Facades & structures
Building facades, canopies, bridges, towers, landscape and water features. Grazing light up the architecture so the structure itself does the work, with programmable scenes for holidays, branding and events.
Dynamic color · LED retrofit
Light that changes. Inside, outside, or already installed.
Full-color RGBW lighting for building facades, hotel lobbies, ballrooms, restaurants, theaters, pools and public spaces across San Diego — and for the systems already in your building that stopped doing what they were sold to do. Designed, installed, programmed, and commissioned by one licensed C-10 contractor.
Three ways this starts
New build, new look, or bring it back to life.
Most of our dynamic color work arrives as one of three conversations. All three end the same way — a commissioned system with documentation and a warranty.
Rooms that change with the evening
Lobbies, atriums, ballrooms, restaurants, bars, theaters, retail and pool decks. Tunable white through the day, saturated color for events, and a schedule that runs it without anyone touching a switch.
Systems you already own
LED conversion of legacy sources, and revival of color systems that are stuck on a preset, half dark, or controlled by software nobody has the password to. Often the fastest path to a dramatic change.
Exterior
Grazing light up the bones of the building.
Most facade lighting fails because it floods everything evenly and flattens the architecture. Done right, it finds the vertical elements — the pilasters, column lines, and bays that give a facade its rhythm — and grazes light up them, so the building's own structure does the work.
We install Signify / Color Kinetics IntelliHue luminaires, which means the same fixture delivers saturated color, high-quality tunable white, and everything between — with Chromasync color consistency so the fixture you replace in year four still matches the nineteen beside it.
- Building facades, pilasters, cornices and column lines
- Canopies, porte-cocheres and entry features
- Bridges, towers and infrastructure
- Landscape, hardscape, pools and water features
- Rooftop, parapet and signage illumination
- IP66 wet-location, coastal and marine-air rated detailing
- Historic and non-destructive mounting where required
Interior
The same technology, indoors, where people actually sit.
Dynamic color isn't only a facade product. Inside, the value is usually different: a room that reads warm and intimate at dinner, bright and neutral for a morning meeting, and completely transformed for a wedding — without rewiring anything between.
Tunable white does most of the daily work; saturated color earns its keep on event nights and brand moments. Both live in the same fixture and the same control system.
- Hotel lobbies, atriums and porte-cochere ceilings
- Ballrooms, event spaces and conference centers
- Restaurants, bars, lounges and nightlife
- Theaters, performance venues and houses of worship
- Retail, showrooms and brand environments
- Coves, slots, feature walls and illuminated ceilings
- Corridors, elevator lobbies and amenity decks
- Indoor pools, spas and wellness spaces
Interior work usually needs more care with glare, color rendering and dimming behavior than a facade does — a wall you're looking at from thirty feet is more forgiving than a ceiling you're sitting under.
Retrofit
The cheapest dramatic change is usually the one already wired.
Plenty of San Diego buildings were lit beautifully ten years ago and have been quietly going dark ever since — failed drivers, a discontinued fixture line, a controller running a factory demo because the real show left with a startup tech.
When the conduit, pathway and power are already in place, a retrofit gets you most of the way to a new installation for a fraction of the disruption. We survey what's there and give you a straight answer on what's still supported, what has to be replaced, and what it costs.
- LED conversion of legacy interior and exterior sources
- Revival of failed or undocumented color-changing systems
- Fixture-for-fixture replacement where the original line is discontinued
- Driver, power supply and data enabler replacement
- Controller upgrade and reprogramming from an unknown system
- Re-addressing and as-built documentation for systems that never had any
- Utility rebate support and Title 24 controls compliance
- Reuse of existing conduit and pathway wherever it holds up
How we price it
You always get two options.
Every dynamic color proposal we write presents two fully-costed equipment paths, because the honest answer to "which fixture" is "it depends on your mounting geometry" — and you deserve to see that trade-off rather than have it decided for you.
