Located in an exclusive community on the Treasure Coast of Florida, a private residence in South Florida was built in 1990 and George Winterling Lighting, Inc. was asked to do the outdoor lighting design. The small trees on the property at the time allowed for a simple design of up lighting with copper Kim C-24 bullet fixtures.

The maturity of the trees presently necessitated a complete renovation of the lighting and once again the homeowner hired George Winterling.

Background
Since 1982, George Winterling has been designing distinctive exterior nighttime environments for residential and commercial properties around the world - focusing on glare free installations, energy efficiency, durability, reduced carbon emissions and light pollution.

Project Details
The home is on approximately three acres, right across the street from the Atlantic Ocean and cannot be seen from the main road. The entry drive is curved and tree lined so the lighting began well inside the drive so that no illumination is visible from the street.

It was determined that LED lamps were to be used and controlled by a dimming system. However, each fixture could also have separate filtering to soften and blend the effect. Although the plan was highly customized, and the fixtures would be as hidden as possible, the design was intended to be very survivable. Light pruning and cleaning was going to generally be all that was needed to be done each year to keep it looking right.

Setting the Stage
Prior to beginning the design, the lighting team determined that the electrical was in good condition, after all those years, as it was installed by a professional electrical contractor and had been maintained well. The team was also pleased to find the fixtures specified 30 years earlier were still working and most of them were useable for the re-design.
The fixtures were C-24 copper PAR 38 bullets with halogen lamps, which were swapped out for 3000K LEDs. Two Kliegl Brothers path lights were found to be still working and in good shape. The new fixtures selected have custom shields and are made of copper and brass due to the proximity to saltwater.

 
"The landscaping had matured beautifully with a grove of Banyan trees that were too small to really do anything with when the house was built," states Winterling. "But now, they were perfect! The hedges were in perfect condition and of course the palm trees had matured so that down lighting was possible."

Putting the Design into Practice
Considering the entire property again, the existing copper bullets were installed in similar locations as before but instead of placing them in front of a palm tree, they were placed between palm trees to illuminate them more evenly. These fixtures were on the north side of the property and only had a half shield making them in effect a wall washer. These light sources could also be hidden.

The 120-volt existing fixtures combined well with the new 12-volt PLG wall washing fixtures. To evenly illuminate the motor court walls that were espaliered in confederate jasmine, 60-degree MR-16 LEDs were incorporated.
The team decided not to move the 30-year-old fixtures in the courtyard because they were working, and they did not want to disturb the landscaping as it would require a lot of digging.

"If we were up-lighting seagrape trees in the motor court fresh today, I would have used two fixtures to do the job, but we made it work with one under each tree like when they were new," Winterling explains. "We added 12-volt MR-16 custom shielded down lights to the seagrape trees for shadows and balance. From the main views there is no visible light source seen. Had I used two new fixtures on the seagrapes, some hot spots could have been eliminated a little better. Brighter was not the goal."
Behind the wall and extending over 150 feet east, the landscaping was up-lighted evenly, without any light and dark areas, using a PLG fixture with two MR16s with 60-degree LED lamps spaced eight feet on center. Special dimming techniques were employed on the wall washers to create the effect.

It gets more challenging
The next area considered was the
view from the front patio. This was difficult as it had to be enjoyed from the patio looking east and then to the north and south without visible light sources. This was further complicated as it was to be viewed from the opposite direction while driving into and out of
the property. The lighting effect had to be perfect from about 200 degrees.

"This was accomplished with one little dark area that haunts me today," admits Winterling. "But probably I am the only one that still looks at that one tree every time I pass it."

Fixtures were outfitted with TCP lamps for
this project.

"I prefer lamps where possible to the arrays as they are easier to replace," Winterling says. "The style of lighting that I have been known for is a most natural effect with very few low level path lights or marker lights, treating the property as if it were illuminated by a bright moonlight night."

The technique to do this involves pruning the tree from the inside and placing fixtures so that they do not light interior limbs from any closer than five feet away. This helps the interior of the tree to glow evenly with the proper shape of the tree, with the down lighting illuminating the tree evenly.

Winterling adds, "Light and shadows should be delivered on a one-to-one height to distance basis where a fixture 30 feet high projects about 30 feet out. This usually requires PAR 30 and PAR 38 120-volt fixtures of 30 to 50 watts in LED with custom shielded fixtures."

Another Challenge
The design for the lighting of the entry driveway dictated that it begins after the first bend in the road so that no lighting is seen from the main road. The challenge was to make it look perfect while entering as well as leaving the property. It also included three views to the north that could be seen from the front patio.

"I have one fixture where just a little inside a shield can be seen that I could not hide as I had to make do with the trees and material I had to work with to create this effect," acknowledges Winterling.

Positive Results
"The client paid me one of the best compliments ever when he said, 'I can't believe something this beautiful was possible, and it was dark for so many years.' My response was, we had to wait for the trees to grow up...maybe not quite this long though!"