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DETAILS [books]
Let There Be Light: My Life Among Giants, Monarchs & Mobsters in the World of Architectural Lighting Jack Zukerman Worldlit Publishing $23.95 hardback (all proceeds from book sales donated to IALD Educational Trust) ISBN: 978-0-9830646-0-2
Billed as a ‘must read’ for anyone in the lighting industry, Let There Be Light is Jack Zukerman’s highly personal journey whose beginning was the starting point to a meteoric rise that captured the admiration and imagina- tion of the architectural lighting industry. It is “one man’s tough, honest, and thoroughly
American success story, followed by the stories of his most distinguished colleagues in a special art / craft industry whose practitioners ‘push back the darkness’ in unique and dazzling ways”. Book One is Zukerman’s own inspiring story, which takes him from 1940s Moline, Illi- nois, where he literally had to fight his way through his school years, to the top of the lighting world - in New York, where he ‘bickered and dickered’ with armed mobsters and worked on the World Trade Centers; in Chicago, where he lit the John Hancock Building; and finally in Southern California where his neighbours and friends included Alfred Hitchcock (another lighting expert), Dean Martin, Danny Thomas, and notorious mob lawyer Sydney Korshak. It takes us into a world of geniuses, rogues, and entrepre- neurs.
The book centres on his career in the lighting industry that began when he worked for his brother’s electrical distribution company in the early ‘50s. Seeing the business going down to pan, Zukerman took to the road to become the face of the company, selling products to contractors - eventually securing a contract to sell to John Deere, earning big money selling products to retail developers including one where he had to pay a gun carrying henchman $50,000 in order to receive the $1.5M cheque that was owed him! Zukerman eventually sold his own company, RSA, to Cooper Lighting. Let There Be Light is actually two books in one - a portrayal of Jack Zukerman’s life, but also celebrating the art and engineering of an industry in which Jack more than made his mark. Leading personalities in the U.S. lighting design profession explain, in their own words, their greatest project challenges. Randy Burkett reveals the trials and tribulations of his Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Gateway Arch job; Bar- bara Horton talks us through the lighting of the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C.; Paul Gregory reveals his lighting design philosophy drawing on his many influenc- es and seeing “the world as a series of compositions”; Mike Gehring describes his tran- sition from architecture to lighting design - “I’m an architect. I specialize in lighting design’; Charles Stone explains the complexities of the Chek Lap Kok Airport scheme in Hong Kong; David Singer recounts his dispair at finishing the incandescent based instal- lation at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Melbourne the day after the Australian government announced it was banning incandescents!; Craig Roberts details his Polo/Ralph Lauren job in New York; Gary Steffy recalls his greatest lumenance challenge in the University of Michigan Cook Legal Reading Room; Chip Israel explains his “experience of a life- time” designing the lighting for Disney’s Wilderness Lodge in Florida’s Magic Kingdom; finally Ray Grenald takes us on a tour de force of his lighting beliefs. Although a little clumsy and ‘American Dream’ starry-eyed in places, this book is a fascinating insight into ‘40s & ‘50s America and the lighting industry that developed during that period as well as many insights into Zukerman’s personal life (the final chapter is dedicated to ‘family, friends and friendly rivals’). What’s more, all proceeds from the sale of this book go to the IALD Educational Trust so, for a good cause and a ripping yarn, go and buy this book.
realities:united featuring Edited by Florian Heilmeyer Ruby Press 43 EUR softback ISBN: 978-3-9813436-3-2
I will never forget the first time I saw the Kunsthaus in Graz, Austria not long after it opened. Looking like a giant illuminated whale, the display skin appeared to be call- ing to me through light. That’s the genius of realities:united. Founded in Berlin in 2000 by the brothers Jan and Tim Edler, realities: united have built a unique reputation for their spectacular art and media extensions to buildings all across the globe. Working together with some of the most promi- nent figures of contemporary architecture – including Peter Cook, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Foster & Partners, Will Alsop, Nieto Sobe- jano, Bjarke Ingels, Minsuk Cho and WOHA – realities:united have established an ingenious type of collaboration they refer to as ‘featuring’. Usually invited by architects to cooperate on a project, realities:united have a special gift to detect the idiosyn- cratic strength of a design and amplify its qualities by techniques and procedures that exceed the realm in which architects usually work. Inversely, realities:united can only work their magic by designing in a dialogue with an architect.
This book offers the first complete survey of the work of realities:united to date. A lav- ishly illustrated tour de force of their mani- fold oeuvre, ‘Featuring’ also provides the reader with rich background information by virtue of a detailed project documentation. Finally, a series of resourceful essays of re- puted architects, critics and other thinkers answer questions about realities:united.
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