Lighting & Controls
Exterior & Site Lighting
Parking, facade, canopy and security lighting — the first thing a customer sees and the last thing anyone budgets for.
Exterior lighting is the part of a property people judge before they get inside. It is also where the largest single block of after-hours energy consumption usually sits, and where deferred maintenance is most visible — a parking field with a third of its poles dark reads as neglect long before anyone calls it a safety problem.
What we cover outside the building
- Parking lot and parking structure lighting
- Pole foundations, bases and underground circuits
- Building facade, architectural and accent lighting
- Canopy, entrance and drive-through lighting
- Pathway, landscape and wayfinding lighting
- Security lighting and camera-support illumination
- Signage and monument lighting circuits
- Photocell, timeclock and astronomical scheduling
Uniformity beats brightness
The common instinct when a lot feels unsafe is to add brightness. That is usually the wrong correction. What makes an exterior space feel unsafe is the contrast between bright pools and dark gaps — the eye adapts to the bright area and the dark areas become genuinely harder to see into than they would be under lower, even light.
Designing for uniformity ratio rather than peak footcandles typically produces a space that feels safer while consuming less energy. It also avoids the glare that makes security camera footage useless at exactly the moments it is needed.
Light trespass and dark-sky
Colorado jurisdictions increasingly regulate light trespass and uplight, and several front range municipalities have adopted dark-sky provisions with real teeth. Full-cutoff optics, correct aiming and appropriate colour temperature are the levers.
This is not purely a compliance matter. Light spilling onto a neighbouring property is light you paid for that is doing nothing for you, and it is one of the more common sources of complaints against commercial properties.
Controls belong outside too
Exterior lighting runs the most hours of any system in the building, which makes control the highest-leverage intervention available. Photocell plus astronomical timeclock is the baseline. Beyond that, part-night dimming — dropping output after peak activity ends — commonly cuts exterior consumption substantially with no perceived loss, and motion-responsive boost in low-traffic areas gets both the energy saving and the security response.
Common questions
How often should parking lot lighting be maintained?
Group relamping on a schedule based on rated life is far cheaper than replacing fixtures individually as they fail, because getting a lift to the pole is the dominant cost. Annual inspection with scheduled group replacement is the usual pattern.
Our lot feels unsafe even though it is bright. Why?
Almost certainly uniformity rather than output. Bright pools with dark gaps between them make the dark areas harder to see into, because the eye adapts to the bright zones. Redistributing rather than adding light usually fixes it, often while reducing consumption.
Do you handle dark-sky requirements?
Yes. We design to the adopting jurisdiction's requirements using full-cutoff optics, controlled aiming and appropriate colour temperature, and provide the documentation the permit requires.
Ready to talk about your project?
Tell us what you need and we will give you a straight answer on scope, schedule and cost. No obligation, and no pressure if it turns out we are not the right fit.