Toscana Country Club LED Retrofit Story
Joseph Byrne, CEOE, Director of Engineering at Toscana Country Club, knew in early 2015 that LED technology had evolved in quality to a point where it merited an investigation for a retrofit plan for the Club. The Club, developed by Bill Bone, owner of Sunrise Company, has numerous facilities to accommodate the membership in this private, exclusive community in Indian Wells, California. Most important in Mr. Byrne’s decision was if LED Lighting technology would emulate the warm, buttery atmosphere throughout the facilities.
In a facility where every room has extremely high-end, custom artwork, light fixtures and finishes, changing the lighting to LED technology presented considerable risks. These risks included changing the overall vision of the architect and lighting designer planned for the facility.
Toscana Country Club, truly a work of art, is accentuated by the lighting, and by no means could the presentation of the Club be changed from the vision that Sunrise had developed within its hundreds of high end resorts throughout the country.
With over 5600 lamps in 11 different facilities in one of the most expensive places in the country for electricity, the club pays a hefty bill to maintain the ambiance of this award-winning facility. This private club experience is so highly regarded it has been recognized by industry leaders such as the Boardroom Magazine Emerald distinction and many awards and accolades from GolfWeek and other top publications.
In June of 2015, Joseph contacted Nelson A. Scott, COO and founding owner of SES Lighting, and discussed the objectives of the project with him. Besides coming up with a country club LED retrofit design that not only emulated incandescent and other present technologies, Joseph wanted to see LED samples of every light application to ensure that the LED light quality could indeed synthesize the same ambiance and effects present in the facility. Needless to say, the amount of energy savings on the campus of Toscana was also an attractive proposition, and eliminating the daily grind of maintenance issues present with incandescent, fluorescent and high output lighting. On any given day, the Club staff is replacing or repairing 50 or more lights, ballasts and transformers throughout the campus.
Joseph was skeptical, as other vendors had tried and failed to provide an LED design plan to retrofit the club without changing the member environment. SES Certified® Lighting Consultants Nelson Scott and Mark Skau came to the club not knowing what to expect as far as quantity, types of lighting applications, and challenges with current, custom-made lighting fixtures. Pulling up to the club, Nelson turned to Mark and said, “We better change our plane reservation and stay longer!” It took Nelson and Mark three full days and nights to inventory, measure light levels and temperature, and perform the on-site analysis.
Nelson said that of all the resorts and facilities across the country he has worked with, this one had the most impressive lighting design and architectural features that he had ever seen. The architectural features and lighting design worked as one complete design painted on an impressive canvas of distinctive beauty that is unique in every room in all the facilities of the Club. He knew that the SES Lighting team had its work cut out for them to come up with the right LED design and lighting manufacturers for this country club LED retrofit in California.
Did they succeed? The client says yes!
