June 22nd, 2012 eReflection Newsletter

Pioneering architect and lighting designer Jonathan Speirs, IALD, passed away at his home in Edinburgh, Scotland on the morning of 18 June 2012. Speirs retired from his day-to-day duties with Speirs + Major in late 2010, but continued to work on an informal basis with the practice until the end of 2011.

Friends and colleagues remember Speirs' inquisitive mind; he was a lifelong learner and a passionate proponent of the power of light and architecture. As his partner, Mark Major, IALD, said in a personal tribute to Speirs, "Anyone who ever met Jonathan would never forget him and wherever I go people always immediately not only ask after him but then go on to shower him with praise." 

Speirs' professional career was as remarkable as his personal traits. He won numerous awards for his work and was a member of many international design-build industry associations. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in 2010; conferred an honorary doctorate at Heriot Watt University; received the Lifetime Achievements Award at the Professional Lighting Design Recognition Awards; and was granted honorary membership to the International Association of Lighting Designers in 2011. Speirs + Major was recently named Lighting Design Practice of the Decade at the 10th Annual Lighting Design Awards, and Jonathan received 24 IALD International Lighting Design Awards, a number that includes three consecutive Radiance Awards for Excellence in Lighting Design for Speirs + Major from 2008-2010.

IALD president Kevin Theobald, IALD, said, "Jonathan was not only a brilliant lighting designer but one of life's rare gentlemen. He always found time to talk to anyone interested in lighting; through his work he has helped our profession gain visibility and respect, and he will be greatly missed."

Speirs is survived by his wife Liz, daughters Lucie and Erin, his sister, brothers and father. The family has advised that a celebration of Jonathan's life will be held at the Mansfield Traquair Centre on Tuesday, 26 June at 4:00 p.m. local time. No flowers, please. Donations welcome to the Edinburgh Cancer Centre, Western General Hospital.

REMEMBERING JONATHAN
The IALD community remembered Jonathan on its LinkedIn group, on Facebook, and on Twitter. Thomas Paterson, Associate IALD, began a discussion topic on LinkedIn announcing Jonathan's death, writing that he was "one of the very core of our profession." 

James Benya, FIALD, shared, "Jonathan was self-effacing, kind, complimentary and always the consummate professional gentleman. I admired his work and his impact on our profession immensely."

Randy Burkett, FIALD, wrote, "This is a deeply sad time for all of us who were touched by Jonathan. I knew Jonathan for many years and was honored to call him both friend and colleague. His contributions to our profession were immeasurable and, indeed, lasting."

On Facebook, Andrea Hartranft, IALD, said, "Jonathan was a dichotomy - truly great yet amazingly humble. He was a gentleman, and exemplified all that is good in our profession."

Lana Nathe, Associate IALD, wrote, "Every sunset will have a different meaning... as I'm sure he'll get his hands into it!"

Claudio Ramos, IALD, said, "Jonathan's contributions and dedication to the lighting design field were essential for the development of our profession and the IALD as a worldwide organization."

IALD staff created a Facebook photo album of photos of Jonathan at IALD events over the years. If you have photos or memories to share of Jonathan, please send them to Jennifer Jones at jennifer@iald.org.

Mark Major, IALD, wrote a touching personal tribute to Jonathan on the Speirs + Major blog on Monday, 18 June. 

News outlets all over the world have run tributes and obituaries of Jonathan, including:

• Architects' Journal
• Architectural Lighting
• Building + Design Online
• L&SI Online
• Lighting
• Scotsman.com
  

Are you a member of the IALD's LinkedIn group? LinkedIn is a popular international social networking site designed to allow professionals and their colleagues to network instantaneously. Use the IALD LinkedIn group to connect with your lighting peers worldwide, or to join and start discussions about working with light.

This month, IALD members are discussing several topics, most notably the use of building information management (BIM) in lighting design projects.

Melvyn Law, Associate IALD, of WSP Ng in Singapore, wrote a post asking the group to share their experiences implementing lighting design with BIM. He wrote, "It seems that most of the European manufacturers are not providing plugins for Revit. Only a handful of American manufacturers have the data. How will it affect us lighting designers?"

