I wrote the Medium piece before the murders in Boulder, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t think it changes anything.

Evans’ Rag

Vol 3 Issue 12

The blog this week is about sunlight and how it’s presently changing in early spring. Most of what I’ve learned about natural light has taken a lifetime, but it began with the thoughts of one man, Lou Kahn.

I don’t mention it in the blog, but over a career in architecture, I’ve learned not only natural light is important, but a building’s own interior lighting is likewise.

The first lighting designer I worked with was William Kim who designed the Washington Metro lighting scheme. His concept was that no light sources should be visible–it was all to be indirectly lit. Not entirely successful. Poor construction supervision let contractors do shoddy work on the pylon lights. Lack of better light sources forced Kim to use fluorescents where today’s LED lights would have been far better. And of course the poor maintenance–no cleaning after the diesel ‘money’ train passed through nightly, likewise bad brake dust, and I could go on.

Some people are disturbed by indirect lighting in public spaces. Shadows aren’t as distinct, and if the design isn’t well understood, a space can be underlit for its use. But the subtlety of indirect lighting continues to fascinate me.