A Bright Idea: Commercial Landscape Lighting

A well-designed commercial landscape lighting system provides business owners and property managers with eye-catching and beautiful nighttime settings. Lighting also has the added benefit of offering security for employees and patrons. In the classic sense, commercial landscape lighting becomes a win-win for everyone involved.

As part of a commercial landscape design, commercial landscape lighting and professional nighttime illumination is used by upscale stores, restaurants, social clubs, hotels, resorts, apartment complexes, developments, commercial properties, museums and schools. It is of particular importance to establishments who operate at night.

Professionally designed nighttime illumination can create a memorable, one-of-a-kind experience for your clients, members and guests. Property owners find that aesthetically appealing lighting intensifies the appeal of their property for prospective and regular customers, soon-to-be or long-time tenants, and purchasers and investors.

It creates a way to show off your landscape architecture—the pathways and byways, architectural features, outdoor sculpture and art, the custom water fountains, outdoor gazebos and garden arbors, the grounds and gardens.  Exquisitely designed lighting plays up the prominence of these features and turns the grounds into an enchanting evening landscape.

Exterior lighting is of particular interest to golf courses, country clubs and owners of properties with natural water features because of the capacity of high-end landscape design and service firms to have a special talent for lighting greenscapes, lawns and water.

In working with design professionals, landscape designers and landscape architects to
create a commercial landscape lighting system for you that will provide years of trouble-free pleasure, consider these factors:

Remember the bottom line. You want to hire someone who will pay close attention to architectural lighting so that buildings are lit in such a way as to draw attention to the facility. This point is particularly important to restaurants, clubs and other businesses that operate at night. The underlying purpose of this subtle advertising—at all times, well-done and sophisticated—is to increase nighttime revenue.

Site-specific. Your professional should be able to design a valuable and customized plan tailor-made to meet the specifics of your site. They should have the skill and ability to highlight advantageous features and downplay unsightly ones.

Work with the best.  Quality must be stressed in everything the professionals do.  In the realm of landscape lighting, it means employing high quality designers, electricians and products. In the long run, it will save you money.

Money matters. If your landscaping plans are too oversized for your budget, consider landscape phasing. That is, working out a long-term plan in which to implement the various phases of your landscape in conjunction with your cash flow.

Design proficiency. Within the lighting design, be sure that the hardware is completely hidden or, at least, camouflaged, so that the beauty of the illumination is not destroyed by seeing the nuts and bolts of the system.

While you’re interviewing lighting specialists, ask them whether they also offer other services, such as a commercial drainage system and commercial ground maintenance. It is common these days to find high-end landscaping firms who provide turnkey services, an advantageous approach that gives them a holistic approach to your property.