Scott Hershman, LIRC Co-Chair and Vice President at Specialty Lighting Industries, shared that more firms are working in Revit and many students now graduate with a proficiency in the software. He wrote:

"Although it may require more upfront time, BIM can generate complete specification documentation which is totally coordinated. So why is it that few manufacturers have taken it on board? From this small manufacturer's perspective, it is the tender process that gives us pause. [...]

The question for design firms is how do you ensure that the product that your coordination issues are based on is the same project that is supplied to the job? If you are listing multiple suppliers are you also creating BIM documents for each product? Who is responsible for updating the BIM documents to reflect the supplied products?"

Jenn Doran, Associate IALD, of Lighting Design Alliance, explained much of her experiences with BIM, sharing, "I have worked on about a dozen BIM projects as a lighting designer so far and I have found that, with BIM, it is crucial to ask certain questions and ask them early." Her detailed post discusses time-saving advantages to BIM, but also some of the process that were more efficiently done in CAD documents. She also gave some detailed explanations about utilizing BIM in clash detection/coordination situations or for visualization purposes. Overall, she emphasized an importance that everyone on the design team understand BIM's functions, advantages and disadvantages before any work is done.

CJ Brockway, Associate IALD, of NBBJ, shared some of her thoughts on utilizing Revit: 

"Our architectural parent firm has been using Revit for the last four years or so. We created our own database of generic families (a time-consuming process, but worth it in the long run), indicating overall size of the fixture without much detail to bog down processing speed. We found that our families needed 2D symbology as part of each family to show information for both the architectural RCPs/plans and the electrical lighting sheets." 

She also cautioned that Revit currently doesn't allow for circuiting to a link, meaning that engineers on lighting design projects must either re-draw or "Copy/Monitor" your lighting content. 

This discussion is ongoing. Have something to add? Sign in to LinkedIn today! Participation in the LinkedIn group is limited to IALD and LIRC members only.

The Enlighten Americas 2012 conference theme SPEAKING OF LIGHT reflects a need for the architectural lighting design community to refocus on important discussions on the evolving nature of the art and science of architectural lighting design. No matter where we are from or where our design practices may be located, we all speak the same language when we speak of light.

The sessions at IALD Enlighten Americas 2012 have been selected and curated to bring attendees together to speak about light. In order to make the most of your time away from the office, the conference is designed to leverage the knowledge of attendees through new networking and educational opportunities. We know the most valuable resource on a particular subject may be the person sitting next to you in a session or at lunch. In order to capitalize on the breadth and depth of knowledge of its conference attendees, the IALD has redesigned several programs to allow for additional and enhanced knowledge-sharing opportunities.

REGISTER TODAY for Enlighten Americas 2012, on 11-13 October 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver in Vancouver, BC Canada.

Hotel reservations at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver in Vancouver, BC Canada can also be secured online now! The Hyatt Regency Vancouver is the ideal starting point to explore everything this dynamic city has to offer. Freshly updated to reflect the excitement and vibrancy of the city, the downtown Hyatt is surrounded by the bustling business center and is moments from unique shops and engaging entertainment. The IALD hotel block for Enlighten Americas almost always sells out weeks before the conference, so if you're planning to attend, reserve your rooms today!

The LIRC is proud to bring the Emerging Lighting Design Professionals Initiative back for its second year. The program seeks to financially support designers within their first five years of on-the-job practice to attend IALD Enlighten Americas. 

HOW IT WORKS

The Emerging Lighting Design Professionals Initiative opened to applicants on 4 June 2012. Applicants will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. To ensure the greatest possible participation in this initiative, the first two applicants per lighting design firm will be accepted; subsequent designers from the same firm will be added to a waitlist and may be supported at a later date if funds are made available.

HOW TO QUALIFY FOR THE PROGRAM

To qualify to receive aid from the Emerging Lighting Design Professionals Initiative, applicants must be:

• Within their first five years of professional, on-the-job practice as an architectural lighting designer
• A Design or Associate member of the IALD [or have membership pending review at the time of application to this initiative]
• A first-time full conference IALD Enlighten Americas attendee [if an applicant attended IALD Enlighten Americas in the past as a student, they ARE eligible to participate]

Interested and qualified emerging lighting designers can apply to the program by submitting a completed APPLICANT FORM. 

