Page 148 - Lighting Magazine January 2019

coMMercIal projEct
We nd that as soon as you add light, people want more... but before you add it, they say, “less, quiet, shh.” Then they see it [lit], and they want more.”
Museum of Art and there was a particular image of Paul Klee and I’m holding onto this – I’m sticking with it – because it gives you a sort of conceptual strength. That tends to be how I work; I go and nd an artist or I look at a landscape architect’s piece and I’ll grab it and just stick with it. It’s less about lighting per se, and more about sensibility.
MB: And about the experience and overall e ect.
LT: Exactly. [I visited] an installation at the Whitney Museum, where you went into a room with mesh curtains and a line on the wall, that was transfor- mative. It makes you think of 100 other ways that you might want to ll in a space, and how the light changed. These are things that move me and keep me moving forward.
MB: Lighting the historic Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park designed by [the late renowned architect] Louis Kahn on Roosevelt Island in New York must have been an incredible honor.
LT: Yes, and in a mixed way. There was tremendous water damage, and a lot of lighting equipment was damaged. It was an amazing experience to be in that space, to be out there when it was under construction.
MB: Kahn was not only an iconic architect, but also known for using light almost as a material. LT: Exactly, and there was a tremendous amount of
Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island, N.Y.
ambivalence about even having a lighting designer involved because [Kahn’s vision] had been so clear. But then I was talking with [Kahn’s] son, who said, “Keep it mysterious.” It was a very complex project, but part of the sheer delight and honor of it was to be in that space and to minutely experience the construction, the detailing, and then to be stand- ing there at night with nobody there except just a couple of us looking at New York City in the middle of a Louis Kahn [work], was exquisite.
MB: It must’ve been eerie and elevating at the same time. I think you kept the mystery.
LT: Apparently we did. Some people said [we did so] way too much. Then there are people who think, “Wait a minute” — and that happens on ev- ery project. We nd that as soon as you add light, people want more...but before you add it, they say, “less, quiet, shh.” Then they see it [lit], and they want more. When I was younger, I was shocked by that. Now, I say, “I know.”
MB: It’s a beautiful project. Another thing
you don’t hear people talk about is the e ect outdoor lighting has on wildlife, and I know that has a ected you.
LT: I think that it was a sort of seminal moment for me when I rst read [an article about it] in the New York Times. And I think what’s happened since is that awareness began to in ltrate into all my work. For example, on the St. Patrick’s project in Calgary, an avian specialist said, “What if we measure the
146 enLIGHTenment MagazIne | January 2019
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