Designed to be the flagship workplace and pre-eminent venue for high-level client interactions, this 75,000 square foot tenant-improvement project for an international law firm reflects its enduring commitment to the stewardship of both their employees and their clients.

Centralized around an interconnecting open stair, the design relies on open circulation and transparency at the core of the 3 floors while respecting the intimate and private nature required of the private offices, which line the perimeter of the triangular floorplate. The interior design uses a refined palate of wood, stone, and plaster and the lighting responds, using a combination of warm- white LED sources (3000K) to provide a warm yet contemporary feel. Additional layers of light are provided by decorative lighting, which adds scale, texture, and liveliness to the space.

The client’s lighting program required high illuminance values for visual tasks including reading fine print; 40FC was required at workstations with 20FC requested at circulation areas to minimize contrast. These light levels were achieved while keeping the total connected lighting load below 0.7W/SF, exceeding Title 24 LPD requirements and contributing to the LEED initiatives of the project. All light fixtures are dimmed, and none operate at more than 80% for visual comfort. Daylighting is provided to more than 60% of the private workspaces and the use of daylight sensors, dimming and centralized controls means that actual lighting energy use is predicted to be less than half of the connected load.

Lighting at the feature stair was designed to emphasize the sculptural curved plaster walls and to establish a visual hierarchy to the dramatic 45’ open space. The stair is complimented by a double-height water feature dramatically illuminated from top and bottom, adding a dynamic, decorative sparkle; the vibe is both grand and user-friendly.

The Inn at the Mission hotel is a contemporary complement to its famous neighbor: The San Juan Capistrano Mission (est. 1776). The hotel’s ambiance, etched by rich golden hues emitted from period-inspired decorative fixtures and architectural lighting, is revealed with 100% LED technology manipulated to elicit a century’s-old storytelling experience of Spanish legacy, seasoned with modern-day conventions. Overlooking the ruins of the adjacent Great Stone Church, Inn at the Mission boasts enchanting 18th century lighting overtones, accented to appear antiquated but entwined with modern moments. In efforts to replicate the area’s indigenous culture and environment, past and present, the lighting was designed to influence an alluring and reverent candlelit atmosphere. The amenity and common areas are illuminated with a soft quality of light that is color corrected to 2400 Kelvin. This base level of lighting supports the warmer 2200 Kelvin decorative luminaires. This amber enriched quality of light, shared between the old-era chandeliers and sconces coupled with contemporary strokes of architectural lighting, transforms the interior into a grand residential living room experience. Event and flex spaces’ lighting reflect the mission-style theme; however, to ensure flexibility, the selected Kelvin temperatures shift slightly cooler to a typical 2700 Kelvin temperature to achieve ambient architectural lighting. The common denominator of 2200 Kelvin in the featured decorative luminaires unifies the overall expression of the hotel. To promote the Spanish colonial residential sensation, particular consideration was given to guest exclusive areas; accordingly, decorative luminaires became the primary instrument of color illumination and textured light for the guestrooms and corridors. Meeting the project budget allowance for lighting, and incorporating an integrated control system that exceeds the California Title 24 energy code by 10%, the Inn at the Mission’s majestic presence transports all visitors to a remarkable era of Spanish colonialism with Native American embodiment.

Luxury European fitness club John Reed redefines the gym experience with live DJ’s, luxurious interior décor, and choreographed lighting. Light defines the architecture and atmosphere within this renovation of an existing 33,000 sf underground parking structure, with no direct daylight.

Colorful, energy-efficient LED sources enhance the John Reed identity, deliver wayfinding, mood, and ambiance while providing task lighting for each activity space. Each room is carefully programmed to utilize the light from thematic elements to achieve appropriate task illuminance. State-of-the-art dmx controls allow RGBW color and dimming control by room with smartphone interface for staff. Variation in light color and intensity substitutes for the natural rhythm of sunlight.

Lighting design was challenged by existing conditions, including the lack of sunlight, exposed parking structure geometry, cost limitations, and compliance with California energy code. All design concepts were tested with detailed calculations and renderings to confirm the design concept, illuminance, and energy consumption.

