Landscape Forms has a record of collaborating with renowned architects and lighting designers on different product lines, including one that launched today. The Northport collection is the third collaboration involving the Kalamazoo, Mich.–based designer and manufacturer of hardscaping, furniture, accessories, and LED luminaires and the New York–based Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA). “Designing the outdoor hardscape gives us the opportunity to create distinctive and vibrant open spaces that complement the architecture of our buildings and welcome the wider community at the same time,” RAMSA partner Daniel Lobitz tells Architectural SSL.
About a decade ago, the companies introduced their first collaboration, Concord, a family of modern traditional site furniture elements that included the Alcott area light, Emerson bike rack, Hawthorne path light, Melville bench, and Poe litter and recycling receptacle. In 2016, Landscape Forms, RAMSA, and New York–based lighting designer Fisher Marantz Stone collaborated on Ashbery, a family of three outdoor area lights. This collection went on to become Landscape Forms’ best-selling lighting solution; it was updated in early August.
“We have found a huge attraction to modern traditional site furniture offerings in our portfolio,” says Landscape Forms senior designer Brian Revoir. Northport is a “natural addition” and is intended “to play between—and with—both Ashbery and Concord,” he continues. “Ashbery doesn’t have furniture to go with its lighting, and the Northport collection could be used with Concord as lower cost pieces to give it broader appeal across the market.”
Northport, examined
The collection of Northport area lights balances a traditional aesthetic that harkens to gas streetlamps, but with contemporary lighting components, including engineered optics and LED sources, set within an open metal frame. Its form factor is a “curvilinear complement” to Ashbery, Lobitz says: “Northport took as its starting point the classic acorn form that dates back to the early days of candle burning streetlamps in Europe and America. Our goal with the design was to create a luminaire that grows out of traditional forms but is fresh and modern at the same time—a luminaire that will be equally at home refreshing and updating the streetscape of a historic town or lending distinction to a modern campus with a charming, cohesive aesthetic.”
The acorn shape is defined by three sculpted tapering arms surrounding a modern “flame” element created by an individualized LED package, Lobitz says. The flame’s light appears to bounce off the acorn cap when, in reality, the fixture’s primary light source is housed within this upper fixture housing, which “conceals our advanced LED technology and state-of-the-art optics.”
Revoir adds that each RAMSA collection with Landscape Forms has a “distinct cross section to its casting,” which can be seen in the arms of pedestrian lights and bench legs. For Northport, the team created a unique cross-section that has the angularity of Ashbery and the gesture and arcs of Concord. Nailing a modern–traditional aesthetic is difficult, he adds, and end users looking to lean in either direction can leverage color as a factor. “Mercury turns the collection visually more modern,” he says. “Bronze shifts are toward more traditional.”
The Northport area light is offered in 12-, 14-, and 16-foot pole heights and in several single- or double pole-mount configurations, as well as a path light. The luminaire head itself is 3 feet tall with an 18-inch-diameter top. Northport fixtures come in a full-color palette and are finished with Landscape Forms’ proprietary Pangard II, a HAPs-, VOC-, and lead-free polyester powdercoat.
Also in the collection are Northport benches, bike racks, planters, trash receptacles, and decorative bollards.
Ashbery updates
Landscape Forms expanded the Ashbery lighting family to accommodate more outdoor uses. "Ashbery was originally designed to be very well adapted for pedestrian-centric environments, but we recognize that our clients are designing spaces that go beyond the purely pedestrian, and they want a common design language all throughout,” says Landscape Forms president of lighting Jordan Agustin in an Aug. 1 press release. “The expansion to Ashbery is intended to broaden its palette to better serve the different needs of more spaces like transitional environments, curbside environments, parking, and multimodal spaces.”
The expanded Asbery family adds Type 2 and Type 4 lighting distributions to the existing Type 3 and Type 5 options; an expanded lumen range; a correlated color temperature of 2700K in addition to 3000K, 3500K, and 4000K (the center flame element is 2000K); and a clear lens in addition to its original diffused lens. The expansion adds 8- and 10-foot-tall pedestrian lights to the existing 12-, 14-, and 16-foot area lights, and the fixture can be single or double pole-mounted. A wall-mounted light and a 3-foot-tall pathway light complete the Ashbery collection. Like Northport, all Ashbery fixtures comprise cast aluminum frames available in a range of colors and finished with Pangard II. It is Buy America compliant and DarkSky Approved.
