Category: News

Moonlighting Aids In New Steeples At Blessed Sacrament Church

Posted on by west
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

Posted on by west

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!

  • Arbor Lighting
  • Up Lit Olive Tree
  • Fountain/Statue Lighting
  • Fountain/Statue Lighting
  • Fountain/Statue Lighting
  • Down Lighting Over Fatsia
  • Reflective Lighting
  • Pool Scene
  • Citrus Lighting
  • Garden Lighting

Moonlighting Hits The Track At The BMW Performance Center

Posted on by west
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!

Moonlighting Heads To The Sunshine State For Newest Design

Posted on by west

Our latest project takes us to a new part of the country… Winter Park, Florida. Over our nearly 30 years business, our designs have taken us to many locations outside of our home base of Charleston, SC,  including the Bahamas, California, Tennessee, Alabama and Maine, just to name a few. We are no strangers to packing up our tools and traveling where our services are needed.

In the latter part of 2018 we were contacted by Randy Boyd of Thurston Boyd Interior Design located in Laguna Beach, California. Randy had a special project located in Winter Park, Florida and tasked Moonlighting with the outdoor lighting scope. Within a few weeks, our lead designer Matt Carli boarded a flight to Florida for a site visit and to cultivate a custom outdoor lighting plan.

After several months of construction and landscape renovations, it was time for Moonlighting to pack up and head south! In early March, the Moonlighting installation crew and Matt spent the week installing this custom design. It was four busy days on site, the design itself required the installation of over 40 tree mounted fixtures, mounted anywhere from 24′-32′ along with over 60 fixtures on the ground.

This three acre property boasted some incredible design opportunities that we were really excited about. Upon entry to the property, the driveway is flanked by an allee of live oak trees that would serve as natural light poles to softly wash the driveway. When sitting inside the house, or on the pool deck the landscape itself offers focal points from all angles by means of more live oak trees that we would be both up lighting and down lighting, palm tree clusters, sword fern beds, etc. When talking about some of the design elements, Matt noted…

“One of my favorite parts of this design was picking up the textures of the giant sword ferns from the trees above. The plant material here in Charleston is somewhat similar to what we were working with in Florida, maybe a little more tropical in FL,  but seeing these huge ferns serving as natural groundcovers was something I knew we had to pick up successfully. The only way to do that was from above.”

Another element of the design was incorporating an antique chandelier that came all the way from Paris, France into the lighting design. We made this happen by independently hanging a small fixture inside the chandelier. With the unique details in the chandelier, this application would provide some incredible shadows onto the ground plain below. We then hung the chandelier about 30′ above the driveway making a permanent fixture within the lighting design.

[wpvideo ZFaUjPA5]

Moonlighting always enjoys the opportunity to work in a new location as this was an exciting and creative project that we were very fortunate to be a part of. When asked about the design process, Randy Boyd stated…

“I brought in Matt to design the lighting for a 3 acre residential project in Winter Park, FL. He and his crew were so professional and completed the installation in a timely fashion. The evening of the “unveiling” both my clients and myself were blown away. Thank you Matt, your lighting design was truly magical!”

See more pictures of this incredible project below. Be sure to follow Moonlighting on Facebook and now Instagram to keep up with our daily happenings!

Meet Moonlighting’s Newest Master Electrician!

Posted on by west

Congrats are in our order for Moonlighting’s own Sandy Harris, as he just earned his Master Residential Electrician’s license!

Sandy has been with Moonlighting for ten years now and has earned the in-house title of Moonlighting “Swiss Army Knife.” Whether it’s performing routine maintenance on a lighting system, troubleshooting a complicated electrical issue or installing a specialty fixture, Sandy can do it all!

for the last 4 1/2 years, Sandy has been working overtime by attending evening classes at Trident Technical College with the goal of becoming a certified electrician. Sandy’s hard work paid off last week after he passed his exam and officially earned that title!

Sandy now joins our Vice President, Doug Wickenhoefer, as the second licensed electrician on the Moonlighting staff.

843.853.3221
Book a consultation
Learn More