The Charleston Visitors Center: A Holy City Landmark Gets A New Look

Originally constructed in 1840, the historic Charleston Visitors Center has taken on a new look.

Listed as a National Historic Landmark, the visitors center opened to the public in 1991 and has been a hub for Charleston tourism ever since. Along with a full scale renovation of the building, the landscape also received the same treatment led by Charleston landscape architect Glen Gardner.

Moonlighting was tasked with creating a landscape lighting design that would accentuate the key features of the landscape. The new landscape consisted of the introduction of new palm trees, camellias, etc. A key part of our landscape lighting design was safely illuminating the stairs to allow for a safe entry/exit for visitors of the center.

Scroll through the gallery to see more photos of our latest project and leave a comment below! For daily updates and regular happenings, be sure to follow Moonlighting  FacebookInstagram and Houzz .

Moonlighting Enhances A Serene Scene With Landscape Lighting

We’re excited to share our latest featured project with you! The focus of our latest design is an elaborate three-tiered water feature nestled quietly in a Kiawah Island Zen garden.

The project began with a design consultation. We discussed the overall scope of the project and what the client was looking to achieve through the landscape lighting. Curb appeal, aesthetic enhancements of the landscape and circulation lighting along the driveway were key needs. As we continued to walk the property and make our way to the backyard, we were welcomed to the backdrop of a beautiful Kiawah Island marsh view. What we stumbled upon next was a complete surprise! Hidden away on the side of the property is a stunning zen garden anchored by an elaborate water feature unlike any we’ve seen in the Charleston area. This was a welcomed site and a design challenge that we were excited to take on. The lowcountry typically doesn’t lend itself for set-up like this. The elevation changes in the space that allowed the water feature to flow through it make it feel as if it was formed there naturally. The client expressed their desire to be able to use the space in the evening hours. We were granted total creative freedom and we couldn’t wait to get started!

After the design was in officially in place, we were ready to hit the ground running. We took careful consideration in specifying the proper fixtures and lamps to appropriately capture the overall scene.

Several fixtures were installed in and within the feature itself, while we were also able to utilize the trees within space to illuminate the feature from above. Creating a usable space that allowed the clients to safely walk through and relax in after the sun goes down was a priority that we were able to accomplish. With cooler temperatures on the horizon, there’s no better time to enjoy your outdoor living spaces! The gravel pathway was softly lit from above, creating a naturally “moonlit” effect. It was important to also to feature the landscape by highlighting some of the key palm trees, japanese maples and bamboo clusters for a successful and comprehensive lighting scheme.

Take a few moments to scroll through the photos below of the final product and let us know what you think in the comments!

Turn the volume up and enjoy!

Be sure to follow us on FacebookInstagram and Houzz to keep up with the daily happenings at Moonlighting.

Moonlighting Travels For An Atlanta Landscape Lighting Installation

Just last week ahead of the Fourth of July, Moonlighting hit the road, bound for the Peach State to install our latest custom landscape lighting design.

Our latest project lands us in Atlanta, Georgia. The landscape and property itself offered many great opportunities for illumination as both the front and backyard had elements of both entertainment space and focal points within the landscape.

The backyard especially is used for entertaining as the elaborate deck structure required a need for circulation lighting to help make the space easier and safer to navigate in the evening. While enjoying a nice cocktail from the beautiful deck, we knew that adding a secondary layer of landscape lighting by highlighting some of the key trees and creating some enjoyable scenes was an absolute must.

It wasn’t all work while we were there… Since we were able to wrap up a little early before the final night aiming, we took to the links for a friendly round of golf and go-carts… well mini golf. Ricky was crowned the champion of the round!

The best part of this project is we were able to have everything completed in time for the Fourth of July holiday and ready to enjoy!

Do you have a project outside of Charleston? We can help! Traveling out of state for projects is not something we are strangers to. In the last two years alone, we have traveled for landscape lighting designs and installations in California, Texas, Florida and Georgia. You never know where you might find us next!

Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Houzz to keep up with the daily happenings at Moonlighting.

A Modern Solution For Outdated Post Lights

Have your post lights shown signs of degradation? Is the paint flaking off and the lamps going dim? Is it leaning or wobbling? It may be time to explore some other options.

In this blog post we’ll dive into a recent project where we helped provide a solution for two outdated post lights. For this particular project we wanted  modernize the lighting while still maintaining a classic look.

