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The circa 1800 Prest-Watson residence in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, waited years for an owner with the passion to undertake an historically accurate site restoration. And the restoration required more than passion from its owner. It required patience—the patience to assemble a team of artisans, craftsmen and heritage-consulting experts who had never before worked together on a project.
The five-year renovation has resulted in newfound appreciation for the family homestead of the Canadian heroine Laura Secord. Commonly referred to as “Canada’s Paul Revere,” Secord traveled 20 miles over an 18-hour period to warn British forces of an impending American attack during the War of 1812. Secord’s actions led to the defeat of the Americans at the Battle of Beaver Dams, and her heroism earned her designation as a “Person of National Historic Significance” by the Minister of Canadian Heritage.
One critical question during the restoration was whether to even install exterior lighting. The building was being restored to its appearance in 1816. Its light fixtures were from 1870, when gas lighting was utilized for coach roads but no exterior lighting was used at front entrances. Furthermore, the Niagara Parks Commission required that every source used for the exterior lighting be dimmable.
The design solution crafted by Lighting Design Innovations, Calgary, targeted specific areas of the home and site, and reached back to a light source that has fallen out of favor in recent years—incandescent. The wrinkle here was that incandescent sources were not only aesthetically pleasing, but proved to be energy-efficient, helping to limit energy use to .07 watts per sq meter throughout the 81,000-sq meter project. “The design and construction of this project coincided with the advent of the incandescent lamp debate,” explains Paul Mercier, the project lighting designer. “It was important to balance the concerns of the Parks Commission and the energy efficiency and sustainability issues raised, with the desire of the owner to have a quality lighted environment.”
The owner also had a vision for the property beyond historically accurate renovation. He had walked by this decrepit property as a child and, as an adult, was disappointed that this artifact was ill kept, overgrown and not truly appreciated. His motivation for the project included sharing the home and property with the citizens, visitors and passersby on the Niagara Peninsula. The new lighting would be helpful in telling the story of the historic residence and establishing the property as an exhibit.
And the exhibit required lighting.
“The exhibit area was 20 acres, and we had the wonderful contrast of complete darkness with the neighboring escarpment and gorge,” says Mercier. “We spent a lot of time investigating the features of the site at different times of day during different seasons of the year to select a limited number of Sustainable Design (but the most impactful) features to light.”
The many candidates for illumination were narrowed down to a small set of features that best told the story of the site. They range from construction features—such as the dry-laid masonry—to natural features—such as the rare plant specimens thriving on the property. The $125,000 USD project was completed on time and on budget.
ROMANCING THE STONE
The house and hardscape are constructed from local stone—its unique color a signature of a distinct Niagara escarpment quarry. Consistent with the original construction, the surface texture of each stone was achieved through hand-chiseling by stone masons. In-grade, 37-W halogen IR floodlights from GE graze the home’s stone façade and highlight its cornice (GE supplied all lamps for the project).
Mercier was determined to limit the number of luminaires used for the project. “Electing to use fewer fixtures is equivalent to choosing to save energy,” he says. “When you work closely with plant specialists and the owner, you can design a lighting approach that suits the site and achieves the desired result as planting beds mature.”
 An example of this philosophy is the scallop patterns on the hardscape elements. To achieve a uniformly lighted surface, the designer works with the setback distance and the luminaire distribution to establish the required luminaire spacing. When using fewer luminaires, the spacing between them is greater—leading to a scallop pattern on the surface. At this point, the designer has the choice to embrace the pattern of light and shadow, or to design other elements that obscure the scallop pattern from the viewer. In this project, both approaches to accommodate the scallop were incorporated. The scallop pattern on the façade of the home will be behind hedges as the restored planting beds mature, achieving a uniformity of appearance in the future.
For the walls adjacent to the driveway, the owner chose a pattern of light and shadow to eliminate fixtures while preserving the lighted feature to visually identify the depth of the front lawn and the elevation change on the site. The inside of the walls are lighted to frame the driveway and direct the view to the grove of 80-ft-tall locust trees. The grove is illuminated with 100-W PAR38 halogen IR in-grade spot and narrow-spot distributions. The lamps are dimmed to 75 percent to extend their life and control the exact illumination realized, allowing the designer to create the most appropriate contrast ratio and coverage for the structure and foliage. In contrast, HID sources could have only been controlled using scrims to reduce their output; however, that approach also reduces the efficiency of the lamps. By dimming the halogen IR lamps, their life was comparable to HID sources and a much warmer color temperature was achieved.
FRAMING THE LANDSCAPE
The west lawn is bounded by a pergola addition to the home, the utility service building and a 75-fttall, multiple-trunk willow tree—all offering opportunities to frame the lawn with light. For the pergola, reclaimed timber creates an open canopy atop stone columns, and lighting was limited to these features. In-grade, 37-W halogen IR narrow floods graze the columns and illuminate the timber. Luminaires are located in planting beds for the service building and willow tree. A multiple-trunk willow tree of this age and height is extremely rare, so the trunks and canopy were highlighted with 37-W halogen IR floods and 50-W halogen IR narrow spots.
Adjacent to the west lawn is a coach road that was historically utilized to reach a freshwater cistern at the top of the escarpment. Long overgrown by grass, this coach road is now “implied” through the use of surface-grazing 60-W halogen path indicators. The cistern is the destination at the end of an historic walk through a canopy of vegetation.
 Along the front of the property sits a sycamore tree that at 105-ft tall, surpasses the mature height of the species by 50 percent. During the warm summer months, a dense light-green canopy is the signature feature. In the winter, however, it is the patterned, silver bark and intricate branch structure that take center stage, becoming an ideal surface to illuminate. To the canopy top, this sycamore is lighted with 100-W, in-grade, halogen IR, narrow flood and narrow spots arranged in two concentric rings. The winter or summer scene dictates which lamps are lighted, which lamps are dark, and the percentage of dimming applied. Due to proximity to the property line, the design utilizes precision aiming and lamp beam spreads to light the tree on the property side, only.
With limited exception, all luminaires were recessed in-grade to preserve the historic appearance of the property during the day. And despite the heritage requirement necessitating halogen sources, the lighting design is energy efficient, maintenance friendly and appropriate for flora and hardscape.
CONTROLS TELL THE STORY
A sophisticated lighting control system accomplished multiple objectives. Maximum levels were constrained to 90 percent, extending lamp life at every location. However, features and scenes were actually dimmed significantly more, an achievement made possible by the low ambient light levels in this area. The scene settings allow the owner to lead night walking tours of the site and to light—or darken—the historical features, which helps to establish the backdrop for his storytelling. Most importantly, the lighting controls allow the owner to easily extinguish all lighting: the condition preferred when it is not a special occasion or tour.
Finally, Mercier notes that the project demonstrates how energy efficiency encompasses much more than evaluating wattages vis-à-vis light sources. “We need to stop thinking about lamp source selection as our primary weapon to combat energy and sustainability concerns,” he says. “The solution is multifaceted and includes the question of whether or not to light, the matching of technologies to the application and the control systems that limit time of use while providing features that are intriguing to our owners. When our owners—and the general public—learn how to control their lighted environment, they will change their habits. When they change their habits, we will truly know the energy costs legitimately assigned to lighting.”
September 09
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