This week we’re sharing a guest post from David D., a new contractor we started working with late last year. Earlier this summer when he was visiting the area and we invited him to a site where we were completing the setup of a Beer Garden in Worcester, MA. David wrote our inaugural blog post this year that was about “quality” (a great story where “quality” hinged on a single brown M&M! See “How a Single Brown M&M Could Cancel Your Event”), and the focus on quality is apparently a thing judging from the way he asked about so many of the small details of our work that we often take for granted! Honestly, it was refreshing to have an outsider ask so many questions because we have been doing this work for so long but don’t always remember that what we do isn’t always the industry standard – we aim to be better!
It’s Not Just a Beer Garden, Apparently!
Thank you to the PORT folks for the opportunity to share a few observations!
The site visit that day was to a PORT client in Central Massachusetts, a complex of offices, parking, eating spaces and more that has brought them in for many different kinds of projects. The owners were converting an open space into a beer garden, which on the face of it seems like a a pretty straightforward project relative to some of the other challenges they might normally deal with, but it was the perfect way for someone new like me to get a quick look at what they do. While I like to claim to be a decent handyman and craftsman himself (please just assume a minimum of exaggeration!), I am probably better at noticing the little things than anything else so immediately started asking about a number of small details that apparently go unnoticed by some clients and I would guess almost always by customers in the beer garden!
Safety, Quality, AND Style Are Not Mutually Exclusive
I was shown around the site by Ron Kuszmar, the VP of Architectural Installations. I took some photos while asking questions and sometimes retook them to include a detail that I wasn’t aware of before Ron shared the full description and function of what we were looking at. What I found while learning about the details from Ron is that there is a LOT more attention to safety and quality than the average person would ever assume…but would also take for granted.
1. Lights start with anchors, but how many?
Lights in a public space with customers sitting underneath means taking EVERY possible precaution to ensure that those lights never come down prematurely. While it is always paramount to have the right anchors, and having them mounted into the right surface securely, we also add some insurance for the worst case scenario. Adding a SECOND anchor will ensure that will never happen. For the remnants of my younger party-brain that still makes appearances in my thoughts, I had to wonder about the weight capacity and was assured by Ron that yes, even with a 250lb reveler with a belly full of beer and brats and carrying an empty keg in one hand would definitely NOT cause the light string to come down either because the wire broke or because the anchors failed! Whew!
2. What’s the deal with those Light Bulbs?
The second item that caught my attention came from my question about the frequency of changing light bulbs and any safety issues from having them broken by rough weather, flying objects, etc. For installations like this, Carbonate Light Bulbs are used and offer a number of advantages, not just regarding safety. After looking up a bit of history on the material, the advantages also include a much higher impact resistance so they would be less likely to break in the first place, and an advantage when changing “broken” bulbs because unlike glass, they won’t shatter, requiring the tech to have to remove jagged pieces of glass from their sockets (as anyone with an oversized enthusiasm for home holiday lights could attest, this is a major advantage!). For those of you “trying this at home”, these lights are a Low-voltage 24v “green” LED system with shatterproof outdoor-rated bulbs.
3. How clever was it to mount those other lights on the banners?
While wondering out loud where the lights were being powered from (they had the transformers mounted discreetly out of view inside the adjacent parking garage). I had wrongly assumed they were leveraging the power sources already out there from the lights used to illuminate the banners on the side of the building. One of us doing our own thing at home might have considered using these existing supports to add the new beer garden lights (which the above explanation of the double anchors illustrates why you should NOT do that!), the logic of adding the banner lights onto the existing supports reflects the integration intended for the lights and banner to work together, and ensured there would not be a need for any custom installations where the building façade may have not been consistent in different areas. Finally, the reason there is a gap between the bottom of the banners and the top surface of the lamps is to allow for the beam to ensure it fully illuminates the bottom corners of the banner too, which can be a frequent oversight.
My Holiday Lights May Never Be The Same
There were so many other details in and around the building and the open court, which those of us who enjoy this stuff could nerd out all day! Other items Ron shared that day include a skyway to the garage (pictured) that is fully illuminated at night but where all the light sources
are invisible, custom-made LED screen frames programmed as movable “art” in public areas inside the building, and programmable, colorful LED lights to add a dramatic flair to the outdoor landscaping. It’s certainly a treat to see a “behind the curtain” tour of how the magic gets created and I could understand the value a building or facility owner would appreciate for both the attention to safety and durability and infused with the design sense and creativity stemming from a long tradition working with the theater and events community as well.
While I don’t know how many “trade secrets” at PORT I’ll be able to repurpose this November at home, I’ll certainly will be able to leverage a few ideas to please the neighbors!