Located in the historic district of Charleston, we were recently tasked with replacing two existing post lights that were inefficient on multiple levels. The ten-plus year old lights were constructed of  aluminum, highly corroded and they were 120V with incandescent bulbs.

Before

The new custom post lights that we were proposing would begin with fabrication in our shop. We chamfered the posts at the tops and the bottoms to provide a more decorative look. After they were chamfered, we painted them “Charleston Green,” a very popular color within the lowcountry and the greater Charleston area.

Fabrication

The copper fixture heads that we specified are handmade and the highest of quality that come all the way from The Copper House, located in New Hampshire. The selection of a copper fixture head ensures that these post lights are built for a long term solution and can withstand the corrosive conditions presented in Charleston. As part of a separate scope of work within this property, we brought low voltage wiring into the location of the post lights with the intent of converting them from line voltage to low voltage and LED, allowing for a more efficient and energy conserving solution.

Check out the images below of the final product and let us know what you think in the comment section.

Final Product

If you’re in need of an upgrade of your post lights, contact our office today to speak with one of our designers about how we can find a custom solution for you! Be sure to follow us on your favorite social media platforms like FacebookInstagram and Houzz for our weekly updates.

Moonlighting Featured In Landscape Architect And Specifier News

We’re excited  to share an amazing project with you that was just recently featured in the April issue of Landscape Architect and Specifier News magazine.

Completed in early 2018, the landscape lighting was designed for an incredible rooftop garden which features some of the most breathtaking views the Holy City has to offer overlooking the Charleston harbor.

To learn more about this details of this incredible project, click here for the full article and let us know what you think! Aslo, feel free to venture over to our Houzz page and see some additional photos of this project.

Charleston Rooftop LightingCharleston Rooftop Lighting 2Charleston Rooftop Lighting 3

 

 

Mooonlighting Designer Matt Carli Earns National Design Certification

Congratulations are in order for Moonlighting Lead Designer, Matt Carli as he recently earned his Certified Outdoor Lighting Designer (COLD) through the Association of Outdoor Lighting Professionals (AOLP).

Matt joined the Moonlighting team in 2010 and has been our lead designer during that time. Moonlighting President Mike Rollins and Matt collaboratively oversee all aspects the design process at Moonlighting and this certification is a nice addition to our design efforts.

The AOLP is a nationally recognized outdoor lighting organization focused on the advancement and promotion of the outdoor lighting industry. Moonlighting has been actively involved with the AOLP for ten years. The COLD program was founded within the AOLP to advance the fundamentals of outdoor lighting design and encourage responsible lighting design practices. The parameters of the COLD program include:

  • To incorporate and ensure “good and responsible” lighting design practices
  • To offer advanced levels of landscape lighting design training and instill professionalism to our designers
  • To gain industry recognition and market exposure for our members and AOLP
  • To understand and communicate the “emotional” impact of a landscape lighting design
  • To address growing regulatory concerns and trade related issues

The COLD certification process is a three-year intensive program that Matt began in 2017. For the last three years, Matt has attended the annual Illuminate conference two days early to participate in the program and work towards earning his certification. The certification involves attending classes that focus on the elements of outdoor lighting design and the presentation of several projects to the COLD committee and fellow COLD students that demonstrate knowledge of design, fixture specifications, LED lamp specifications, proper installation methods, etc.

Matt Carli COLD 1
Matt Carli (Left) with COLD Committee Chair Andy Thomas

Matt Carli COLD 2
Matt And The 2020 COLD Certification Recipients

Matt is now the only Certified Outdoor Lighting Designer in the state of South Carolina and one of 35 COLD in the country. We are extremely proud of Matt and his recent certification and look forward to continuing to provide the best design process that we can for our clients. For more information regarding design process, you can contact our office directly or inquire through our website.

How Do You Light A Tree?

A Common Question Further Explained…

How do you light a tree with landscape lighting? Well…that’s a trick question. Not every tree is created equal and not every tree calls for the same application as the next. We’re here to help explain.

Where we are located in Charleston, South Carolina,  we see a wide variety of trees on our projects ranging from live oak trees, palmetto trees, crape myrtles and olive trees just to name a few. Whether it be new construction where newly planted trees have been installed or it’s an existing landscape where trees have had years to blossom and mature, our knowledgeable design staff is always prepared for the best design techniques to best illuminate your trees.

In this blog post, we’re going to show you a beautiful live oak tree illuminated in three very different ways.

