Published Benicia Herald June 23, 2010

confessions of a lighting junky

It has happened that I’ll be at a party at someone’s home and notice that they’re not taking full advantage of their lighting scheme, so I’ll take the liberty of adjusting some of the light switches to bring up some accent lights on this wall or that. I should mention that I only do this every once in a while (so I don’t seem like too much of a weirdo) and usually only at the homes of former clients whose lighting scheme I helped design with them. Two seconds effort sliding a dimmer switch and suddenly artwork comes to life and the room is now a richer place.

I guess I dig lighting. Big effects can be had for not big money. Parties that I host at my own house are usually pretty average when it comes to food and drink, but you can be quite sure that I’ll have pretty decent music on at just the right volume and, of course, mood lighting will be doing its thing.

In my dorm room at UCLA I remember changing out the bland institutional light fixture at the center of my dorm room for a chandelier that my roomie and I had found at a salvage place (complete with “tear drop” bulbs and beveled glass accents. Fairly kitschy, but all the more fun.) I used a screwdriver and needle-nose pliers to change the light-switch to a dimmer while the wires were hot. (It simply wouldn’t do to tell the building manager what we were up to. “Please sir, could you shut off the power to the seventh floor for just a little bit so I can mess around with the wiring?”) It made for two or three zappy moments for me, but the end result was worth it. My roomie Stuart dubbed our room “The Last Bastion of Chivalry and Fine Living.” I still sort of miss that guy.

In grad school I once again put my lighting hypersensitivity to good use.

We architecture students were divided into six different groups who then spent many weeks designing a project together that would then be presented using a slide show and some printed material. The panel of professors would need to look at this printed info periodically during the slide show. Because the classroom had no windows, the lighting in the room needed to be dim enough so the slides were visible but bright enough to allow the written material to be read.

My group was going to present our scheme on one of the last days, so I got to watch group after group go on before us and never get the lighting right. Each group either had the room lights on (which made it too bright to view the slides very well) or they had the lights off (which made it necessary for the professors to try and read the handout using only the dim light bouncing off the wall from the slides.) Months of hard work had gone into these projects and they were not even being fully seen at the critical moment. I guess it didn’t occur to anyone in these first groups to try to solve this problem.

That blew me away. These were students of architecture who were supposed to take the lead in finding solutions to make buildings more livable, yet were so clueless as to not even notice or care about the reality of what was happening in front of them.

The evening before my group was to present, I visited the room and took two minutes to jump up on a desk and aim a row of four or five small spotlights away from the front of the room to instead bounce off the back wall. (These were small fixtures designed to be aimed about as needed.) By switching on only these spotlights the result was perfect – a dim wall in front that would allow our slides to show perfectly, and a light source glowing from the back of the classroom that would give just enough light to let the professors comfortably read our written material.

And that’s how it went down. We had a good scheme and it showed great. We got great comments and were awarded a grade of “A plus.” (In the interest of full disclosure: “A plus” is really not all that hard to get in grad school.)

I’m not even sure if anybody overtly noticed the change in lighting I had created for our presentation, or if they remained as blithely indifferent to such nuance as always. Indeed, the group that presented after us ended up showing their scheme with all the lights on and their slides all bleached out. I think that pretty much says it all.

Current Edition:
June 23, 2010 - Confessions of a Lighting Junky

Archive:
2010
May 25, 2010 - A Day in the Life of the Architecture Student
May 4, 2010 - Job Site Tips I Learned the Hard Way
March 25, 2010 - More Than Just a Pretty Picture
February 18, 2010 - A Benicia Sense of Place
January 27, 2010 - Aging in place

2009
December 24, 2009 - Why we travel: the hidden Puerto Vallarta is there for the taking
December 1, 2009 - Paradise stolen: greed and redemption on the Mayan Riviera
October 25, 2009 - The new rules for downtown
September 20, 2009 - Ongoing adventures in city life
August 23, 2009 - How to almost miss out on architecture school
August 2, 2009 - Visiting Italy in the movies
June 26, 2009 - Secret weapons of design
May 24, 2009 - Germany, the war, and why we like life in Benicia
April 23, 2009 - A hundred and sixty years in Benicia
March 12, 2009 - On dream houses in Mexico and life lessons
February 15, 2009 - Building a House in Mexico - the Reality
January 15, 2009 - Phil Joy's house move enters the home stretch

2008
May 30, 2008 - On turning fifty, crescent moons, and Frank Lloyd Wright
April 22, 2008 - Building green, getting real
March 27, 2008 - Benicia versus the country club
February 27, 2008 - Stone arches totally rock
January 23, 2008 - These are a few of your favorite things
January 6, 2008 - Another vintage house is delivered to Benicia

2007
December 16, 2007 - How First Street keeps us together
November 22, 2007 - You, the tile shop, the decision
October 23, 2007 - A Benician in New York
September 19, 2007 - Figuring out how much your building project will cost
August 21, 2007 - Why we travel: The city of Prague is a marvel – who knew?
July 22, 2007 - The “it” moment with my new house
June 20, 2007 - Dreamhouse for rent
May 20, 2007 - Artist Open Studios Reveal Creative Undercurrent Alive in Benicia
March 2, 2007 - Haiku Moments and Performance Art in the Comfort of Your Own Home
April 22, 2007 - Once in a Lifetime Adventure: Say Yes
January 28, 2007 - Countertops: We Live in a Stone Age

2006
December 31, 2006 - The Day the Thompson-Joy House Came to Town
December 3, 2006 - The Revenge of Unpaid Carpenters (And Other True Stories)
October 29, 2006 - A House Move for the Ages
September 24, 2006 - My Best Five Seconds at Design School
August 17, 2006 - Getting Bids: "The Rules"
July 23, 2006 - Benicia's Growth Rings
June 18, 2006 - The Well-considered Window Seat
May 14, 2006 - Hearst Castle - Residential Design Mind Blower
April 16, 2006 - San Francisco April 1906: Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times
March 17, 2006 - Dog Handling at the Ititarod
February 12, 2006 - Your House's Defense Against Rising Energy Costs
January 8 , 2006 - Not Your Father's Living Room

2005
December 12, 2005 - The Best Design Book Ever
September 23, 2005 - Further Adventures in the Eternal city
August 28, 2005 - Lessons from Rome
July 31, 2005 - Roadside at the Tour de France
June 9, 2005 - My Accidental Getaway Room
May 8, 2005 - Lighting Basics: It's the layers
April 10, 2005 - Architecture School: The Reality
March 13, 2005 - Southampton Concrete Slab Floors: What's to Know
Jan. 30, 2005 - Some Basics to Know Before You Build

2004
Dec. 26, 2004 - News Flash: Good builders earn their money
Nov. 14, 2004 - The Wonderful Failure That is Benicia
Sept. 26, 2004 - Energy Laws and Your Building Project
August 14, 2004 - Architecture Goes to the Movies
July 11, 2004 - What's Really Up with a 2nd Floor Addition
May 30, 2004 - Home Design in Earthquake Country
May 2, 2004 - Sightlines Make a Huge Impact
April 11, 2004 - Meeting of the Minds in Your Design
March 21, 2004 - Welcome to the New Column