The lighting design is tailored to each space to amplify the themed John Reed identity. Light patterns are a part of the project wayfinding to help orient the clients within an environment with no sunlight. Each corridor is identified with distinct lighting matched to the architecture. Integrated LED tape light within the millwork provides soft indirect light on wall surfaces to maintain comfortable contrast ratios. Surface-mounted 2700K LED downlights provide code egress circulation lighting.

DJ booth in Functional Training is the focal point below the structure ramp where the ceiling heights vary from less than 9 feet to 22 feet. The Cycling studio is defined by wall-to-ceiling RGBW color-changing linear lights that sync color changes to the music to amplify the energy and the experience of the workout.

This design defines the John Reed experience through the form, pattern, and color of light.

The long-awaited Hard Rock Tampa Casino expansion did not disappoint. This was part of a multi-billion-dollar expansion by the Seminole Tribe of Florida offering guests 200,000 square feet of entertainment and gaming.
The challenge was to create a space that was bright and dynamic to keep guests and the environment activated all day and night yet layered and moody. The casino atmosphere is enhanced with multiple focal points and features. The overall lighting design played a large role in creating this experience.

In collaboration with designers, architects, fabricators and millworkers, lighting was integrated into architecture, feature ceilings, one of a kind decorative elements and custom millwork focal points. All lighting elements are controlled through a centralized dimming system and programmed to create a space that no guest would want to leave.

For this aquarium project located in a historic train station, guests travel from the grand hall, to river exhibits, to the ocean surface and into the depths. The lighting design brings this journey to life, transitioning from warm colors mimicking dappled sunlight over river exhibits, to cool colors at the ocean tanks, where bluer tones evoke the feel of being deep in the ocean.

The design goal was to make the tanks feel natural and expansive; a challenge with an existing structure limiting mounting locations and tank sizes, and a limited budget. The guest experience needed to be immersive without reflections in the tank glass or visibility to the fixtures above which is challenging when the tanks have view windows on all sides.

Early mockups showed that beyond a few feet deep, 2700K appears yellow, 5000K made the water look green, and 14,000K mimicked shafts of sunlight. A combination of the cooler CCTs with high CRI was used to differentiate ocean from river exhibits, creating natural-looking layered compositions with a vibrant rendering of the animals’ colors.

Guest circulation between exhibits is purposefully dim to feature glowing tanks. Aiming angles of tracklights were carefully studied to ensure graphics and signage are softly illuminated without reflections. Low levels of ambient light allow for safe navigation and can be brightened for housekeeping or emergency.

Lighting controls provide naturalistic day-night cycles with gradual transitions to avoid sudden disruptive light level changes that negatively impact animal health. A timeclock sequences the programmed scenes for simple operation.

All LED fixtures are under code allowed wattage. To meet the very restricted budget, multiple rounds of value-engineering ensured the lighting stayed within budget. The lighting, working together with the controls, creates an unforgettable experiential journey for guests, immersing them in an environment evoking wonder and delight.

Sophisticated architectural lighting and controls create dynamic effects to promote a connection with the outdoors and the larger campus community through color, hue, and motion.

This standout addition to the university campus is representative of the school’s commitment to the next generation of computing innovation, as evidenced by its namesake and cutting-edge design. The center is both a vehicle for the advancement of technology and a celebration of human achievement.

Visitors are greeted with a flood of daylight in the main atrium, courtesy of a large skylight that covers half of the ceiling. Tunable white uplights extend this experience to the remaining expanse of the atrium ceiling (where a roof level conference space prevented further extension of the skylight), subtly changing throughout the day to replicate the cyclical daylight conditions. Rotating displays of artwork are illuminated via clamp-mounted POE (power over ethernet) accent lights that can be easily moved and adjusted along the technical cable trays that ring the atrium, as exhibits change. Color changing light grazes the walls of the below-grade classroom lobby and auditorium pre-function space, interjecting a dynamic expression of school colors in an area that is most remote from natural light. This playful color is also expressed at the elevator door surrounds, a visual cue that repeats on every level of the building. These features can be tuned to custom colors that support the array of special events hosted at this campus hub. At the grand stair, lights subtly pulse in a nod to the information highway of students circulating through the building and campus beyond.

