Last year we approached brilliant lighting designer, David Warfel, to develop an exterior lighting scheme to help our building “pop” and extend the fun sensibility inside our walls to the outside as well. He details his thought process in this post with really great accompanying photos.

Light that Binds by David K Warfel

Can light unify three buildings into one location?  I was recently asked to visually tie together three adjacent rental properties with a single lighting design applied to the exterior, and I turned to an LED version of neon to get the job done.

Light can serve many functions beyond sight.  When creatively used outside, light can help brand a location and add excitement to otherwise nondescript properties.  Some buildings need just a little light in the right place, some buildings have beautiful architecture that simply needs illuminated.  Other structures, such as the three buildings shown here, may not have a unifying architectural gesture or much pizazz at night.

Our solution to this project was the application of LED neon-like light strips, overlapping like strings wrapping a gift package.  At key locations, LED beacons glow and sparkle, and color-changing lights under the new canopy slowly shift throughout the evening.  The resulting pop of color features the low energy consumption and long life of LEDs while preserving a retro aesthetic.

All images by Mike Heiniger Photography.