A Refined Approach to Exterior and Landscape Lighting within DarkSky Recommendations

The current approach to exterior lighting has failed. DarkSky compliance is a great improvement to exterior lighting, however, we need to look beyond the traditional solutions for exterior and landscape lighting to improve safety, visibility, and utilization of exterior environments. Learn about glare and safety, reduced light levels, the impacts of lighting on wildlife, neighboring light trespass, and approaches to dramatically improve the lit exterior spaces of your projects.

Knowledge of basic exterior lighting concepts and experience in lighting exterior environments is recommended for this presentation.

Learning Objectives

• Learn DarkSky friendly non-traditional techniques to exterior and pathway lighting through the use of landscape lighting.
• Understand the importance of night time site surveys as a critical part of the design process in order to analyze existing ambient lighting and recognize the impact of adjacent lighting on the design solution.
• Realize environmental impacts of site lighting, effects on wildlife, and how to achieve DarkSky compliance.
• Recognize the impact of glare on true visibility and the mis-perception of safety with more light. How to approach the project decision makers to improve the lighting solution.