Lighting Matters
Welcome to the podcast about Lighting Matters! Our unflinching conversations uncover the nuances and complexities that shape the craft of lighting design. Tune in to explore the pivotal ‘whys’ behind a lighting designer’s choices and find honest answers to your most challenging lighting questions, because Lighting Matters.
Episodes
What if the fastest way to bring a project in under budget was just to pay people on time?
Ron Unterreiner—retired design-build executive, founder of the People networking initiative and WBEDC, and advisor to the Rise CDFI—joins hosts Avi Mor of Morlights and Lisa Reed of Reed Burkett Lighting Design for a direct conversation about what's quietly breaking the AEC payment chain. The discus...
Structural engineers are licensed. Architects are licensed. Why isn't lighting?
Hosts Avi Mor of Morlights and Lisa Reed of Reed Burkett Lighting Design go unscripted. It starts with a hotel ballroom running 20 footcandles at a dinner event, broken dimmers, and no one who knew how to operate them. From that comes a pointed question: why is proper lighting still treated as a luxury? The sp...
Ten experienced lighting designers walk into a conference. Can they agree on what they actually do for a living?
"What do you do?" For lighting designers, it's a deceptively hard question to answer well. At the IALD Enlighten Americas 2025 conference in Tucson, hosts Avraham Mor (Morlights) and Lisa Reed (Reed Burkett Lighting Design) posed three pointed questions to ten industry veterans...
How does lighting affect how we tell stories? Avraham Mor of Morlights and Lisa Reed of Reed Burkett Lighting Design interview David Woody of the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry? They look at how storytelling is affected by lighting. How can we improve lighting and storytelling to have them intersect? The conversation reveals how much lighting can leave the imprint of a story on u...
Can you quantify why lighting matters—or does defining it ruin everything?
Avi Mor of Mor Lighting and Lisa Reed of Reed Burkett Lighting Design record live from ArchLight Summit 2025, exploring a fundamental question: does lighting matter? They tackle the industry's most pressing challenge—proving the value of professional lighting design in every project type. Why do affordable housin...
What's the connection between lighting control systems, circadian rhythm, and designing for neurodivergent building occupants?
David Euscher, national board chair for the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and interior designer based in Houston, discusses the critical relationship between interior design and lighting with hosts Lisa Reed of Reed Burkett Lig...
What if value engineering meant distilling to essentials instead of cutting corners?
Joel Fuoss, Principal at Trivers in St. Louis, joins hosts Lisa Reed of Reed Burkett Lighting Design and Avi Mor of Mor Lights to discuss adaptive reuse, historic tax credits, and collaborative design. How do you convince clients that lighting isn't optional? Fuoss explains how histor...
Why does museum lighting deliver 10x ROI compared to other exhibit elements?
AJ Goehle, CEO of Luci, and Kevin Snow, lighting and set designer, discuss the critical role of theatrical lighting in museum exhibit design. The Chicago-based firm has grown from 2 to 52 team members since 2011, creating immersive visitor experiences across history museums, science centers, ...
Hosts Avi Mor and Lisa Reed take the Lighting Matters podcast on location to the IES conference in Anaheim, conducting rapid-fire interviews with five leading lighting professionals. The episode explores how lighting designers advocate for their profession across different practice models - from integration firms to nonprofits to global studios. Violet Estes of Cantara Design discu...
Why are expensive light fixtures often the wrong choice for better spaces?
Margaret Cavenagh, Managing Director at Perkins & Will Chicago, discusses her evolution from residential lighting basics to managing complex architectural lighting at a global firm. Drawing from 20 years at Studio Gang and recent transition to Perkins & Will's 2,500-person practice, she...
"If someone would say we have $1 million for finishes but no lighting designer, or $600,000 with a lighting designer - I choose that second one every day of the week." - Karen Herold
Interior designer Karen Herold of Studio K joins hosts Lisa and Avi for an in-depth discussion about the critical relationship between interior design and light...
"No amount of photometric studies is gonna tell you how it's actually gonna perform until you actually see it at 10 o'clock at night." - Rob Reuland
Avi Mor of Mor Lights and Lisa Reed of Reed Burket Lighting Design reflect on their first year hosting Lighting Matters, outlining their evolved mission to advocate for lighting design as the fourth essential...
"No amount of photometric studies is gonna tell you how it's actually gonna perform until you actually see it at 10 o'clock at night." - Rob Reuland
What happens when someone starts taking out trash at 17 and becomes a principal at one of Chicago's leading landscape architecture firms? Rob Reuland from Site Design Group joins ho...
"A 50,000-hour fixture, if it's on 24/7, like in many municipal buildings or hospitals…it won't even last six years." - Anne Kustner-Haser
Anne Kustner Haser, President of AKLD Lighting Design joins hosts Lisa Reed and Avi Mor to tackle the urgent challenge of lighting maintainability in an industry where "lifetime" LEDs often fail within years. Drawing f...
Why are architects who collaborate with lighting designers winning more ambitious clients?
Architect Michael Byrd of Core10 Architecture in St. Louis shares his journey from skeptic to advocate for professional lighting design. "We bought an existing firm and thought we knew everything," he admits. Yet as projects grew more ambitious, his team discovered critical blin...
Why are 90% of lighting designers making a critical mistake by not designing the control systems for their projects?
Tune in as Avi Mor and Lisa Reed speak with Brett Andersen and Kenny Schutz of Focus Lighting. What sets them apart? Their innovative business model combining design with procurement expertise. Both Brett and Kenny trace their paths from theatrical ligh...
How did the Smithsonian cut lighting energy usage by 80% while actually improving visibility and preservation?
Tune in as Avi Mor and Lisa Reed speak with Scott Rosenfeld, lighting designer at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery. Scott shares his 30-year journey from theater lighting to museum environments, revealing how he "handcrafts" light for 5...
What makes lighting designers "psychotically passionate" about their work when they're constantly battling value engineering?
In this episode, Avi Mor and Lisa Reed speak with Katherine Stekr, CLD, IALD, MIES, EDAC, LEED AP BD+C, Founder + Principal, STEK Design. Their conversation explores the unique position of lighting designers as visual professionals alongside ar...
Have you ever wondered how the vibrant and competitive architectural landscape of Dubai influences global lighting design trends? Discover the secrets from Lisa Reed's experience at the Light Middle East Conference!
In this episode, Avi Mor and Lisa Reed dive deep into the world of lighting design, sparked by Lisa's recent trip to the Light Middle East Conference in D...
How does the lighting industry foster a unique sense of community, and what lessons can we learn from its collaborative environment despite competition?
In this episode, Avi Mor and Lisa Reed welcome lighting designer and podcast host Rachel Fitzgerald CLD, LC, IALD, IES, LEED AP BD+C. Rachel shares her 21-year journey through the lighting design world - from childhoo...
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