Zero Out of a Hundred: Jen Park on Why Lighting Never Gets Credit [Ep. 35]

Watch on YouTubeOf 100 award-winning architecture projects, how many listed a lighting designer in the credits? The answer should embarrass the entire industry.Jen Park, principal at Chicago's Park Fowler, joins hosts Avi Mor of Morlights and Lisa Reed of Reed Burkett Lighting Design to examine what architects genuinely understand about lighting—and where the gaps are. Park describes lighting as the critical thread in architectural composition: invisible when right, conspicuous when wrong. Who's actually making that argument to developers? The discussion covers the ROI case for lighting design, color temperature consistency across building types, and one startling data point—of 100 recent award-winning projects across AIA and Dezeen, not one credited a lighting designer in its submission.

In This Episode:

(00:00) Park Fowler's founding and accelerated firm transition

(07:57) Lighting as a critical compositional layer in architecture

(17:48) Architecture school's gap in electric lighting education

(21:33) Museum spaces as field labs for reading light

(30:07) The ROI argument for lighting designers on developer projects

(35:13) Color temperature consistency and the build-to-sell challenge

(37:53) Material samples, color accuracy, and Neocon vignettes

(44:22) The four visual professionals of the built environment

(50:28) Lighting designers uncredited in architectural award submissions

(56:18) Architect as conductor: the full-team design model