The focal point of a new residential development, Beacon Park shines bright to draw in guests from both near and far. This park is the first in a series of neighborhood parks within a large-scale residential development. It is an iconic destination for homeowners and starting point for visitors. For this park, our team created a night-time family playground, including a spectacular treehouse, taking advantage of the multiple heritage trees throughout the park. We provided full-service mechanical, electrical, plumbing and low voltage engineering, as well as lighting design.

Beacon Park is entirely lit with LED sources, allowing the design team to exceed California’s strict Title-24 regulations, with a lighting scheme designed to enhance the geometry of architecture and landscape. The park was designed as a series of beacons to be navigated along the elaborate trail system, which is softly illuminated with pedestrian scale lighting. Illuminating each feature with either color or intensity gives them strong visible presence from elsewhere in the park and encourages users to explore. Creating a hierarchy of lighting around the park aids in wayfinding but also marks the importance of each feature.

At the Welcome center, square downlights carry from inside, out to the exterior lounge. Architectural uplights accentuate the exterior lounge canopy while landscape lights are used to wash the exterior stone wall. By illuminating the interior and several of the vertical exterior surfaces, the Welcome Center takes on a lantern effect, inviting guests in with a familiar warmth. Two different color temperatures of string lights wrap the mature trees adding to the magical feeling of the space.

In addition to traditional lounge chairs found at the pool and spa, the Pool Pavilion features a full outdoor living space complete with couches, dining table, gas fireplace, and bay windows. Integrated downlights within the metal trellis allow for the kitchen space to function into the evening. The living room opens out to the park, like a backyard, offering views of the other beacons.

Adjacent to all the structures, landscape lighting below and within the branches emphasize the size and uniqueness of the various heritage trees around the park. Outside of the high traffic areas, furniture pieces and pedestrian lighting create small respite spaces for a more intimate experience. The giant heritage trees are lit with mid-grades from below, accenting the trunks and branches, while tree-mounted bullets are used within to illuminate the canopy. Contemporary style poles illuminate the pathway. Asymmetric uplighting accents the colorful decorative metal shade structures while powerful floodlights evenly light the multi-function court.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRAD NELSON

These features are arranged on the site in a way that ultimately draws everyone to eye-catching “beacon” of the park, the treehouse, which is nestled within three giant Jacarandas. Though supported from the ground, the steel and wool structure is carefully woven between the branches of the three heritage trees to give it the appearance of a traditional treehouse. Beyond the structural intrigue, many modern playhouse features such as a spiral slide, climbing ropes, and even a swing were designed for the tree house.

These heritage trees were salvaged from a decommissioned Marine base and are now major focal points around the entire park. At night, LEDs create a sparkling effect within the trees and highlight the structure with color to give it life at night. Inside, the shade structure is uplit with color, accentuating the intricate steel and wood planks of the bonnet. Linear ingrade fixtures are fitted and oriented to fall within the substructure of the floor. The amorphous platform deck is illuminated from guardrail integrated steplights wired creatively through the structure below providing light for the skywalk to the treehouse. Creating a seamless installation was important to making the space kid-friendly while keeping the simplicity of a traditional treehouse. The recessed ingrade lights also have the ability to change color per season or holiday to create a fun and exciting light source for kids and illuminate the inside of the treehouse. The design focused on these significant features within the park to keep the project within budget.‍

We selected the mechanical systems on the project to achieve the project goal of no rooftop equipment. The Welcome Center utilizes a VRF Heat Recovery system with an outdoor VRF unit located on grade. The fan coils are thoughtfully arranged in a mezzanine to maximize the ceiling height in the Multipurpose Room. The Multipurpose Room also featured two gas fireplaces. We closely coordinated venting solution for the fireplaces to ensure it meets the desired aesthetics from both the interior and exterior of the building.