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Topic: Outdoor Lighting



Date Posted: Thursday, May 01, 2014
Posted by: Judy Walker (Master Admin)
Source: http://www.landscapeonline.com/research/article/19152


Candlelight Design by Nick Williams Designs


The owners of this Calabasas, Calif., home asked Nick Williams to design their outdoor landscape, which includes an outdoor kitchen/TV room, landscaped play areas for children, hidden garden nooks and a swimming pool/spa with a cascade, fire pit and boulder treatments. The garden lighting (right, and inset) is subdued, candle path fixtures with 13-watt SC Bay halogen lamps, which reflects nicely off the pool’s waters.


 

Landscape lighting is not only essential for safety and security, but can also be a key element in the design of a landscape. As such, each year LASN publishes lighting projects from landscape architects across the nation, however, this year LASN also talked with lighting designer Nick Williams from Woodland Hills, Calif.

Even at the young age of 12, encouraged by his artist mother and influenced by a plant-loving family, Nick recognized his passion for garden design. Winning horticultural awards throughout his school years, he soon established an up-close and personal relationship with a variety of plant materials, many of which continue to dominate his plant palette today.

 




A stone base is the setting for a simple candle light design, which works great as a corner piece in a flowerbed. The light here is a basic 12-watt incandescent SC Bayonet bulb, but the fixture can accommodate a LED.



Nature and Her elements of life - earth, air, fire and water - are the most striking forces that appear in Nick’s work. Rich with design elements, including large boulders, water features, wood structures and a variety of stone materials; his outdoor-living creations gently invite one out through the door of the house and into the sights and sounds of the outside world.

With many years of experience in home renovation, for his own personal pleasure, Nick has tapped into an exciting fashion of “bringing the outdoors in” for his clients. The use of French doors in lieu of windows and the creation of outdoor “living rooms” - which include fireplaces, BBQ centers, and areas for food and drink preparation and entertaining add to the feeling of comfort and elegance. Williams’ motto is, “Remember, good design doesn’t have to cost more money, it’s just good design.”

 

Lighting Fixtures
Bringing metal or otherwise engineered lighting fixtures into a garden, landscaped yard and patio setting can sometimes create a jarring effect. However, Williams has managed to design professional-grade outdoor lighting that preserves and enhances the harmony of a landscape design.

With a keen appreciation for textures and anything out of the ordinary, Williams’ designs reflect a strong collaboration with the ideas and aesthetics of his favorite heroes – Frank Lloyd Wright, Cliff May, and John Muir. The collection offers a truly “romantic” garden lighting that will add a distinct and dramatic feel to any landscape design.

 




For the driveway of this Calabasas, Calif., home, the lighting designer placed 4-watt LEDs in urn path lights with hand-blown glass lamps in an amber hue on 14-inch copper stems. Candle light kits with 12-watt bulbs accent the tops of the pillars. The urn lighting and candle light kits are manufacture by Lightcraft Outdoor.



Nick Williams has created a line of cutting-edge outdoor lighting products with a focus on new, emerging “green energy” technology that is both economical and sustainable, designed to integrate seamlessly into any landscape. Years of experience in landscape design has enabled him to create something that would stand up to the test of time, while offering crafted and elegant shapes and designs that are as beautiful in daylight as they are in the evening hours, when they cast their own soft glow.

Candles in the Wind
Candles have graced human living space for generations, casting their warm soothing glow, and while no longer practical as primary lighting, particularly outdoors, they still retain mood enhancing qualities. 

The Candle Group, a new line of products, offer creative combinations of resin, brass, stainless steel and copper to create facsimiles of candles that suit a variety of needs. Candle pathway lights are 12-volt lights on fourteen-inch stems used for lighting walkways. Candle wall mounts are 12-volt lights that are mounted to accent and light wall areas. The Candlelier, a hanging light fixture, features a three or five-candle edition that also has the ability to incorporate a basket of live plantings, ideal for lighting use in entertaining areas. The Candle Kit comes complete with resin candles, light bulbs and wire that can convert virtually anything into a low voltage outdoor light, such as a piece of birch tree trunk, or even a piece of stone.

 




An alternative to uplighting is hanging lights from tree limbs (here) or from patio beams. At this southern California residence is a ‘Candelier’ rustic fixture, 36” wide by 24” high, hanging from a 3-ft. chain. This iteration has five 13-watt lamps in faux candles seated around a planter of succulents. The ribbed Candelier supports the plants.



Rust Never Sleeps
Williams’ lighting collection also offers the rust group, an organic, “earthy” and natural look, with a rustic weathered appeal of metal appearing to have been aged by Mother Nature herself. The Rust Group includes the Rust L Pathway Light, Rust Iron Candle Pathway Light, Rust Lantern Pathway Light, Rust Pipelight Uplight, Rust Portrait Uplight, Rust Wall Sconce, and Rust Candlelier Hanging Fixture. 

The Nick Williams Lighting Collection is rounded out with a variety of other low voltage pathway lighting fixtures – The Honeysuckle, the Poppy, the Mica, the Urn – all made with durable brass, stainless steel, and copper. The metal finishes offered include rust, bronze, patina, and a variety of other custom finishes; the hand-blown glass bulb coverings come in amber, frosted white and other colorful glasses. All fixtures accept LED bulbs.

 




The Rusty L (top) is a PVC pipe design with a natural weathered patina finish. These fixtures have been installed at the L.A. County Arboretum and Botanical Garden. The Honeysuckle flower path light (bottom) is mounted on a brass stem. It has a high temperature socket and tool-less threaded construction. Both fixtures have 4-watt LEDs. Bruce Dennis of Lightcraft Outdoor, who works closely with Nick Williams, notes a major shift toward LEDs, with about 60 percent of his lighting jobs now using that technology, about double from a few years ago. He says LED is more economical in the long run, plus lowers the cost on transformers and wiring.



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