Lighting Design

Providing good lighting for senior living spaces is an important topic that is only going to get more important in the future. Check it out here.

I am being engaged to produce a Recommended Practice for IES on the subject of commissioning lighting and controls. I have ample information and recommended procedures for commissioning popular lighting control systems such as occupancy sensors, time sweep, daylight harvesting and architectural dimming. Right now I’m looking for procedures for commissioning lighting. My understanding is [...]

Today’s focus on saving energy is accelerating demand for luminaires designed to achieve a high level of energy efficiency. Luminaires can be evaluated based on luminaire center beam candlepower (candela), total input watts (W), efficiency (fraction of lamp lumens that exit the luminaire), efficacy rating (lumens/W), coefficient of utilization (CU) and comparative yearly energy cost [...]

An article I write about lighting and LEED 2009 was published in the January issue of TED Magazine. TED is the official publication of the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) and is read by the nation’s electrical distributor community. Check it out here.

Most light sources have a particular standardized size and shape that affects how objects and surfaces will be illuminated. Point sources are small lamps, often featuring a clear outer glass bulb revealing the arc tube or bare incandescent filament, used to produce dramatic highlights and pronounced shadows. Linear sources, such as tubular fluorescent lamps, emit [...]

Selection of the right luminaire and controls takes considerable time and effort, and is integral to the lighting design. Cost overruns, value engineering, unclear or weakly worded specifications, and conflicts between lighting and other buidling systems can result in substitutions and other design decisions being made without the lighting designer’s involvement. Lighting designers should protect [...]

Creative Stage Lighting has announced that it will host “The ABCs of Lighting a Green Show” on Friday, March 26, 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM (according to the promotional email) or 5:00 PM (according to the website) EST. The webinar, presented by Richard Cadena, will explore the latest technologies and how they compare to conventional [...]

Speirs and Major Associates, a lighting design firm I particularly admire, was given well-deserved coverage in Metropolis Magazine recently. The article profiles the firm and reviews some of its notable projects, such as the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi and the Infinity Bridge in the United Kingdom.

Another installment in Rosco’s very clever marketing campaign showing how lighting designers used their products to solve challenging problems in theatrical lighting: Lighting designer Jeffrey E. Salzberg was engaged to light a collaborative theater piece combining puppets, aerialists and circus techniques. It also demanded compelling visual imagery to create the Sahara Desert, a sunrise and [...]