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DETAILS
Clockwise from top right Korean Gallery East at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 2005, Exhibit Designer: Philip Beesley, Lighting co-design: Sholem Dolgoy, Pic by permission of Royal Ontario Museum; Murale, Ottawa, 2008, Interior Design: burdifilek, Pic: Ben Rahn, A- Frame Inc.; Intercontinental Hotel, Toronto, 2006, Architects: Crang & Boake, Richard Dabrus, Pic: Michael Mahovich; Holt Renfrew, Toronto, 2007, Interior Design: burdifilek, Pic: Ben Rahn, A- Frame Inc.; Private Residence, Toronto, 2001, Marnie Mancini Interior Design, Lighting co-design: Glenn Boccini, Pic: Patrick Kennedy; W Hotel Lounge, Atlanta, 2009, Interior Design: burdifilek, Pic: Ben Rahn, A- Frame Inc.
creative side.” In 1999 and after nearly eleven years at H.H. Angus, Forbes-Gray established Lightbrigade Architectural Light- ing Design in Toronto to maintain technical excellence while developing a diversified roster of creative services.
“There wasn’t much of a market then, and it was a tough haul to convince architects they needed a lighting design consultant, and to be added to the project’s budget as another design line item,” she says. With a population, now at 34.1 million, living in the world’s second largest country at 3.85 million square miles (Russia is the biggest), Forbes-Gray estimates there were less than ten full-time lighting designers in Canada when she opened her office. She is opti- mistic that within the next few years there will be an increasing number of architects and interior designers who will include their role at the time of bidding on a project. Her experience has been that it is difficult to market directly to an owner, as most require a push from the other members of the design team.
Forbes-Gray stresses the ‘light’ in the number of the members of her ‘brigade’. “We are a small office of three - a busy
three,” she indicates. “Jesse Blonstein has been practicing lighting design for fourteen years. Julia Vandergraaf comes from a twelve-year theatrical background before joining Lightbrigade five years ago, and con- tinues to design small theatre productions. Our firm takes on assignments of different sizes with different schedules, from two weeks to four years, with six months the meaty part of the process,” she says. The project that jump-started Lightbrigade was the St. Bruno location of the La Maison Simons, a family-owned, Québec-only department store chain. It won commenda- tions from IESNA, GE, and the Prix Lumiere Award in 2002 and 2003. Lightbrigade was also responsible for the Laval and Sainte- Foy locations of this retailer and is currently working on the new West Edmonton Mall location. Other award-winning retail proj- ects include Holt Renfrew’s Toronto flagship store for the designer’s floor and the main floor, and the Murale prototype beauty bou- tique in Ottawa, later rolled out to other units in the chain.
“The new energy restrictions, not to men- tion those to come, will require lighting specialists to keep on top of the tech-
nologies and requirements in a much more in-depth manner than previously,” she believes. “Our role is becoming not only a design team member but also that of a researcher and mathematician.” Construc- tion market activity has turned around from the recent downturn, Forbes-Gray observes. “Canada was not as severely impacted as the US. There’s currently a building boom in Toronto, mostly condos along the water- front. We are presently working on two condos, a restaurant, art gallery, a univer- sity, a hospital, two retirement residences, a casino, a residential sub-division and two residences.”
“These are exciting times to be a lighting designer, albeit challenging” she says. “No past lighting technology has evolved at the rate of LEDs. Most of our clients start out wanting to use LEDs on their projects. We have to explain the energy load options to them of LED, metal halide, and fluorescent and let them make the decision if they want to invest in an LED system.” She notes that new LED lamps that are being developed may be a better alternative to the incan- descent lamp than the previous attempt at compact fluorescent. “The colour quality
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