When you're building a home, there are a lot of numbers that come with the process: the acreage of the property, the square footage of the home, the size of the electrical service and, of course, the budget. On this three-home oceanfront estate in Rhode Island, a few other numbers stand out. There are 86 motorized shades and drapes, 150 dimming and switching modules controlling thousands of lights, 167 keypads, and 17 repeaters and 8 processors keeping it all in communication. But the most important number of all is the smallest: one. All three homes, spread across several acres overlooking the Atlantic, are controlled by one Lutron HomeWorks QSX system.

It didn't start that way. The southern portion of the property held the original home, built in 1992, and a cottage-style guest house added just up the hill in 2018, connected by a backyard oasis with a tennis court, bocce court, pool and hot tub, pergola, cabana and walkways overlooking the ocean. The cottage ran a HomeWorks QS system that still performed well, but the original home relied on an aging third-party lighting control system that had become unreliable. C&T Electric retrofitted the original home with HomeWorks QSX, reusing the existing wiring and infrastructure, and brought the cottage into the same system with Panel Link to QS Link translators.

Now the homeowners can control each home independently or the entire shared space at once. Gas fire pits and torches, the decorative fountains by the bocce court, the pool and spa covers, TV lifts that rise during a "Movie" scene, and the atmosphere for a night of outdoor entertaining are all a button press away, or a tap in the Lutron app.

The final piece was the new 20,000 square foot primary residence on the northern end of the property, complete with an illuminated putting and chipping green, a state-of-the-art theater, wine cellar, full-service spa and salon, home gym, golf simulator, indoor and outdoor bars and an arcade. With guest lists regularly in the hundreds, the goal was for the entire property to flow together as one.

Palladiom glass keypads were installed to match the elegance of the new home, paired with scene-based programming that keeps such a sprawling estate simple and intuitive. A mellow night in, fire pits and porch heaters on a chilly evening, shades closing to protect the artwork from the midday sun, or a lit path across the property to the pool: it's all handled with a single button press or timeclock.

So when it's time to throw the party of the summer and the homeowners are busy with caterers, landscapers and hundreds of arriving guests, the least stressful part of their day is pressing "Party" and knowing that in seconds the entire estate will be transformed. That's the power of Lutron.

In 1947, Ferrari made history with its first Formula 1 victory, roughly seven years after they made their very first car. It was a humble beginning for a small Italian car manufacturer that would eventually grow into a racing behemoth with iconic cars and more F1 victories than any competitor in its’ class. The successive moments that have immortalized this company have been self-described by Ferrari as a journey “made of passion, craftsmanship and innovation”.

Just over 70 years since their first victory, C&T Electric has recently completed a Ferrari-centric Connecticut Show Garage that can house nearly a dozen of these legendary vehicles. With “passion, craftsmanship, and innovation” in mind, there is only one lighting control system that shares those same values and can achieve an analogous level of performance.

As you walk through the halls of this Connecticut residence, you notice three large frosted windows, with an inconspicuous neutral switch that almost blends into the wall. Pressing this unassuming button does more than your typical light switch. As the tint on the Magic Glass changes from frosted to clear, it reveals a small modern car museum. Vintage neon race signs aglow, adorning the logos of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati. Accent lighting around the perimeter illuminates custom racing artwork that wraps the walls while high performance LED track lights that are hidden within Ferrari red clouds fade on, illuminating a jaw dropping collection of racing cars. Ferraris, Maserati’s, Porsches and a Pagani decorate the space and before your drool has a chance to hit the floor, a Ferrari F1 racing car on the far wall appears and is backlit with color changing LED ribbon lighting.

Control extends to see Touch QS keypads throughout the 12,000 square foot residence and while the Show Garage can operate like it’s own entity, it’s part of larger scenes like “Entertain” that reveals the garage in all its glory while dimming interior lights, activating exterior landscape scenes and opening shades throughout the residence, making something that’s wholly impressive on it’s own, part of a larger facet of lifestyle control and customization. We took this one step further by incorporating a Savant integration system that not only controls the lighting, but also controls a pair of televisions mounted within the artwork of the garage and whole home audio system that when paired with the specified lighting design, helps bring the passion of Ferrari to life within these walls.

Five PNL-8’s are distributed throughout the home utilizing adaptive modules for precision LED dimming and a combination of softswitch relays and RF devices are used for additional control in the Show Garage as well as the other three garages that house some more of the every day luxury rides the homeowners enjoy.

With passion, craftsmanship and innovation in mind, the choice was clear. There was only option that could make this dream a reality and that option was Lutron.