Respectful of budget, energy code, and maintenance – classrooms, offices and labs utilize a simple cost-effective direct/indirect luminaire that comprises 80% of the project, enabling the specialty and gathering spaces to have so much fun!

Challenged from the beginning to meet to the precision of the client’s updated branding, the lighting at Yext’s new Virginia office space features simple, elegant forms with efficiency and placement carefully calculated to craft a unified design with bold gestures.

Facing low slab heights, a unique hexagonal floorplate causing complex MEP coordination, a demand for visually comfortable workspaces, and the opportunity to capture the essence of the client’s values in lighting, the design coalesced into a simple core concept – the economy of light. The two forms, line and circle, were drawn from the client’s logo and then translated into a waste-not design that capitalized on striking simplicity.

While spaces like elevator lobbies and the all-hands space see bold lighting visuals, the general circulation areas feature unique low glare lighting solutions and precision light level calculations to keep the eye focused on the environment crafted architecturally and not distracting ceiling elements. The same applies to the enclosed team office spaces, where rectilinear lighting supports a clear visual aesthetic prescribed by the architecture but functionally boasts an incredibly uniform field of light with ample lighting on both vertical and horizontal task planes while keeping glare at a minimum.

As requested by the end-user, control was made more readily accessible via a networked lighting control system with remote and local access. While capitalizing on daylighting zones to reduce energy consumption, the lighting control system also allows any user to uniformly dim a space to the occupant’s preference.

This project boasts bold sweeping gestures, plays with scale, visually comfortable lighting solutions in work areas, and most notably, expresses the importance of precision and efficiency to the client as they help others find the perfect answers.

Located at the Yokohama port city, Yokohama Baycourt – a Luxury Membership Club, juxtaposed to a shared facility, the luxurious Kahala Hotel, adds to the skyline of Minato Mirai waterfront. The Baycourt follows the Nuo Deco style – a modern interpretation of Art Deco, while the Kahala is of contemporary style.
The lighting concept for the Baycourt club had to be more detail oriented, and built-in to embellish the Art-Deco elements of the space, while the ‘origami’ geometric ceilings in the areas of the Kahala hotel called for a back-lit approach. The challenge was that the distinct architecture-interior style of both sections of the property demanded a distinct lighting style. More like – one team wearing two different design hats, and dealing with the hardships in understanding drawings that were in the Japanese language. After a few weeks of translating documents, we decided to include a Japanese designer to our team.

The owner’s directive – ‘Maintain visual connect with the outside,’ posed a lighting restraint as the window furnishings were kept to a minimum, and this resulted in the perimeter glass façade reflecting like a mirror at night. This pushed us to adapt an innovative approach – all illuminated planes to stay regressed above the ceiling plane, and selective implementation of dimmable vertical illumination. Vertical surfaces were lit sparingly with controlled intensity of the illumination. This dimming control strategy came in handy in most all spaces.

The use of energy was kept to a minimum to align with the energy, environmental and budget restrictions. Adequate illumination and contrast ratios of 5:1 were achieved using good cut-off, glare free fixtures and effective dimming strategy. Design mandate of using indigenous LED luminaires for ease of service helped reduce lead times and avoided delays during the pandemic phase.

The lighting design for this 11-acre mixed-use entertainment district weaves together a complex program of architectural, site, and landscape lighting resulting in an iconographic destination in one of the worlds most beloved cities. Located in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, the large project features 3.2 acres of plazas and public open space, multiple outdoor art installations, a retail and restaurant district, along with a world-class NBA arena; the centerpiece of the project.

The exterior design concept of the arena is inspired by the rich nautical history of the Bay area and the dynamic and flowing forms of the surrounding water. Linear lighting carefully integrated into the building façade provides a rich palate of color and motion, revealing the subtle layers of the building and anchoring it as the project’s focal point.

