Lighting and landscaping

Here are a couple of quick thoughts that come straight from the concepts of Crime Prevention Through environmental Design (CPTED) - a concept that seeks to alter an environment to be 'unfriendly' to illegitimate activity while facilitating legitimate activities. It is very useful for managing space without making it look like a prison.

I have seen many churches with beautiful landscaping - unfortunately it all too often makes the bad guys efforts easier than it needs to - and with a few changes it will still be beautiful, but functional as well. Take the average shrub - it is the perfect size and shape for hiding a crouching person. So why not keep them far enough away from doors and paths to prevent an attacker from hiding right next to a potential victim? Trees as well, however with trees it is generally sufficient to create a canopy with the lowest branches too high to effectively conceal a person. Maybe trimming the shrubs to lower than 18" and the "canopying" the trees with branches no lower than say 6' would be sufficient to make it hard to hide. But what if it just won't look right to do this? Well it may be possible to place illumination in the concealed area - but not just throwing lights in the dark space. Many times the light may be positioned to cause persons concealed behind these obstacles (not all of them will be vegetation) to cast a shadow into a readily observable area. Consider how silly it must look... Just like a scene right out of Scooby Doo with the big shadow preceding the monster. Are there other "tricks" to this, absolutely!!! Consider lighting and vegetation to be complementary. They can work together to create paths for legitimate movement and clear boundaries for directing activity away from other areas.

How then can these boundaries be created? Well, it's certainly possible to plant a long line of bushes to create a physical boundary. Heck, plant it a few bushes deep and it becomes nearly impossible to move through it, but it looks like a big wall. Another method is called "fence posting" and involves obstacles that are spaced to create fixed points or "dots" that can be connected mentally. The closer the dots, the clearer the boundary - just think of the line of bushes as the closely spaced dots that they really are. Now couple these "fence posts" possibly with different types of grasses on each side or maybe mow the same grass in different directions and you have created a clear visual boundary.

More on this topic later... It's a very powerful tool so step back and look at your facility.

Rob
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