Venturing beyond the stadium/arena experience Sports lighting has expanded beyond the confines of stadiums and fields, venturing into landscapes once deemed impossible to illuminate. Today, designers orchestrate light across environments as varied as the neon-saturated canyons of Las Vegas and the pristine, snow-draped slopes of Sundance in Utah. These projects demand a delicate balance where…

We readily accept that adult recreation deserves quality illumination. Municipal softball leagues play under lights, public volleyball courts in New York City stay bright until 11 p.m., and high school football games are typically played long after sunset. And just beyond those fences and fields, playgrounds stay dark. That made sense when families were eating…

The WNBA champs’ headquarters celebrates excellence through design With over 90,000 fans packing the stands during the 2024 WNBA finals, the Professional Women’s Hockey League expanding into two new cities in 2025, and the Women’s Pro Baseball League launching in 2026, the appetite for professional women’s sports has never been stronger. As the popularity of…

New and familiar voices weigh in on trends in the retail lighting market sector Roughly six years out from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that changed the way we work, socialize, learn, dine, and shop, LD+A is checking in again with experts on the state of the retail lighting industry and how it continues…

Retail ecosystems thrive at The Grand Outlet of East Jakarta Spanning more than 17,000 islands along the equator, Indonesia’s tropical climate features lush rainforests, coral-rich seas, and volcanic mountains. This abundance of natural light, color, and texture is so reflected in Indonesian daily life that when it came time to develop the country’s first outlet…

The interplay of warmth, texture, and color at the Clarke Quay mall The CQ @ Clarke Quay in Singapore isn’t your mother’s shopping center. Situated alongside the picturesque Singapore River, a historic site that dates back to the 1800s, the commercial center comprises several blocks of brick warehouses and multiple story shophouses hosting various eateries…

From broad strokes to subtle advances If you were in the lighting industry in the early 2000s, you lived through some significant changes including the 2008 recession and the industry-wide transformation brought upon by LEDs. This new light source delivered unprecedented efficiency and opened the door to new possibilities in form and function, and we…

Wireless controls elevate hospitality experiences The luxury hospitality market is experiencing unprecedented growth, with projections showing it will reach nearly $370 billion by 2032.1 Whether designers are upgrading a beloved five-star destination or constructing a new property from the ground up, today’s hospitality projects demand solutions that deliver cutting-edge guest experiences while respecting architectural constraints,…

Examining the complexities of hospitality megaproject design There are unique complications that come with designing hospitality megaproj­ects, specifically those relating to the design of integrated resorts. These are projects with square-footages measured in the millions, budgets in the billions, and design/construction schedules that can last for half a decade or more. For example, design work…

Crafting a magical design journey through Hobbiton When visitors step from their tourist coaches onto the rolling hills of Hobbiton in Matamata, New Zealand, they enter a land that has lived in the collective imagination of millions since J.R.R. Tolkien first described The Shire. Originally a temporary film set for The Lord of the Rings…

Beginning in the summer before my final year at Oregon State University (OSU), I decided to start an IES Student Chapter, as our university had never had one before. This began one day as just an idea, heavily inspired by my manager at the time, Chip Israel, CEO and founder of Lighting Design Alliance, who…

Recruitment Faux Pas: When hiring turns into self-sabotage In LD+A, July 2025, I wrote about the tides shifting toward a more balanced job market; course correcting from the hyper candidate-driven landscape that followed the pandemic. At the time, it appeared that both employers and candidates were finally meeting in the middle. Unfortunately, the pendulum now…

An office for fun, innovation, and community In the heart of downtown Vancouver, Canada, the rapidly expanding mobile entertainment company Kabam sought to create an office environment that was as dynamic and engaging as its flagship games. The design brief was clear: craft a bespoke, adaptable, and intuitive lighting control system that could elevate the…

Music listening experiences can be strongly influenced by the surrounding environment. A recent study conducted by researchers at Arizona State University and the California Lighting Technology Center at the University of California, Davis, investigated how indoor lighting conditions influence music listening satisfaction. The study aimed to examine how different lighting environments affect music perception, as…

The AO Arena in Manchester, England, one of Europe’s biggest music venues since the mid-1990s, featuring Pop headliners like Lorde and Katy Perry in 2025, underwent significant redevelopment to offer a greater number of music fans a more dynamic experience. The venue now includes standing room for an additional 6,200 people and a host of…