EACH EMERGING LIGHTING DESIGNER WILL RECEIVE:

• One full conference registration to IALD Enlighten Americas 2012 [up to a $650 USD value]
• A $400 USD allowance to offset travel expenses [equivalent to two room nights at the conference headquarters hotel]
• One ticket to the Emerging Lighting Design Professionals reception
• Recognition at the conference as an Emerging Lighting Design Professional

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROGRAM 

Participate in the Emerging Lighting Design Professionals Initiative by contributing a set amount in increments of $2,550 USD. 

For your support, you will:

• Enable the participation of Emerging Lighting Design Professionals at IALD Enlighten Americas 2012 in Vancouver, BC Canada.
• Receive on-site recognition on signage and in rotating slides at IALD Enlighten Americas 2012 for your level of support.
• Receive one ticket per designer you sponsor to the invitation-only Emerging Lighting Design Professionals Networking Reception, allowing you to mix and mingle with all of the emerging designers supported by this initiative. For example, if a company sponsors 3 designers, they will receive 3 tickets to this event.

 
To participate by contributing funds, fill out the EMERGING LIGHTING DESIGNER SPONSORSHIP FORM and submit as instructed.

For questions about the program, email Kelly Ashmore at kelly@iald.org.

Hugh Joseph Ogus, Chairman of the Lighting Education Trust, was named a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen's Birthday 2012 Honours List, announced on Saturday, 16 June 2012. Honours are bestowed by the Queen at new year and on her official birthday in June, and are used to recognize personal bravery or service to the United Kingdom. The MBE is typically the honour bestowed for services to charity, education or a profession, and the selection process is quite long and thorough.

Hugh's award recognizes his work in education through the Mary Hare School for the Deaf in Newbury, UK and the Lighting Education Trust. The LET is a charitable organization designed to "encourage, oversee and [...] assist in the funding of education in lighting." Established in 1995, the LET originally formed to maintain industry support for the acclaimed Light and Lighting M.Sc. programme at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. The LET has been very successful in its aim of maintaining and enhancing that programme, which remains a crown jewel of the lighting design educational community. In recent years, LET has also developed a distance learning program called the LET Diploma, which seeks to bring quality lighting education to interested building and design professionals worldwide.

Mr. Ogus has been personally involved with the Lighting Education Trust since its founding. Kevin Theobald, IALD president, said, "Hugh's tireless work in support to education in lighting is rightly recognized with the presentation of this award."

For more information on the LET, click here.

By James Brodrick, U.S. Department of Energy 

If you attended LIGHTFAIR International in Las Vegas, NV USA this May, you couldn't fail to notice that nearly every product on display involved LEDs - and that quite a few of them could hold their own against their conventional counterparts. Although it was little more than an intriguing novelty only a few years ago, solid-state lighting (SSL) has made tremendous progress and manufacturers are starting to refine and fine-tune it. But there are still many issues to be resolved that require careful consideration from lighting designers, specifiers and buyers looking for the best solution for a given application.

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) seventh annual SSL Market Introduction Workshop will be held 17-19 July in Pittsburgh, PA USA. Attending the workshop can help you sort through the ever-changing profusion of LED lighting products, identify the major issues and trends, and explore ways to educate your clients.

Judging by its title, you might get the impression that the Market Introduction workshop is intended primarily for manufacturers, but nothing could be further from the truth. It's actually aimed at a much broader audience, of which lighting designers, specifiers and energy efficiency program managers comprise a key segment - which is why the panels, discussions and activities are always chosen with them in mind.

For example, this year's workshop will include a look at dimming. Many LED lighting products are touted as dimmable, yet their in-the-field performance often doesn't match those claims. The Pittsburgh workshop will feature a hands-on exhibit of LED lighting products hooked up to dimmers, as well as a chance to discuss the subject with experts from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory - not to mention the manufacturers themselves, whose accessibility at these workshops affords a rare opportunity not only to lighting designers and specifiers, but also to the retailers and utilities in attendance.

