An exhibition space holding light-sensitive archival objects needs a controlled environment. In the case of a historic Brooklyn Navy Yard building, that meant blacking out all the windows. But what about the outside? Our challenge was to reanimate what would otherwise look abandoned, and keep the look of the building. Our solution was a very tiny bulb above the top frame of each of the many windows; the building would never look uninhabited.

At the time we were brought on the project, the available LED technology was still very actively forming itself (as it constantly does.) Starting with an 11 watt bulb, we did a number of tests in the studio and on site. It was stunning that such a small wattage was WAY too bright. So we took it to a 6 watt LED and we put that up, and we still felt it was a little too bright. Down to a 3 watt -- everyone was happy and we ordered all the LEDs and they were delivered to the site and we put them in...and it was waaaaay too bright.

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There are special challenges a lighting designer faces in a place of such immensity and surpassing beauty that it dwarfs human activity.

Such is the case with a bike and pedestrian bridge right now being constructed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The sun sets over the Sandino Mountains in a breathtaking haze of watermelon/lavender/orange light…and then a darkness so complete and so rare in our society that it could only be the product of a sensibility. As expressed in the city’s closely enforced night sky ordinance -- “it is pleasing to the senses and intellect of mankind to be able to gaze at the night sky with minimum interference from light pollution.”

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An interview on the Etsy Blog inspired by my talk at Urban Design Week 2011.

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While lighting design has finally evolved into a legitimate, recognized field of practice, its evolution as a field of study is lagging behind. There is as yet no cannon: no body of principles accepted as axiomatic or universally binding in our field of study. Nor do we have a comprehensive list of texts deemed relevant to our field. There is practice, lots of practice. Some practitioners have taken the time to document and present their work to the benefit of our and neighboring fields. However, we do not, as yet, have the tools for transforming the lessons learned from individuals’ lighting practice into a formal knowledge base. We are still in the early stages of building a conceptual framework and models of discourse that can contribute to the development of a rich and nuanced cannon.

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