Mark Greenawalt and Tom Monte, photo by Dawn Monte
For public spaces, such as for the Marketplace at Desert Ridge in Phoenix and Tempe Marketplace, the CDL-designed lighting is colorful and dynamic and even incorporates “out-of-the-box” laser lights. The company’s landmark lighting includes the Frank Lloyd Wright spire at the Scottsdale Promenade and the fiber optic star fields on the viewing tower at Estrella Mountain Ranch in Goodyear.
Recent developments emphasize the effects of lighting on our biorhythms, and the CDL team also integrates these findings into their work. Sensors in the eye respond to the cooler color lights to keep us awake in daylight; the warm colors at night make it easier to sleep. A lighting designer also needs to understand the geometry of beam spreads, the calculations of light levels, or photometrics, and the more intangible concept of the psychology of how lighting makes us feel.
Through it all, the bottom line is making spaces beautiful, Greenawalt emphasizes. He notes, though, it is typically the interior designer, not the lighting designer, who selects and specifies the decorative light fixtures. The lighting designer illuminates the architecture.
The best designs include ambient lighting, accent lighting and decorative lights, that element of “sparkle.” The decorative lights complete the optimum lighting design, but it is the ambient lighting that defines the space with light and shadows, and the accent lighting provides the drama and leads the eye to the key features. “Balancing these three can be a challenge, but when done correctly,” Greenawalt says, “the architecture becomes beautiful art.”
With four decades of experience in building and renovation, Arizona Structures serves the East Valley, Arcadia, Scottsdale and Paradise Valley and has recently won a 2014 Best of Gilbert Award for General Contractor. This is the eighth of a 10-part series on your home and was assisted by David M. Brown (azwriter.com). Questions? Send them to Tom Monte, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