Two additional SSL hot topics will also be explored in hands-on fashion at the workshop: color quality and replacement lamp equivalency. Observers will be able to compare and contrast various LED and conventional light sources, all of which will have the same CCT but will exhibit various light quality characteristics. And they'll get to experience firsthand how those LED products don't necessarily produce the same distribution of light, even though equivalency statements for LED lighting products often imply that they can be swapped on a one-for-one basis with their conventional counterparts.

There'll be lots of other SSL topics covered at the Pittsburgh workshop, such as cost-effectiveness, reliability and lifetime, and how customers at lighting showrooms select LED products - as well as candid comments from several electrical contractors on the challenges encountered with installations, and a preview of a study that will be looking at commercial ambient LED lighting solutions.

DOE's SSL Market Introduction Workshop is a unique venue where you can network and interact with a wide cross section of players. The workshop itself runs from 18-19 July, and is preceded by a half-day of optional tutorials on 17 July. Portions of the workshop and tutorials will be eligible for IES continuing education credits.

The Pittsburgh workshop provides a way to keep abreast of a technology that was once hailed as the "lighting of the future" but is well on its way to becoming the lighting of today. I hope to see many of you there. 

For more information, or to register, please visit www.ssl.energy.gov/pittsburgh2012.html.

Cooper Lighting has announced a call for entries for its 36th Annual SOURCE Awards national lighting design competition. The competition, which focuses on furthering the understanding, knowledge and function of lighting as a primary element in design, is open to all lighting designers, architects, engineers, professional designers and consultants who use Cooper Lighting fixtures in an interior or exterior design project. Students currently enrolled in any of these disciplines are also eligible to enter projects based on conceptual lighting designs utilizing Cooper Lighting fixtures, and are judged in a separate student category. This year's competition will once again seek a creative use of fixtures providing energy-efficient design solutions in addition to standard projects.

The competition requires the primary and predominant use of any or all of the Cooper Lighting brands, which include Halo, Halo Commercial, Metalux, Portfolio, Neo-Ray, Corelite, Sure-Lites, Lumark, McGraw-Edison, Fail-Safe, Lumiere, Shaper, IRiS, AMetrix, RSA, io, Invue, MWS and Streetworks.

Entries must be postmarked on or before 31 January 2013. Winners will be announced in April 2013.

To download a complete list of rules, CLICK HERE or email TalkToUs@CooperIndustries.com.

 On 29 May, IALD Australia celebrated light at the Vivid Sydney festival. The festival, which took over Sydney at night-time from the end of May to mid-June, transformed the city into a canvas of light, music and ideas.

Generously hosted by lighting company XENIAN, over 40 people - IALD members, nonmember lighting designers and friends - gathered at the Opera Bar, located next to the iconic Opera House at the Sydney Harbour. The group then took a stroll through the displayed light sculptures, accompanied by "milk crate talks" by some of the artists in front of their work.

It was a lovely evening out that brought together light enthusiasts ranging from lighting designers to students, educators, architects and artists. For more information about IALD Australia events, email Mirjam Roos, Associate IALD, at mirjam.roos@steensenvarming.com.au.

As LED downlights rapidly become a viable design alternative, it can be difficult to know which products to specify. Join IALD Southern California on 18 July 2012 for a Pecha Kucha-style presentation and side-by-side review of multiple manufacturers. With a reception at 6:30 p.m. and an official start of 7:00 p.m., this event will feature free admission, with food and drinks provided, and will be located at the Lighting Design Alliance office on 2830 Temple Ave, Long Beach CA USA.

Please RSVP by 13 July 2012 to Archit Jain, IALD at ajain@oculuslightstudio.com or Bryan Klammer, Associate IALD at bklammer@lightingdesignalliance.com.

This event would not be possible without the support of the following sponsors:

California Lighting Sales

Doug White Associates

David Silverman and Associates

Light

LightBuildDesign

Performance Lighting Systems

Philips Lightolier

Prudential Lighting

SCI Lighting Solutions

Total Lighting Concepts