A series of outdoor spaces across multiple levels connect the arena to surrounding retail buildings, restaurants, performance and gathering areas as well as the streets. The lighting design is tasked with visually connecting the site to the many unique moments throughout. Lighting becomes an integral part of the guest experience; discreet yet impactful, offering tunable-white and color- changing scenarios. Landscape and circulation area lighting introduces layers of illumination at the pedestrian-scale and assist with wayfinding and placemaking.

A networked lighting control system spans across 8 buildings as well as the large site and allows the dynamic lighting capabilities of the arena façade, retail/restaurant areas, and the plazas to work together or separately as needed. This allows ownership the ability to tune the lighting quickly and easily to their specific needs across the entire site.

Sustainability was at the core of it all, with a lighting design that satiated LEED Gold requirements and met the cities comprehensive site trespass and sky-glow regulations, while also meeting IES recommended light levels.

A bridge is an energetic connection between places and between people. They are usually quite noticeable, because of their large scale, or prominence in the city. It usually takes you somewhere that would be difficult to reach otherwise. Your experience on a bridge, whether it be on foot or in a vehicle, can be very powerful, and this bridge conveys that power. In the city, a new 760-foot long pedestrian bridge was created to link the commercial and residential center to a new park development. The design of the bridge was to create “a white thread through the sewing needle”. The curving pedestrian walkway path is evenly illuminated with a warm white light, our thread. The pylon was designed to be the sculptural centerpiece of the bridge, as the design makes it appear that the bridge is floating through the “eye of the needle” with no additional structural support. This optical illusion of suspension over the river below is very powerful, both at the pedestrian experience, and when viewed from higher elevations. To help emphasis this visual of floating through the needle at night, lighting was carefully integrated into the bridge structure, so that the light effect is visible instead of the source. Lights with wide asymmetric optics where integrated into the side guardrails to create an evenly illuminated surface with a low contrast ratio. Linear striplights were coordinated into specially detailed niches in the concrete pylon structure, to have a wash of light just on the inner surface of the needle. Floodlights with custom detailed mounting brackets were integrated on the sides to illuminate the suspension cables. As an added layer, the accent lighting is RGBW color changing, so the city can create light scenes or shows keyed to holidays, sporting events, or convey significant information to the city.

This new STEM academy is a welcome addition to the existing Eleanor Roosevelt High School campus in Eastvale, California that serves 4,500 students. Situated on a condensed three-acre site, it provides access to a variety of student-centered outdoor spaces, that are as integral to this STEM curriculum as its interior studios. Students can flow directly from their flexible classrooms to exterior learning spaces, which are equipped with writable wall surfaces for outdoor instruction, as well as worktables and open space to allow for experiments and lab work. The exterior lighting design supports this program, with fixtures thoughtfully integrated into the architecture, flexibility achieved through multiple layers of light controlled independently to serve different activities, and enhancing visual comfort, by creating an interesting mixture of bright and dark spaces.

During an early morning aim and focus session, it was amazing to see the open-air amphitheater fill with students arriving well before their 7:30 a.m. classes, enjoying the space with friends, watching the sunrise and preparing for their day.

The project is a model of sustainability, utilizing energy efficient LEDs throughout and yields a lighting power density that beats California’s Title 24 by approximately 20 percent. To address maintenance, every effort was made to mount fixtures in easily accessible locations. All exterior fixtures are circuited/zoned per fixture type and controlled by a standard network lighting control system (photocell on/timeclock off), except for the floodlights in the campus quad, which may be manually overridden during special events. A color temperature of 3000K was selected to support this warm, inviting exterior educational environment where collaboration, learning and socialization takes place.

The distinctive parabolic architecture of Legacy Magnet Academy’s new K-12 campus is a nod to the historic, towering WWII Naval Air Station blimp hangars next door.

The design team was challenged to give these distinctive building a nighttime presence, as well as illuminating the large campus while exceeding Title 24 energy requirements.

