Today and Tomorrow
Nearly 500 lighting professionals and guests flocked to the historic Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles for the glitzy 2018 Lumen West Awards gala on June 23, 2018. The program, hosted by the Illuminating Engineering Society Los Angeles Section (IESLA), celebrated excellence in lighting design today and encouraged the next generation of lighting designers with a record-breaking $36,000 in scholarships awarded. In addition, individuals and firms were recognized for their service to IESLA and the local lighting community.
IESLA Section President and Lumen West Awards Chair Sylvie Tabori, of Current Light, appreciated the time and expertise contributed by the 2018 Lumen West Awards judges: Anjan Sarkar of CD+M Lighting Design Group; Cy Eaton of Lumenetix, Inc.; Dave Young of ETC; Heith Rogers of Google; Kathryn Toth of Theia Lighting Design; Ken Downing of Luceplan; and Terry Charron of Current Light. All the lighting designers recognized also entered into international consideration as part of the IES Illumination Awards program, according to IESLA Illumination Awards Chair David Komonosky of Performance Lighting Systems. Recipients of the 2018 IES Orange County Section Illumination Awards, and their fine lighting design work, were included in the celebrations.
Attendees socialized, enjoyed splashy photo ops, dined, and danced the night away to The Luminations, an excellent cover band. IESLA appreciates the hospitality of the evening’s many sponsors, calling out Diamond Sponsors Performance Lighting Systems, Western Lighting & Energy Control, and Optic Arts, in particular. “Lumen West is the LA lighting industry’s biggest night of the year,” said Tabori. “I’m thrilled that proceeds from this fun-filled event go toward fostering a love of lighting, and the lighting community, in young students and emerging professionals.”

for George Bush International Airport United Terminal C North Concourse

for Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center

with Joost Wijgers of Light-H-Art
for Jameson Distillery Bow Street – Tasting and Tour

for Retail Design Collaborative – Studio 111 Urban Office

and Chip Israel, Andrew Powell, and Arex Soontharuch of Lighting Design Alliance
for Wilshire Grand Center
- Lisa Passamonte Green, Steven Young, and Leigh Brown of Visual Terrain for Akin Gump Los Angeles
- Archit Jain, Sarah Wang, and Scott Hatton of Oculus Light Studio for AT&T San Francisco Flagship
- Erin Erdman and Landon Roberts of eSquared Lighting Design for Burbank Connexion
- Scott Johnson of Brilliant Lighting Studio, and Nicole Rossetti and Luis Cruz of Wolcott Architecture for Fandango
- Lisa Passamonte Green and Kate Furst of Visual Terrain for Hahn Visitor Center
- Lisa Passamonte Green, Kate Furst, and Leigh Brown of Visual Terrain for Jameson Distillery Bow St. – Bar and Retail
- Lisa Passamonte Green and Steven Young of Visual Terrain, and John Jenkinson of Bandit Lites for NFL Game for Life
- Tina Aghassian, Michael Lindsey, and Maura Reinhart of HLB Lighting Design for Nickelodeon West Coast Headquarters
- Erin Erdman and Landon Roberts of eSquared Lighting Design for Paul Hastings Law Firm Los Angeles
- Erin Erdman and Landon Roberts of eSquared Lighting Design, and Tom Myers of Rios Clemente Hale Studios for Rios Clementi Hale Studios Office
- Archit Jain, Chao-Wei Su, and Scott Hatton of Oculus Light Studio, for Retail Design Collaborative – Studio 111 Urban Office
- Michael Lindsey, Teal Brogden, Meghan Howell, Maura Reinhart, and Hayden McKay of HLB Lighting Design, and Jonathan Gettler of Design Engineering for University of Iowa Voxman Music Building
- Tina Aghassian, Azusa Yabe, and Jordan Hornback of HLB Lighting Design for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Plaza Level Healing Garden
- Sean O’Connor, David Hahn, and Becky Yam of Sean O’Connor Lighting for Congregation Rodeph Shalom
- Scott Hatton, Spurthy Yogananda, and Archit Jain of Oculus Light Studio for Parasol Park
- Lisa Passamonte Green, Michael Mahlum, Steven Young, Kate Furst, Ken Daniel, Leigh Brown, Jonathan Lebovic, Wendy Thomas, Mallory Paddock, and Jeff De Lamotte of Visual Terrain for Universal’s Volcano Bay
- Adam Levine of HLB Lighting Design Inc.
- Kandyce Allamby of Louis Poulsen
- Kate Furst of Visual Terrain
- Rachael Stoner of exp Global
- Sylvie Tabori of Current Light
- Terry Charron of Current Light
- $8,000 to Kenya Collins of the University of Southern California for “Sprout”
- $5,000 to Benjamin Lin of the University of Southern California for “Swirl”
- $4,000 to Fan Wu of the University of Southern California for “To Infinity and Beyond”
- Cynthia Liang, undergraduate at University of Southern California School of Architecture
- Shuyi Wu, graduate student at the University of Southern California School of Architecture
Congrats to our colleagues at Lighting Design Alliance and StandardVision who caught an Award of Excellence at the IES Illumination Awards. Wilshire Grand is an icon for the millennium.
And check out the IES Orange projects from LDA, Studio K1, Michael Wall Engineering, LPA, and Fox and Fox: http://iesorange.org/awards/ies-illumination-awards/. Stunning work!