Let’s start with the most basic method.

Flooding:

Flooding
Flooding

In this photo we have positioned three fixtures on the ground, about 30′ away from the tree and aimed them to illuminate the tree. In the big picture, the whole tree is illuminated and it’s being shown off in all of its beauty. Essentially, it’s the easiest way to illuminate this tree while still accomplishing a positive effect. While still very effective, we can probably do a little better and create a little more interest within this scene.

Grazing:

Grazing
Grazing

In this photo, were aiming for a different effect. We’re looking to create interest and we’re looking to enhance the limb structure. This is what makes the live oak tree so unique and a focal point within many lowcountry landscapes. Live oak tree limbs tend to sprawl and crawl in their own way. This makes them so unique and quite honestly, so much fun illuminate.

For the “grazing” technique, we’ve positioned three up lights closer to the tree than what you see in the previous photo and focused on the limb structure of the tree. This allows you have a better visual of the detail of the tree and limb structure.

Tree Mounted Up & Down Lighting:

Tree Mounted Up And Down Lighting
Tree Mounted Up And Down Lighting

Let’s say this tree is in a high traffic area and we need to keep fixtures off the ground so they don’t become a hindrance, thats where this technique comes into play. In this photo, the oak is illuminated with fixtures all mounted within the tree itself. We have two fixtures mounted about 15′ up, aimed up into the canopy while we have three down lights, mounted at about 35′ aimed down. One is aimed through the center of the tree, picking up the trunk while the other two are picking up the right and left side of the tree. The down lights as a whole create some great shadowing on the ground plane below. We’re again focusing on the detail of the tree and further enhancing what makes the oak tree the specimen tree that it is. What we’re accomplishing here is illuminating the top parts of the limbs that cannot be picked up by just simply up lighting.

By combining up lighting and down lighting, we’re painting a multidimensional picture as opposed to the one dimensional technique you see with the first two techniques.

If you want to see this in person… you can find it at the Addlestone Library on the College of Charleston campus where it permanently illuminated with technique No. 3 (tree mounted up and down lighting.) Because it is in fact in a very high traffic area, that is why we elected to design with this method.

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Contact our office today and schedule a consultation with one of our award winning designers and learn more about how Moonlighting can assist in creating a custom landscape lighting design for your home or business.

Be sure to also follow Moonlighting on Facebook, Instagram and Houzz to keep up with our daily happenings!

Moonlighting Aids In New Steeples At Blessed Sacrament Church

Blessed Sacrament Church, Charleston SC
A View Of The New Steeples

What once was part of the devastation of Hurricane Hugo, now breathes new life at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Charleston, S.C. In 1989, members of the congregation watched their once proud steeples strewn across the Savannah Highway in the wake of one of the nations most dangerous hurricanes.

Blessed Sacrament Fallen Steeples

Photo Courtesy Of Blessed Sacrament: Fallen Steeples Over The Savannah Highway After Hurricane Hugo

Today, the church has been made whole again as a thirty year effort has come to fruition. After Hurricane Hugo, an anonymous donation was made to help recreate the fallen steeples. It’s taken nearly thirty years to engineer, fund and construct new steeples, now constructed of fiberglass that can better withstand any future storms.

Father Joseph Romanoski  and the Parish Building Committee were a driving force in the process of bringing the steeples home to the church along with the architecture firm, Glick-Boehm and Associates and Magee Ratcliff Construction. While Father Romanoski lead the charge, Gary Boehm, Chris Ratcliff and Ryan Magee helped facilitate the logistics of this massive and complex undertaking.

While everything was coming into place, Moonlighting President Mike Rollins joined the effort by planning the proper lighting for the new structures. A member of this parish for almost twenty years, Mike and Moonlighting have been heavily involved with the illumination of the entire Blessed Sacrament campus, both inside and out. “This parish is very near and dear to my heart. I viewed this steeple project as a culmination of all the lighting we’ve done over the years at the church and school. What better way to cap off the lighting!” Said Rollins.

Earlier this week Rollins strapped into a 50′ lift for the final night time aiming of the steeple illumination. Used for the lighting were commercial grade Vista LED fixtures. The results were exactly what Mike was going for. Check out the gallery below for photos of the process.

Revitalizing A Familiar Downtown Garden

For the second time, Moonlighting  has helped in the revitalization of a familiar downtown Charleston garden. This King Street property is one we’ve become very familiar with over the years as we were part of the design team that first overhauled this space in 2010. Almost a decade later, we were fortunate enough to team back up with Wertimer and Cline for another pass at this re-imagined garden.