The lighting design concept is to honor the site’s previous use as a military airfield while reinforcing the bold building forms by highlighting them. These design goals are achieved by concentrating the building illumination at the entry plazas, treating them as bright lanterns that invite you in, while defining the curved form. Uplighting is integrated at the base of these structures to highlight the building façade, the cantilevered roofline and freestanding tube steel arches. Area lighting is achieved with downlights inside the steel arches and nearby pedestrian poles.

The design started with a careful selection of luminaires and lumen packages. Extensive architectural coordination ensured that wall mount fixtures were centered in façade panels and between railing uprights. Structural coordination was required to install uplights adjacent to, or even inside the concrete footings, and downlights in the structural tube steel. Ongoing coordination with the contractors, sales representatives, and the lighting distributer ensured that the design concept remained intact through construction.

Site lighting was selected and located during design to maximize fixture performance while minimizing glare and light trespass into the night sky. T o simplify the installation, luminaire wattages and mounting heights were selected to eliminate the need for exterior occupancy sensors. Campus wide lighting is controlled by astrological timeclock controllers with curfew setback to lower light output while maintaining minimum security illumination. The final design is 30% below Title 24.

Tucked away in an idyllic coastal resort, a small 580sq.ft. boutique feels more like a glamorous and luxurious closet, reflective of the unique homes that it serves within its community. The retailer’s concept was to design “a place to spend time. You arrive, you take off your shoes, you’re at someone’s house, or you’re in your gigantic closet, and you can try everything.” The interior architecture, designed by a European interior designer, draws cues from the resort’s timeless and intimate style. Warmth from decorative fixtures sets the tone while concealed fixtures fill the space with a soft indirect glow, freeing the ceiling of any visible lighting equipment. A lighting control system lives in the cash wrap room, programmed with different lighting scenes.

At a glance, the architecture and design is minimalistic, yet the lighting layout is crafted with ample attention to detail in order to achieve IES recommended lighting levels while keeping energy usage below allowance from California’s energy codes. The retail footprint is so small that only 540 total watts were allotted to achieve 30fc at the floor and ≥50fc at each retail display. Working with mechanical and structural limitations, the team collaborated to design indirect ceiling coves and efficient positioning of fixtures for the greatest delivered output. This process, along with intentional placement of concealed continuous lighting along display walls, resulted in a fine-tuned lighting solution that used only 480 watts total. Future maintenance was an important consideration, so almost all fixtures are surface-mounted and easily accessible.

Project design schedule was extremely fast, clocking in at two months from original concept sketches to final construction documents and details. Design was kept to a strict budget at the client’s request to always save money.

Located in Northern India, Taj Rishikesh Resort sits nestled amid nature, at the foothills of the Himalayan range. Owner’s directive to all – converse energy, embellish the surrounding natural beauty, and maintain visual connect with the outdoors. The Himalayan range is home to many native birds and animals. Motivated by the moral obligation towards Mother Nature, we adhered to the Dark Sky norms and kept the façade and landscape lighting to a minimum. An inside-out lighting approach adopted for the façade gave it a ‘Glowing Lantern’ look.

Being a luxury resort, it was important that we create a guest experience, not only during the evening hours but also during the day. Natural-light ingress during the day made it extremely challenging for us to achieve the goal, especially with the Owner-imposed ban on use of window treatment, to always maintain a visual always with the outdoors. As a response, a layered lighting strategy was followed in all interior spaces, and consisted primarily of ceiling mounted decorative lighting to provide the overall warm glow in the space; wall, table and floor lamps to express and articulate the lighting at eye level; vertical illumination of textured walls, high-visual-value vertical surfaces cladded with design elements made by local artisans; horizontal illumination at ceiling from led lighting within the coves to give the ceilings a floating look. Vertical illuminance exaggerated the visual experience during the day, while the rest of the lighting layers came into play at dusk, and shaped the mood and drama in the space.

Use of indigenous, low-wattage LED luminaires made the process sustainable and cost-effective. Power consumption of less than .5 watts/ sq ft. and effective control strategy addressed the energy limitations and reduced operating costs.