Episode 35: Zero Out of a Hundred: Jen Park on Why Lighting Never Gets Credit

Of 100 award-winning architecture projects, how many listed a lighting designer in the credits? The answer should embarrass the entire industry.Jen Park, principal at Chicago's Park Fowler, joins hosts Avi Mor of Morlights and Lisa Reed of Reed Burkett Lighting Design to examine what architects genuinely understand about lighting—and where the gaps are. Park describes lighting as the critical thread in architectural composition: invisible when right, conspicuous when wrong. Who's actually making that argument to developers? The discussion covers the ROI case for lighting design, color temperature consistency across building types, and one startling data point—of 100 recent award-winning projects across AIA and Dezeen, not one credited a lighting designer in its submission.  In This Episode: (00:00) Park Fowler's founding and accelerated firm transition (07:57) Lighting as a critical compositional layer in architecture (17:48) Architecture school's gap in electric lighting education (21:33) Museum spaces as field labs for reading light (30:07) The ROI argument for lighting designers on developer projects (35:13) Color temperature consistency and the build-to-sell challenge (37:53) Material samples, color accuracy, and Neocon vignettes (44:22) The four visual professionals of the built environment (50:28) Lighting designers uncredited in architectural award submissions (56:18) Architect as conductor: the full-team design model (59:53) Favorite illuminated spaces: The Rookery Chicago, Jumex Museum in Mexico City Would you be interested in sponsoring our podcast? Reach out to us.  Share your thoughts, comments, like and subscribe to hear all of our informative upcoming episodes! About the show:  Lighting Matters is hosted by Lisa Reed and Avi Mor. In each episode, we’ll dig deep into the meticulous process of creating lighting design for architecture, showcasing industry leaders who balance artistic creativity with technical precision, and listen as they share their successes and challenges in architectural lighting design. Resources:Material Bank (material sample sourcing tool) materialbank.com AIA Chicago (business forums, awards, and board service) aiachicago.org Dezeen (awards discussion) dezeen.com IALD —  iald.org NeoCon (trade show - upcoming lighting vignettes) neocon.com Lighting Matters Podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lighting-matters-podcast/Lighting Matters Podcast YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbLkEKnB8XgSXoeDY0T8t3w Lisa Reed  https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-j-reed-b198154/  Reed Burkett Lighting Design  http://www.rbldi.com Avraham Mor  https://www.linkedin.com/in/avrahammor/ Morlights  https://www.morlights.com/