“We were able to bring the Seventeenth Church back to the community, and back to that celebration, by lighting up the exterior,” says the founder of Chicago's Morlights, a lighting design firm. Image: John Cahill
When designing a new church or renovating an existing worship facility, designers are paying closer attention to exterior lighting than ever before.
Exterior lighting can emphasize a church’s role as the beacon to the community, allowing the church to have more life—even at night. That’s why exterior lighting should showcase the building’s features, provide lighting for entrances, exits, and landscape features, and provide sufficient light for safe pedestrian traffic along stairs, walkways, and parking facilities.
With most churches being located near residential areas it is important to keep the light from trespassing into neighboring properties. The lighting levels should also be coordinated with any security equipment to provide adequate light levels for proper security camera operation.
LEDs everywhere
Mark Freeman, church studio director and project architect for Kennesaw, Georgia-based Croft Architects and Engineers, which has worked on more than 190 church projects, says exterior LED accent lighting has been trending lately.
“We’re seeing a lot of LED wall sconces, ground-mounted LED flood lights and LED floods mounted on and hidden by building architecture to highlight the features of the exterior and illuminate the building entrances and exits,” he says. “These LED accent lights can also be color changing to provide different looks.”
Additionally, low-level LED lighting such as step lights, bollards, and landscape lighting are also being used to provide light for walkways, stairs, and landscape features.
“I’ve noticed festoon lighting (LED string lights) has become popular for outdoor seating and gathering areas, and many churches are using decorative seasonal lighting outside, such as colored LEDs for Christmas or white LEDs for Easter,” Freeman says.
Chilli Chongo, sales engineer at AES Lighting Group in Omaha, says many churches are taking the opportunity to mitigate towards LED fixtures or retrofits to save on energy consumption and create a lighting solution that is versatile and complements the structure.
“Whether it’s a modern church building or an institution with a more traditional style/construction, the goal remains to highlight the building and unique elements that set the structure apart and draw in [people passing by],” he says. “We look to highlight specific articular elements such as monuments, statues, stain glass installations, etc.”
“We designed an outdoor lighting system that included individual occupancy sensors on each outdoor LED light. By doing this, Victory Church has now increased the lifespan of the system and further reduced their annual energy and maintenance costs.”
Danny Kasalek, Sales Manager, U.S. Energy Recovery
U.S. Energy Recovery, based in Phoenix, Arizona, helps churches meet their energy-saving and sustainability goals with energy-efficient solutions such as LED exterior lighting, and has helped 45 churches retrofit their lighting.
For example, Victory Church is one of the largest churches in the state of Oklahoma, and the company’s team helped guide them from the initial audit and design to the project execution and installation.
“Victory Church was looking for ways to maximize their savings and utility rebate,” says Danny Kasalek, sales manager for the company. “We designed an outdoor lighting system that included individual occupancy sensors on each outdoor LED light. By doing this, Victory Church has now increased the lifespan of the system and further reduced their annual energy and maintenance costs.”
Solutions to churches' challenges
Delving deeper into exterior lighting design churches, there are some critical considerations to address, Freeman says. For example, to accommodate festoon or seasonal lighting in past projects, Croft specifically designed for electrical outlets in strategic locations to give the church flexibility for different scenarios.
“We also work to integrate the lighting needs into the overall design aesthetic,” Freeman says. “Decorative and appropriately scaled entry lights or lanterns that match the character and style of the church design can give some helpful light and add punch to the design in strategic locations. We also like to make sure the interior lobby lighting creates a nice glow to the outside at night to showcase activities and gathering that may be happening inside.”
“Decorative and appropriately scaled entry lights or lanterns that match the character and style of the church design can give some helpful light and add punch to the design in strategic locations."
Mark Freeman, Church Studio Director and Project Architect, Croft Architects and Engineers
The way to do it right, Chongo says, is to determine the intent of the lighting and know the church’s audience. Questions to ask include: “Is the lighting serving to simply light or enhance?” “To provide security or highlight certain structures?” “Should it draw in the passerby?” “What do you want users to see first when they look at the building?” “How should the lighting solution make them feel about the space?” These key questions need to be answered when coming up with a lighting solution.
Shining a light on security
To keep people safe, pedestrian walkways and parking lots should be well illuminated with light levels coordinated with the requirements of the security equipment, the local environment, usage, and any community or local restrictions.
“The light levels should also meet the recommendations of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) and avoid light trespass onto adjoining properties,” Freeman says. “The lighting fixtures would include low level pedestrian lighting on 8-foot to 10-foot poles, bollards, step lights, as well as area lighting pole mounted fixtures, all LED light sources.”
He also suggests coordinating code-required exterior emergency lights with a church’s entry doors and features so it’s not an eyesore.
“Design the lighting systems to provide the recommended light levels of the IES with special attention to walkways and stairs,” Freeman says.
Chongo notes that LED flood lighting is ideal for security lighting.
“We have several manufacturers that provide options for flood lights with multiple form factors, optics, and color-tuning/color changing capability,” he says. “This provides a flexible solution that brings attention to the building without overtaking the space.”
Flip the switch
Each lighting designer will have their own way of doing things, and Freeman notes that exterior lighting choices usually come down to what works best for each specific church.
For example, when working on North River Church in Metro Atlanta, the company designed the exterior lighting that highlighted exterior materials, such as Nichiha panels. For Piedmont Church in Marietta, Georgia, Croft’s exterior lighting design highlighted the stone and heavy timber elements. And for Journey Church in Atlanta, Croft illuminated the glass in the lobby with interior LEDs that glowed, making them visible from the street.
Avraham Mor, founder of Chicago-based lighting design firm Morlights, notes that the key to designing for a church community is involving all the key stakeholders, educating them, and showing them the solutions, rather than just talking about them.
“We do this by not only showing renderings but providing sample products,” he says. “Often, committee members are more familiar with products you can buy at a local home center and not the professional-grade products needed to illuminate their church.”
The company recently completed the lighting design of the iconic Seventeenth Church in Chicago, and when starting, the exterior lighting was mostly non-functional.
Morlights’ philosophy with exterior lighting is to strive to minimize sky glow when possible, reduce energy use, and lower maintenance costs.
“Using extensive modeling in place, as well as detailed, photometrically accurate renderings to verify light levels and optics on both interior and exterior, Morlights was able to implement dramatic improvements,” Mor says.
Mor notes another key lighting design trend is to embrace the idea that less is more.
“Rather than flood the church with light, artistically illuminate the building,” he says. “In doing so, this manages the amount of sky glow, and can really call attention to the architecture of the building.”
Morlights’ philosophy with exterior lighting is to strive to minimize sky glow when possible, reduce energy use, and lower maintenance costs.
“Lighting is also about safety and accessibility, so we work carefully to create a safe, welcoming space for everyone,” Mor says. “Aesthetically, every project has a different goal for how the exterior is intended to either make an impact, or become more subtle, so goal-setting with our clients is always key.”
For example, when the company worked on the Seventeenth Church building, a part of Chicago’s historic downtown landscape, it was originally left out of the nighttime brilliance of the city.
“We were able to bring the Seventeenth Church back to the community, and back to that celebration, by lighting up the exterior,” he says.