Option A · Long-throw
Maximum punch
- Fixture
- Long-throw floodlight, tight native beam (around 3°)
- Best for
- Tall vertical runs and high ceilings, where fixtures throw a significant distance to reach the surface
- Result
- Crisp, high-contrast, dramatic grazing with excellent placement freedom
- Trade-off
- Higher output means higher power draw and higher fixture cost
Option B · Wash
Even and efficient
- Fixture
- Wash luminaire, broader native beam (around 10°)
- Best for
- Moderate throws, even fill, and buildings with limited electrical capacity
- Result
- Softer, more even coverage with 5-channel color including amber, purple and magenta
- Trade-off
- Less punch on very tall runs; roughly a third of the power draw
Spread-lens accessories are available for both, so the final beam can be tuned after the mockup rather than guessed at during design. We'll tell you which one we'd pick and why — but you'll see both numbers.
Process
Nobody signs a color contract without seeing it first.
Renderings lie. Mounting distances, throw angles and surface finish decide what a space actually looks like, and no drawing settles that argument. So we put fixtures in the room, or on the building, before you commit.
01
Site walk
We look at mounting locations, throw distances, available power, surface finishes, and what the space actually gives us to work with. On a retrofit we also survey the existing fixtures, drivers and controller. Usually an hour.
02
Two-option proposal
Both equipment paths, fully costed — materials, labor, and general expenses broken out separately so you can see where the money goes.
03
On-site mockup
We bring fixtures to the space and light it. This is where the option gets chosen and where the spread lenses get decided. It is the single most useful hour of the whole project.
04
Installation
Line-voltage circuiting, terminations, mounting, aiming, and low-voltage data. All work by licensed C-10 technicians, NEC and City of San Diego code compliant.
05
Programming & commissioning
Control scenes built, schedules set, system commissioned with your sign-off. You get documentation and training, not a laptop that leaves with the tech.
Warranty
One year on the workmanship. Three if you want it.
Every SDSL installation carries a one-year workmanship warranty from final commissioning — electrical connections, fixture mounting and alignment, control programming, wiring, and driver installation.
Extended three-year coverage is available at additional cost. Manufacturer product defects fall under the separate Signify / Color Kinetics warranty, which we pass through and administer on your behalf, so you're not the one on hold with a manufacturer's RMA desk.
Questions we get
Common questions
How much electrical capacity does this need?
Less than owners expect. A twenty-fixture installation adds roughly 600 W at 120 V with efficient wash luminaires, or around 2,000 W with high-output long-throw fixtures. We confirm your existing service can carry it during the site walk; if it can't, panel work gets quoted separately rather than buried.
Is this only for exteriors?
No. Interior dynamic color and tunable white are a large share of our work — lobbies, ballrooms, restaurants, theaters and pool decks. Interiors need more attention to glare, color rendering and dimming behavior, but it's the same fixture families and the same control platform.
Can you work with the fixtures we already have?
Often, yes. If the luminaires are still supported and the pathway is sound, a controller upgrade and reprogramming can transform a system for a fraction of a full replacement. We'll tell you honestly when the hardware has aged out and replacement is the better spend.
Can we change the colors ourselves?
Yes. We build the scene set with you and hand over a control interface you can actually operate — holidays, brand colors, event overrides. We also keep service agreements for owners who'd rather call us for seasonal changes.
Will it still match in five years?
That's what Chromasync is for. Color consistency is specified at the manufacturer level so a replacement fixture matches the ones already installed — the failure mode that makes older color systems look patchy.
What about a historic building?
Non-destructive mounting and custom bracket fabrication are routine for us. We've worked on National Historic Landmark property and over-water infrastructure where nothing may be permanently modified.
What isn't included?
Permits, engineered drawings, lift and access equipment, new service or panel work, and prevailing-wage adjustments are quoted separately unless specified. We itemize them rather than folding them into a single number.
Next step
Start with a site walk.
An hour in the space tells us more than a week of drawings. Send a photo of the room or the building and we'll come look at it.