ADJ Lighting Helps Transform Historic Church Into ‘Clementine’, Nashville’s Newest Event Hall

Following a year-long renovation project, the former West Nashville United Methodist Church re-opened last year as Clementine, a unique space for weddings as well as corporate, fundraising and music events. The venue offers a blank canvas for hosting bespoke gatherings and that includes an expansive all-LED, all-ADJ lighting system which allows custom-colored illumination of every part of the space.

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.

The venue is now comprised of two main areas. The former sanctuary has been named the Adelaide Hall and features a large vaulted ceiling and two separate stage areas. Then behind it is a separate room, christened the Little Bird Lounge in honor of Dan and Brenda’s daughter, which has a distinct feel and boasts a 20-foot built-in black marble bar.

This approach extends to the technical aspects of the venue, which have also been designed from the ground up to offer flexibility to the event organizers who will use the space. As Dan explains, “We take a distinct approach from every other venue in town, which require lighting to be brought in. We believe that hired-in lighting is never as good as thoughtful lighting that is permanently installed and configurable. So, taking that idea to the extreme, for Clementine we wanted maximum flexibility for the client, so we added wall washing lights, stage washing lights, house lights and illuminated window arches. Every light in the building is LED and everything is dimmable and color changeable. Our goal is for no client to ever feel compelled to bring in supplemental lighting. This not only saves our clients money, but it makes our day shorter, reducing setup and strike down time for each event.”

To achieve this goal 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 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,” David explains. “First we did the installation for Ruby and then, when they bought the building for Clementine, they brought us back to help again. To make this kind of relationship work we need to be installing equipment that we know is going to be reliable as well as fit for its purpose. I recommended ADJ fixtures for Clementine because they fit within the lighting budget and because I know that ADJ have a rigorous QC process which makes for a low failure rate. The very first time I ever installed one of their fixtures, I could tell right out of the box ADJ’s quality and reliability was better than other brands I’d used. This was a repeat customer and we wanted to get it right so they keep coming back, which made ADJ the obvious choice.”

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 color washing using an almost unlimited palette of colors.

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 color to achieve the exact look they require. Each COB Cannon Wash unit features a powerful 150-Watt quad-color COB LED and offers a wide 80-degree beam angle, meaning that the six of them together are more than capable of filling the whole space with a uniform wash of bright light.

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 vibrant color washes. Meanwhile, the PAR Z100 3K units, with their 100W warm white COB LEDs, ensure that performers on stage can be clearly seen.

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.