Not only did we design and install this project originally, we have also maintained it on a regular basis from the day it was installed. A major benefit of regular maintenance on this project was the opportunity to repurpose many of the existing fixtures. Regular maintenance encourages a longer lifespan for the fixtures, which in-turn was a big cost saver for the client. If you feel that your landscape lighting system could benefit from a service contract and to learn more about what is involved with regular maintenance, contact our office today for a free consultation!

During this renovation, we worked closely with the talented team at Ables Landscapes, who was tasked the landscape installation and hardscape additions. The original landscape had matured quite a bit, so we responded to not only the new plant material that was introduced but also the existing plant material to ensure that the landscape in its entirety was being illuminated in the most effective ways possible.

There were several mature crape myrtles that we approached by both up lighting and down lighting, which provided for some great textures below on the lower lying fatsia. There are also four custom arbor structures on site that we added a mini LED fixture with a low level output to softly illuminate the walk through. Another feature that really became a dramatic focal point was the statue we lit inside the fountain. The statue lit nicely and the backdrop of crape myrtles and fig ivy covered walls made a for a beautiful scene, and one that can be appreciated from many angles within the garden and inside the home. 

Check out the gallery below for more photos of this project and be sure to follow us on your favorite social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Houzz for our weekly updates!

Moonlighting Hits The Track At The BMW Performance Center

The Whole Moonlighting Crew
The Whole Moonlighting Crew!

Moonlighting recently took part in a company outing and it was one for the ages! Moonlighting President (and BMW owner) Mike Rollins had always wanted to see what it was like to take on the BMW Performance Center. With months of planning he made that a reality… for the entire company!

We decided to close the office for two days and make the trek to Spartanburg, S.C. where the BMW Performance Center is located, along with the 6.2 million square foot factory that produces a number of BMW models that are assembled and shipped out worldwide.

We warmed up with a quick lunch and brief overview of what we would be doing with two incredibly skilled BMW instructors, Guiness Book of World Records holder, Johan Scwhartz and accomplished racer Laura Hayes. We would eventually split up into two groups. Group A would head towards the off-road experience for some all-terrain fun and Group B would head towards the tracks to hit high speeds and challenges to test how these luxury vehicles handle.

The off road course consisted of Moonlighters pushing the BMW X-5 to the limit on a series of steep embankments, challenging descents and even balancing these performance machines on two-wheels at one point. The name of the game on this course was quite the opposite of speed. It was all about finesse!

The street course is where the real competition took place. To warm things up, each group had the opportunity to get behind the wheel of five different models ranging from the M2, the M4, the 850i, etc. We started out running each model a few laps through a series of short straightaways and short turns, reaching speeds upwards of 100 mph.

Next, it was on to the timed circuit course where the real fun was had. Each Moonlighter got behind the wheel of an M4 and was given the opportunity to run six timed laps, going through a series of slaloms and challenging turns. Their fastest, cleanest lap (not hitting any cones or coming to a complete stop outside the designated finish line) would be counted as their best lap. If we didn’t already know before, we found out today that Moonlighting is one competitive group!

In the end there were only three spots on the podium. First place was taken by Installation Tech Ricky Eckert, second place by Installation Foreman Mike Ned and third place by Moonlighting President Mike Rollins.

To end the day, we each had the opportunity to hop in with Johan and Laura and they took us on a “hot lap” where we reached high speeds, quick turns and even a drift lap on the very course where Johan set his world record of the longest consecutive drift. We’re not sure any of us knew what to expect when we got in the cars with our instructors, but it was by far the fastest and most extreme driving that any of us could have even imagined.

The competition continued that evening at the Stone Pin Company in downtown Greenville where we turned in our driving gloves for bowling shoes. In the end, it was a clean sweep for Ricky as he took first place on the track and first place on the bowling lanes, bowling the highest score for the evening. Congrats, Ricky!!

We would cap the trip off the next morning by taking an exclusive tour of the BMW Plant and learned first-hand the assembly process from start to finish of several BMW models. Following the tour, we got to wander through the BMW museum and the history of these automobiles.

What a trip this was and what a way for everyone to have a little company bonding outside of the office! To see some highlights of our trip, check out our video below.

Make sure you’re following Moonlighting on social media so you can see what we’re up to. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Houzz!

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