The part of Dallas with actual topography, and the only part where the slope is the first thing you design around.
Oak Cliff is part of the city of Dallas rather than a city of its own, and it is the most distinctive part of it to light. Two things set it apart. The first is the housing: Winnetka Heights was platted in 1908 and most of it was standing by 1915, and Kessler Park — ten separate developments between 1923 and 1979 — brought Tudor Revival and Mission and Spanish Revival to streets that were among the first in Dallas laid out for the motor car.
The second is the ground, and it is the rarer of the two. Oak Cliff has hills. Real ones, with houses perched above the street, drives that climb, gardens that fall away at the back and retaining walls holding the whole thing in place. Almost nowhere else we work has meaningful vertical relief on an ordinary residential lot, and it changes the geometry of every fixture decision on the property.
Lighting design on flat ground has a comfortable assumption built into it: the fixture and the thing it lights sit at the same level, so a beam aimed up at forty-five degrees arrives at forty-five degrees. On a Kessler Park lot where the house stands eight or ten feet above the street, that assumption fails in both directions and produces two very recognisable mistakes.
Lighting uphill, the usual error is overshoot. A fixture at the bottom of a slope aimed at a house above it is effectively aiming at the sky beyond the roofline, and anything that misses the wall keeps going — into the neighbour's upstairs windows, or simply into the air as a visible cone. The fix is a tighter optic, a steeper aim and a position much closer to the house than instinct suggests, so the beam has somewhere to stop.
Lighting downhill, the error is the opposite: a path or terrace below the house, lit from above, where fixtures that would be invisible on the flat are now at eye level for anyone coming up. Downhill wants shielded, downward fixtures and low mounting, not the uplights that work on the approach.
The practical upshot is that a sloped lot usually needs more positions and less output at each than a flat one of the same size. It is not a more expensive scheme by much, but it is a more carefully placed one, and it is why the daylight visit on these properties takes longer.
A textured stucco elevation is the most rewarding surface in residential lighting and the easiest to overdo. Unlike brick, which has a regular repeating texture, hand- floated stucco has a slow, irregular surface that only appears when light crosses it at a shallow angle. Put a fixture tight to that wall aiming straight up and the whole elevation comes alive — and keeps going, because it will also pick out every patch, every hairline crack and every place the render was made good.
So the judgement is about how much texture you actually want. On a well-maintained wall, tight grazing is spectacular. On a wall that has been patched over ninety years, the fixture wants to move out a few feet so the light flattens and the surface reads as one piece. We work that out on the night-set, wall by wall, which is the only honest way to do it.
Two details specific to these houses. Clay barrel tile on a roof or a porch-top catches light beautifully from below and turns a warm orange that no other roof material does; one well-placed fixture under a deep eave does more than three across the wall. And arched openings — the loggias and recessed entries these elevations are full of — want light placed inside the recess, so the arch reads as a depth rather than as a dark patch on a lit wall.
A lot of Oak Cliff sits inside some form of designation, and the two most common ones carry different weight. Winnetka Heights is a Dallas landmark district and has been on the National Register since 1983. Kessler Park is a conservation district. They are not interchangeable, the controls differ, and the honest position is that we are a lighting contractor rather than your preservation adviser.
What we can do, and do as standard, is make the paperwork easy. You get a written plan that says what is going where, what is fixed to the building as opposed to set in the ground, and what it costs, with dates. That is the document whoever reviews it will want to see, and handing it over at the start is considerably better than explaining it afterwards.
What we would say from experience is that the lighting decisions most likely to attract attention are the ones that attach hardware to a street-facing elevation. A scheme built mostly from fixtures set in the ground and in planting, lighting the building from a distance, tends to be both less contentious and better looking on these houses anyway. Confirm the current requirements for your address with the City of Dallas before anything is fixed to the building.
We have not photographed a Oak Cliff installation yet, so every photograph below is from Dallas — the nearest documented work, on the same ground and the same kind of property. Each one is captioned with the town it was actually taken in. All are TC Lighting installations, shot after dark on the property. Click any of them to see it full screen.
The full gallery is grouped by town, and the reviews page carries thirty-one client letters in full. If you are in Oak Cliff and want your property to be the first photograph on this page, the design visit is free.
Oak Cliff is part of Dallas rather than a city of its own, so these are Dallas letters — printed word for word as they were sent to Todd Cormier. All thirty-one are on the reviews page in full.
“We were so impressed with Todd and his crew. He was meticulous, gave us a plan and brought it to life. The pools of light and warm touches were perfect. He made our home a shining jewel. Our neighbors are jealous and will be calling Todd soon, I am sure.”
“For many years, Todd, with TC Lighting has helped me illuminate my home with beautiful lighting through his plans and execution.”
“We have had landscape lighting on our property for many years and I have always done minor DIY repairs of lighting issues. When I had some recurring problems I could not resolve, I called a landscape lighting supplier I have used for years and was referred to Todd Cormier of TC Lighting…”
Part of the city of Dallas, south-west of downtown across the Trinity. Free on-site design visit, and Todd comes out himself.
Oak Cliff, Dallas, TX, TX · inside the TC Lighting service area · free on-site design visit
Landscape lighting is the bulk of the work, but it is not all of it. Every service below is available on a Oak Cliff property, from the same crew and the same licensed Texas electrical contractor.
Design and installation — uplighting, moonlighting, path and specimen work.
Read more →Seasonal install, maintained through the season, taken down and stored.
Read more →Govee-type colour-changing track set into the eave line. Invisible by day.
Read more →Halogen to LED on an existing system, keeping the runs and fixtures worth keeping.
Read more →Car parks, drives, steps, walls and seating areas, residential and commercial.
Read more →Inside work from the same licensed electrical contractor.
Read more →Cameras and doorbells fitted and wired properly.
Read more →Diagnosing and rebuilding failing systems, including ones we did not install.
Read more →Or start here: the home page for the whole picture, about Todd Cormier for who turns up, the photo gallery for the work itself, reviews for what clients say, and contact to reach us directly.
No. Oak Cliff is part of the city of Dallas, south-west of downtown across the Trinity, so city requirements and permitting are Dallas's. Several neighbourhoods inside it carry their own designations on top of that -- Winnetka Heights is a Dallas landmark district, Kessler Park is a conservation district.
More than anything else about the property. Lighting uphill overshoots easily, so it needs tighter optics, a steeper aim and fixtures closer to the house than instinct suggests. Anything below the house wants shielded downward fixtures instead, because on a slope they end up at eye level. Sloped lots generally take more positions at lower output.
Carefully, because stucco shows everything. Tight grazing from close to the wall makes the texture spectacular on a well-maintained elevation, and merciless on one that has been patched. The fix is to move the fixture out a few feet so the light flattens. We settle it wall by wall on the night-set rather than guessing in daylight.
Generally yes, and the schemes least likely to cause difficulty are the ones built from fixtures set in the ground and in planting rather than hardware attached to a street-facing elevation. You get a written plan showing exactly what goes where and what is fixed to the building, which is what a reviewer will want. Confirm current requirements with the City of Dallas.
Yes. Oak Cliff is Dallas and Dallas is where the largest share of our photographed work is. Todd makes the design visit himself and it is free.
Four fields, about fifteen seconds. Send the address and what you are hoping to light. Todd walks the property himself, in daylight, and you get a written plan with a fixed price and dates before any work begins.
Prefer to talk? Call (972) 345-1180.