The outstanding work being produced by lighting designers today is in full evidence in the 12 winning projects being recognized by the 2015 AL Light & Architecture Design Awards. This year’s winners—a public park, a subway line, a synagogue, a school, a theater, an outdoor dining spot, a conference center, a building lobby, a restaurant, an international pavilion, a museum period-room, and a branding/wayfinding scheme—were selected from a pool of more than 100 projects from around the world. The variety in the winners’ aesthetic responses and technical solutions is distinct, made all the more impressive since each project is so different in its programmatic mission. Each one provides an artful arrangement of illumination strategies that reflects the knowledge and deft lighting mastery of their lighting designers. Even in the extreme varying degrees of scale of each project, all 12 succeed in creating a unique moment of transition that helps us to navigate through our everyday activities. Once again, lighting proves the invaluable link to our built environment and serves as the tool to best decipher our visual world. 

To see all of the other winners of the 2015 AL Light & Architecture Design Awards, click here.

Jury

Eli Meir Kaplan

Alina Ainza, Founder and Partner 
Loop Lighting, New York
LEED AP, IES

Ainza is a founding partner of Loop Lighting, an architectural lighting firm whose multidisciplinary approach aims to thoughtfully craft lighting solutions using today’s technology. Ainza studied Fine Arts at Maryland Institute College of Art and Interior Design at the University of Florida. During her 15-year career in New York she has been a senior designer at SBLD Studio where she worked on such notable projects as Tishman Speyer’s headquarters in Rockefeller Center and General Dynamics’ headquarters in Falls Church, Va. Ainza’s work has been recognized by the Illuminating Engineering Society with three Lumen Awards.

Eli Meir Kaplan

Michael A. Barber, Principal 
The Lighting Practice, Philadelphia
LEED AP BD+C, ASSOCIATE IALD

Barber joined the Lighting Practice in 1995 and became a principal in 2004. He designs lighting for healthcare, academic, corporate, and retail environments, and acts as the firm’s sustainable design coordinator, working with designers to maximize their vision while being mindful of environmental considerations. He has served on the International Association of Lighting Designer’s Energy and Sustainability Committee. He is also an assistant adjunct professor in the architecture department at Drexel University and has lectured in the sustainable design program at Philadelphia University.

Eli Meir Kaplan

Enrique Peiniger, Principal 
Office for Visual Interaction, New York
DIPL.-ING., ASSOC. AIA, IALD, MIES

Trained in architectural engineering and social sciences, Peiniger sees his work in lighting as a technical extension of architecture. He has worked on such notable projects as New York City’s LED Streetlight and the Canadian Parliament, West Block Building, in Ottowa. He has lectured and taught at lighting industry events and lighting programs worldwide. The firm has received a number of lighting awards including the IES Lumen Award of Excellence and the IALD Award of Excellence, and in 2010, the firm’s work was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin.

Eli Meir Kaplan

Melanie Taylor, Vice President Lighting Design 
WSP, New York
LEED BD+C, IALD

Taylor heads the architectural lighting design studio in her firm’s New York office, bringing with her more than 20 years of experience. Integrated lighting is the key to revealing client aspirations and content-rich architecture, and she has applied this belief to a wide variety of projects that include airports, corporate headquarters, and healthcare environments. She has won multiple International Interior Design Awards for lighting, has been an instructor at the Art Institute of Seattle, and is a steering committee member and judge for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Next Generation Luminaires Competition.