Watersound® Town Center borders the entrance to the Watersound® Origins community along the US Highway 98 corridor, positioning these shops at a critical connection point to Scenic Highway 30A. Located on Florida’s Emerald Coast, the large complex of retail, restaurant, and office space was designed to serve the community and surrounding areas.

While the community has been evolving over the past several years, a recent phase of the town center project introduced 20,000 sq.ft. of leasable space, including a high-end restaurant, a medical clinic, office space, and an 8,000 sq.ft. covered event pavilion. WBA Architecture was brought in to design the buildings and the connection between buildings, all within the masterplan.

Existing lighting on the site included bollards installed in 1984, with single incandescent bulbs. The WBA Architecture team sought to create a unique experience through illumination and selected Lumiquad LQ641 columns and Lumiquad LQ427 bollards from Luminis.

“One of the things I liked about the Lumiquad fixtures was their feeling of lightness and delicacy,” said Dennis Daniels, project manager and architect at WBA. “But while they are light, they are also present, and the aesthetics complement nearby building architecture as well as the adjacent coast pine trees.”

And choosing matching columns and bollards was also a significant benefit for the project, allowing a consistent design aesthetic throughout the environment.

Originally a lowland area, ten feet of fill was brought into the space. The design intent was to create a landscape that blends with the architecture and coastal landscape, with some benches and walkways halfway buried for effect.

The lighting team deliberately selected 3000K color temperature for all luminaires to create a welcoming glow in the space. And when combined with the delicate features of the fixtures, the result is a quiet ambiance and an intentionally low energy level for the pathway lighting.

“We designed zones of light and dark,” Daniels said. “Movement and rhythm are created by interspersing luminaires in an asymmetrical pattern. Thus, we create moments of rest and reprieve and moments of highlighting."

In addition to the Lumiquad luminaires, Scopo SC350 ground projectors are utilized to uplight trees across the landscape. Architects were able to rotate the luminaire and manipulate the pivot arm on-site to precisely aim the illumination towards each tree.

All luminaires are dimmable, connecting to a central lighting control panel with a photocell for dusk-to-dawn functionality.

“Everyone is very pleased with the Luminis lighting," Daniels said. "The quality, finish and durability of the fixtures are excellent. And we were able to respect the landscape with the lighting design."

PROJECT NAME: Watersound® Town Center

LOCATION: Panama City, Inlet Beach Ft Walton, Florida, USA

CATEGORY: Exterior Lighting

PROJECT COMPLETION: July 2021

ARCHITECT: WBA Architecture

CONTRACTOR: White Construction

LUMINIS AGENT: DesignLight

PHOTOGRAPHY: Chad Baumer