lit with MR-16 bullets, set on 24-inch risers. The trees in the side yard are lit with well lights, with 6-, 9- and 12-watt LED lamps. Wattages depended on tree density and size. The steps are moonlighted with tree lights from the adjacent trees. The grass area is illuminated with 42 tree lights, mainly 4-watt. Matching fixtures were used to light the large stones on each side of the steps. Small China Hat path lights are on each side of the bottom steps.

When a Southern California couple wanted to upgrade the outdoor lighting system for their sprawling estate, it turned out to be a monumental, involved project for a lighting firm based in nearby San Pedro.

At first, the homeowners consulted with a home automation company, Smart Homes, because they wanted to fully automate their house and grounds. The Smart Homes representative then recommended and asked Anthony Bogdanovich, president and lead designer for Imagine Lighting Company, to revamp the outdoor lighting network.

And what a job it turned out to be, as nearly 500 fixtures were removed from the 5.5-acre estate, and replaced with a complex labyrinth of nearly 600 new fixtures to complete the overhaul.

"They (the clients) had a mix of 120- and 12-volt lights, metal halide, halogen and LED fixtures all installed in a???(R)???AE'?N????e'?N,A+nonsensical???(R)???AE'?N????e'?N,A+manner," Bogdanovich said. "Besides the horrendous differences in color temperature, the glare issue was unbearable and completely blinding."

At the same time, the homeowners are philanthropists who frequently entertain guests, and quickly realized that their current system was poor and needed to be refurbished.

"They wanted their lighting to bring out the estate's many beautiful features, while making good use of the extreme amount of open space during the evening hours," he said.

CAST Lighting fixtures were used exclusively for this project, because their bronze finishes complement the stone features in many parts of the property and resist saltwater corrosion. The estate is in Pacific Palisades near the coast. A multitude of fixtures were used, from MR-16 directional lights to well lights and washers. Each fixture was chosen for a specific function that together created a well-balanced lighting presentation.

LED lamps from Brilliance LED were also used exclusively because of their wide range of beam angles and lumen output needed for the best effects, Bogdanovich said.

The large trees were lit with a triangle of PAR 36 well lights. Thick foliage trees were lit with 12-watt lamps, while the flagpole and pine trees are lighted with 9-watt lamps. Tree lights down-light the driveway and are mainly 5-watt lamps with 30 and 60-degree beam spreads to create a moonlighting effect.

"A significant amount of moonlighting was used to highlight the long driveway and backyard lawn," the lead designer said. "The home sits in a canyon with the mountainside as a backdrop that gave us the opportunity to highlight the massive trees along the hillside defining the property and layering light between the mountain and sky."

The lighting firm completed all the trenching, wiring and fixture installation. Besides basic electrical tools, no major equipment was used in the installation. All of the wiring was trenched and buried by hand, and the workers were able to take advantage of the existing conduit from the previous installation to wire the new system together.

"During the process we worked with Barry and Jennifer Doust of Smart Homes to tie-in our work with the home automation system," Bogdanovich said. "This required a significant amount of planning between both companies to ensure transformers and power units were installed in the optimum locations."

As seen in LC/DBM magazine, November 2016.