ADJ Lighting transforms Nashville church
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Owners Dan and Brenda Cook are no strangers to projects that involve breathing new life into previously closed historic buildings. In 2011 they bought a shuttered church in the Hillsboro Village area of Nashville and lovingly restored it to create a boutique event venue they named Ruby. Since then the location has proved popular for a wide range of private functions, while Dan and Brenda have been on the look out for another suitable building to transform into a similar venue able to cater for larger events.
Last year they were able to acquire the former West Nashville United Methodist Church, which was originally built way back 1889 and has since been expanded numerous times. They then spent a whole year renovating the building, which included removing internal walls and false ceilings and stripping the plaster from the walls to reveal the original bare brick beneath. The finished result blends the history of the space with a contemporary industrial design.
Dan and Brenda brought in Corner Audio and Video, the same company they relied on to kit out Ruby. Headed up by chief systems designer David Goon, it is the installation division of Corner Music, the retail company owned and founded by Larry Garris, which has been supplying the musicians of music city since 1976.
“I’m not an audio or lighting expert, so over the years I’ve come to rely on Corner Music to strike the right balance between cost and offerings,” says Dan Cook. “David Goon has really steered me in a great direction with ADJ, we’ve been using their lighting at our original venue for around five years and I’ve always been very pleased with it. So when it came to setting up Clementine, we were happy to follow David’s recommendation and go for an all-ADJ system.”
“I’m all about building long term relationships, where clients bring us back every time they want to expand or make a change, which is what happened with Dan and Brenda,” Goon explains.
To deliver the level of complete flexibility that Dan wanted, David specified a grand total of 52 ADJ UB 9H 1-meter linear LED wash fixtures to illuminate both the exposed brick walls and the vaulted ceiling of the Adelaide Hall. Each of these compact battens feature nine 6-Watt HEX LEDs allowing for colour washing using an almost unlimited palette of colours.
In addition, David’s team mounted six of ADJ’s potent COB Cannon Wash fixtures to the rafters in the ceiling angled to point down at the floor. These serve as house lights for the room, allowing clients to not only dim the lighting but also change its colour to achieve the exact look they require.
To provide flexible illumination across the venue’s two stages, David specified a combination of ADJ’s 12P HEX and PAR Z100 3K fixtures. Each loaded with twelve 12-Watt 6-in-1 HEX LEDs, the 12P HEX units fill the stage areas with colour washes. Meanwhile, the PAR Z100 3K units, with their 100W warm white COB LEDs, ensure that performers on stage can be clearly seen.
To visually link the main hall with the Little Bird Lounge behind it, Dan and Brenda decided to install a glass wall in the latter that provides a rear view of the organ. David then supplied a pair of ADJ’s 5P HEX LED par fixtures to sit inside this space and illuminate the vintage internal workings of the instrument.
Completing the impressive lighting installation, the Corner Audio & Video team fitted LED pixel tape, from ADJ’s sister company Acclaim Lighting, around the perimeter of a number of the venue’s steel gothic windows as well as the organ arch and coat closet. They also wired up the whole system using a pair of ADJ’s D6 Branch DMX splitters and set it up for control using ADJ’s myDMX 3 software.
(Jim Evans)
