Commercial landscaping is all about maximizing the beauty, functionality, and safety of your commercial property grounds. What you may not realize is that the right choice of outdoor lighting can be just as important as mowing the lawn, trimming the hedges, and keeping the flowers blooming during spring and summer.
When positioned strategically, landscape lighting shows off the architectural features of your building and creates an alluring ambiance that will attract potential tenants even after sundown. In this blog, the team at Green Collar Landscaping shares tips for making the most out of this unique landscaping strategy.
Benefit #1: Curb appeal
As you survey the property, identify its most appealing features. Is there a majestic weeping willow tree in an area where tenants like to socialize or spend their lunch breaks? Spotlight it with some classy solar flood lights. Are there unique architectural details like ivy-covered brickwork or an ultra-modern silhouette? Call attention to them with accent lights or a wall-washing effect. If there is a fountain in the courtyard or an outdoor pool, use underwater LEDs to capture their nighttime tranquility.
Benefit #2: Extend tenant spaces
Homeowners have mastered the art of using lighting to turn outdoor spaces into an extension of their living areas. Path lights that lead the way to a beautifully-lit garden or socializing area will encourage tenants and their guests to use and enjoy the building’s outdoor spaces even after dark.
Benefit #3: Tenants feel safer
When common spaces like the courtyards, pool areas, walkways, and parking lots are well-lit, you don’t have to worry about tenants stumbling over anything or groping around in the darkness when they enter or leave the building. Properly positioned landscape lighting also makes the ground less appealing to potential intruders, as there are no dark areas where they can conceal themselves.
Benefit #4: Highlight the holidays
When the Christmas holidays roll around, few sights are more festive than a commercial building awash in traditional colours. When skillfully applied for decorative purposes, neon shades can invoke feelings of cheer and good will during the chilliest December.
Which lighting technique should you use?
With landscape lighting, your choices range from compact, standalone solar lights to more elaborate mounted options hardwired into the building’s electrical system. However, lighting type doesn’t matter as much as the way you apply it: the right technique will highlight important features after dark and make them even more inviting.
Below are some of the lighting arrangements we routinely set up at Green Collar Landscaping:
- Path lighting: Place small standalone light fixtures along the borders of the property’s driveways, walkways, and outdoor seating areas to let tenants move around safely at night. These lights should be positioned so that they illuminate the path but aren’t close enough for pedestrians, cars, or snow plows to knock them aside.
- Accent lighting: This is a term used to describe lighting designed to draw attention to a specific feature. Use carefully-angled lights to point out a climbing garden, vintage architectural asset, or similar feature. Here’s a tip: add an aura of mystery to your accent lights by using narrow beams from concealed fixtures.
- Highlighting: One of the most popular landscape lighting techniques, highlighting is done by positioning a spotlight at the base of a key feature, like a statue, fountain, or especially breathtaking tree. For larger assets, you may need at least two fixtures to get the ideal amount of illumination, but once you hit the right combination, the results can be spectacular.
- Silhouetting: Create an illuminated backdrop for dense features like blooming trees, shrubbery, and statues by placing a spotlight behind them and aiming it toward a nearby wall. The visual effect will be especially striking when the sun sets.
- Shadowing: Like silhouetting, shadowing positions the fixture at the base of the target feature and aims the light at an adjacent wall, but the goal is to produce a gentle yet dramatic shadowing effect. This technique works best with trees that have light foliage, as they throw more artistically-shaped shadows.
- Up-lighting: If the side of your building has an impressive artistic touch like a mosaic, sculpture, or living wall, placing spotlights close to the wall will make the smallest details visible from a distance.
- Down-lighting: Like up-lighting, down-lighting is used to highlight an accent feature. In this case, the fixtures are placed high up, inside a tree or eave or on a roof, and cast downwards over a wider area. This technique is often used to illuminate a pathway or show off a garden.
- Wall-washing: This technique is similar to up-lighting, but the glow-like result is more subtle and soothing. The fixture is placed a few feet away from the facade and angled sideways to throw a subtle and even ambient lighting. For best results, use a wide-angle flood light with a low-wattage bulb.
- Moonlighting: If you’re looking for a more natural result, the moonlighting technique involves placing a large light fixture with a glare guard up in a tree and angling it downward to create the impression of moonlight shining through the branches. The resulting shadow patterns on the ground are stunning without appearing staged or overdone.
Show off your commercial property 24-7
At Green Collar Landscaping, we specialize in commercial landscape lighting that will turn your building into an around-the-clock showpiece. Our experienced technicians will design, position, and install an LED illumination system that suits both your functional and aesthetic goals while remaining energy-efficient. For more information about how we can make your office building, residential highrise, or other commercial property look modern and appealing even at night, call 289.339.8746 for a free quote today.