Inside a Long Island Country Club's Louvered Roof & Shade System

Some commercial projects are easier to describe than to see. This one is easier to see. Breslow's project at a country club on Long Island, New York pairs a two-section motorized louvered roof with retractable shades, custom rail-built posts, and dimmable lighting over a dining terrace that looks straight out onto the golf course — the kind of view members want to sit in front of for as long as the weather allows.

In the video below, Dana Shaw walks the finished space and demonstrates the system live: louvers opening and closing, shades raising and lowering, and the adjustable settings that let the terrace dial in exactly how much sun a given table gets on a given afternoon.

A Two-Section System Built Into the Terrace

The installation covers the terrace in two connected sections of motorized louvered roof, with retractable shades built in alongside the louvers rather than added as a separate afterthought. Rather than mounting posts onto the existing railing, Breslow's team cut the railings down and built the support posts directly into them — a detail that keeps the structure feeling integrated into the terrace instead of dropped on top of it. As Dana explains in the video, “we did this custom built in to the railings… very custom, very high-end.”

Sun Control That Goes Beyond Open or Closed

The louvers aren't a simple open-or-shut switch. In the walkthrough, Dana demonstrates how a section can be set fully vertical for a clean, closed look, or angled partway to redirect a specific patch of shadow onto a specific table — useful when the afternoon sun sits low enough that one part of the terrace needs shade before the rest does. That kind of granular control matters more on a commercial terrace than a backyard patio, since staff are managing comfort across a full room of members and guests at once, not just one table.

Shades, Lighting, and Airflow, All Motorized

Alongside the louvers, the terrace has retractable shades that raise and lower at the push of a button, dimmable lighting built into the structure, and — closer to the indoor bar and kitchen area — high-power, wet-rated fans. “You could actually feel the wind,” Dana notes in the video. “It's amazing.” Every one of those systems is motorized and part of the same control scheme, so staff aren't juggling a separate remote for shades, a separate switch for lights, and a separate control for airflow.

What It Replaced

Before this project, the terrace had a retractable fabric awning — a common starting point for clubs that haven't yet made the jump to a full louvered system. In the video, Dana is direct about the comparison: the old awning “was nothing compared to what they got now.” A fabric awning can shade a table on a sunny day, but it doesn't offer the structural weather protection, the adjustable light control, or the integrated lighting and airflow that a motorized louvered system provides — part of why more clubs upgrading their outdoor dining are skipping past fabric altogether and going straight to a permanent, engineered structure.

The Work Nobody Sees

Dana is quick to point out that a project like this isn't just the visible structure. Stucco work, drainage and gutter integration, and the structural prep needed to tie new posts into an existing terrace all happen before a single louver ever opens. “There was a lot of work that went into this,” he says, “a lot of preparation… all sorts of technical things I won't bore you with that we think about for you.” That's the part of a commercial project a club's board rarely sees in a rendering, but it's what determines whether the finished structure performs the way the design promised.

How This Fits Into a Commercial Project

Projects like this one follow the same process Breslow runs on every commercial installation: design, engineering, permitting, fabrication, and installation handled by one in-house team, with service continuing for the life of the structure afterward. For clubs weighing a similar terrace or dining-area upgrade, that continuity — one team responsible for the whole build, not a handoff between contractors — is often the deciding factor over which system makes it in front of the board. Breslow's broader look at what makes club amenities actually get used, from dining terraces to pool cabanas, is covered in this companion piece on country club design, and the full before-and-after on this specific property is documented on the Lake Success Country Club project page.