Lighting Engineers
Lighting design is critical to the mood, atmosphere, and purpose of your project’s interior and exterior. Illuminate your space with help from the experienced and award-winning Utah lighting engineers at VBFA.
Lighting System Design & Engineering
Intentional Lighting Design to Support Your Architectural Vision
Today, the possibilities for lighting are nearly endless. No matter what spaces your project contains — from clinical to residential — lighting is the multi-dimensional element that brings them to life.
Lighting design is a specialized service concerned with the integration, implementation, and improvement of electrical lighting systems. Our lighting designers draw from their deep understanding of natural and artificial light to bring profound purpose to every facet of your lighting design. Our meticulous approach guarantees your system is designed for optimal efficiency and electrical integrity, while also fully supporting the architectural vision.
Read on to learn more about the lighting solutions our team offers.
Why VBFA is the Lighting Engineering Firm of Choice
Those looking for the highest quality lighting solutions turn to VBFA for our technical excellence and deep respect for design. Here are just a few reasons our clients return to us again and again:
Understanding of the Latest Technology and Standards
Our team designs and implements the most intuitive, digitally-integrated systems that make controlling and managing your lighting systems simple. By using the best technology available today, we can offer responsive lighting for every use case your project demands. As members of the Illuminating Engineering Society, our designers stay current on recommended lighting practices and illumination levels that are published by the society and adopted by many municipalities as a standard.
Streamlined Coordination
With our electrical department being licensed in 16 states, our lighting expertise has the in-house resources and knowledge to comply with local energy and emergency codes, making coordination with circuiting and power a more streamlined process.
Appreciation for Design
Your architect’s creative vision directs our own. When it comes to lighting, we pay close attention to the minute details of the design and work side-by-side with your architect to ensure our solutions enhance and improve the design in unique and beautiful ways.
Cost Consciousness
We push ourselves to find creative ways to stretch your budget without ever compromising on quality. Your investment is important to us, and we work to make each dollar count.
Proven Experience
Our team has worked in the industry for decades, and has designed lighting systems for a wide range of clients, markets, and projects. We’ve taken the best lessons from our careers and applied them to our work at VBFA to deliver a truly superior service for our clients.
“My deepest passion about architecture is the project’s use of lighting design. Lighting helps define architecture and I perceive it as the gateway to the building’s soul. Consequently, lighting design requires careful planning, deliberation, and collaboration between the lighting designer and architect to bring the structure to life and achieve the architect’s vision.”
– Lewis Wong, Principal
Lighting Design Projects
Our lighting designs are best understood when you see them at work. Browse recent projects below.
Sustainability
Lighting Solutions for a Brighter Future
Lighting systems have the capability to be more energy efficient than ever before. This exciting challenge consistently motivates our environmentally conscious engineering firm. Because we gauge the true success of a project on its ability to deliver a truly sustainable design, our lighting designers continually research, improve, and create solutions that meet and exceed the industry’s latest standards in power usage, renewable energy, and eco-friendly materials. This commitment not only benefits your organization for years to come but helps us engineer a brighter future for all.
Lighting Design
As a unique branch of VBFA, lighting design includes many different services, such as:
Lighting Concept Design
Daylighting Design
Modeling & Mock-Ups
Energy Efficiency Standards
Commissioning & Construction Quality Control
Comprehensive Lighting Control Systems
Integrative Lighting Systems
About VBFA
Engineering Excellence For More Than 50 Years
As lighting technology and trends change, our engineers are one step ahead. Combining our years of experience with an understanding of shifting lighting standards in energy efficiency, we help you make sense of current innovations and offer straightforward advice you can trust.
This commitment to progress and professionalism is what allows our team to step up and deliver impressive and unconventional projects other firms can’t. Thanks to the creativity and courage of our newest generation of engineering professionals, we are sustaining the hard-earned VBFA legacy as a prominent industry leader.
What Our Clients Have to Say
Our Blog
Recent News & Articles
See why VBFA lighting design has been making headlines.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the basis of design (BOD)?
The Basis of Design (BOD) guides the entire architectural and engineering process for a new project. Developed by the architect or designer using the Owner Project Requirements, it documents numerous criteria and other considerations to be used to guide decision-making. Highly detailed, the BOD outlines the technical approach and minute specifications for the project. In addition to quality and performance standards, the BOD also describes the design in a narrative to help bring greater clarity to the overall purpose. Many of the decisions a lighting designer will make about the lighting system will be based on information included within the BOD.
What does a lighting designer consultant do?
A lighting designer consultant is skilled in the specific art and science of illumination and lighting systems. Lighting designers can come from a variety of backgrounds — such as engineering, interior design, or architecture — and work with interior designers and architects to achieve the objectives of the project through lighting applications.
Lighting designers stay ahead of trends that impact lighting choices in the design process, such as aesthetic trends and quality standards and regulations. At VBFA, our lighting designers use electrical engineering expertise to design comprehensive lighting solutions that enhance a building’s visual appeal while also being as efficient and effective as possible.
What is lighting design?
Lighting design involves technical, experiential, and aesthetic knowledge to develop effective and efficient lighting solutions. Ultimately, lighting design should serve to enhance architectural design and create a specific emotional response within a space; for example, lighting design can foster a calm, energized, contemplative, or social atmosphere .
Notable steps in the lighting design process include: reviewing the key BOD requirements, determining the best lighting applications and methods, selecting equipment, adjusting system settings to support design, designing intuitive control systems, maintaining quality control during installation, and more.
What is lighting system design?
Lighting system design is design and development of comprehensive lighting solutions for a facility. Consulting-Specifying Engineer magazine outlines eight key factors lighting system engineers must consider when designing a lighting system for a commercial space:
- The owner’s project requirements (OPR) that include project costs and schedule
- The basis of design (BOD)
- Codes and standards, including energy guidelines
- Sustainability certifications (U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED, Energy Star, etc.)
- Recommended lighting levels, including IESNA standards
- Lifecycle costs
- Safety and security
- Maintenance and warranty
How do lighting control systems work?
Lighting control systems come in varying complexity, ranging from a basic toggle light switch to intelligent, building integrated digital systems. Smart, digital lighting control solutions manage light controls by connecting multiple lighting system features through a wired or wireless network. These types of modern control systems are available for both indoor and outdoor lighting of commercial, industrial, and residential spaces. By making customization and flexibility in lighting easier than ever, lighting control systems are mainstays in modern design and construction. Understanding our clients’ space routines, needs for each area, and the end users’ comfort level with technology helps us determine the best lighting control methodology to implement on each project.
Why is color temperature important in design?
Lighting temperature affects the overall atmosphere and appearance of the space being lit. Color temperature is measured in “Kelvins” and refers to how warm or cool the light is. The lower the color temperature, the “warmer” or more yellow or red the light is. Higher color temperatures look “cooler” or more blue. Studies have shown that the human circadian rhythm is affected by color temperature and our mood. During the cycle of the day, the color temperature of the sky starts warm at sunrise and gets cooler, peaking at noon, then gradually goes back down to warm colors for the sunset. Studies indicate that higher color temperatures (4000K-65000K) heighten our awareness and are preferred in tasks requiring more productivity. Warmer color temperatures tend to invoke increased relaxation or intimacy. Therefore, it’s important for lighting designers and engineers to understand the type of “mood” a space hopes to offer before selecting lighting equipment and light sources of varying temperatures.
How does lighting affect LEED certification?
Lighting is just one feature of a building that can affect a building’s LEED-certification. LEED certifications require specific parameters to be met when it comes to lighting control and the “lifespan” of light sources within the building. (In other words, LED sources with long lifespans and improved energy efficiency are highly outlined as the superior standard when it comes to LEED certification). Other aspects of LEED certification concerned with lighting include: Light Pollution and Reduction, Optimizing Energy Performance, Controllability of Systems, and Green Power.
Let’s Get Started on your Next Project
Now that you’ve seen what we can do, get to know the team who can make it happen.