Meet Our Member

The IESNYC spotlights a member each month whose volunteerism, perspective or personal story helps advance our goals, piques our curiosity, and makes the IESNYC become a more vibrant and diverse lighting community. We value their expertise and thank them for volunteering their time and energy for the betterment of the section and NYC Lighting Community. #the_iesnycmom

February 2025

Hamilton Guillén
Lighting Designer, The Lighting Practice

Q: How did you first get started in the lighting industry?
My journey into architectural lighting began with a long and winding career in theatrical lighting. After completing my undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, I worked every possible role in both lighting and electrics throughout the San Francisco Bay Area theater scene. The Bay had a rich mix of regional theaters, community theaters, dance companies, indie operations, and performance art, so there was always lots of work.

I learned how to be a lighting designer by hanging my own light plots and by assisting other lighting designers to draft, hang, and focus theirs. By assisting a designer one week I would enjoy a revelatory lesson, and then (try to) apply it to my own show the next week. I also nurtured a voracious appetite for attending live performances of all scales, always with a keen sense of how the lighting was integrated with the overall design, scenery, and story. 

After working nearly 8 years in the Bay, I moved to New York in the summer of 2017 to pursue a graduate degree from New York University. My graduate studies were rich with theater, film, and dance collaborations of all kinds, and I made several incredible friendships with designers, directors, and choreographers. It might seem counterintuitive, but I used that time in grad school to zealously expand the diversity and depth of my design interests (much to the chagrin of my lighting professors). Architecture was one interest among them, and what attracted me to it was its permanence relative to live event productions.

When I completed school in May of 2020, I began to explore this discipline in earnest. In the absence of theater and film work during the pandemic, I did a lot of deep and dedicated independent study into several areas, including architectural lighting design. My studies included the Lighting Research Center (LRC), Parsons, and the IES website. If it weren’t for the COVID lockdowns, this focused study time would not have been possible.

My first internship in this new field was with Leni Schwendinger’s International Nighttime Design Initiative (NTD). I had learned about this organization, and the concept of “night walks,” from Leni’s visit to our graduate design cohort. It was the first time I’d been provoked to truly consider the lighting conditions of the City at night. What constitutes public lighting versus private lighting? What is the vocabulary we need to discuss the effects of light on spaces and diverse occupants? That experience opened my eyes to a whole new world of lighting and led me to reach out to her after I graduated. Leni and I have since developed an ongoing mentor-mentee relationship. I continue to be grateful for her guidance and her outlook on the role of design in the public realm. Her perspectives on the integration of great urban design with thoughtful lighting strategies have been formative lessons.

Q: How did you first get involved in the IESNYC?
I was a rather uninvolved member of the IESNYC when I first joined in the spring of 2021. These were still COVID times, and virtual events were the predominant mode of event programming. I endeavored to learn as much as I could of the history, nomenclature, major design firms, project types, academic institutions, books, and certifications that make up the field. Eventually, as the City slowly began to regain a sense of normalcy and shift back to in-person events, I rediscovered the intrinsic value of meeting people face-to-face, especially as a newcomer. Socialization had been so heavily mediated by the internet that I’d unknowingly taken it for granted. It was a jolt at first, but in-person lighting events quickly proved far more rewarding than even the best webinar from the previous year. Conversations were far more personal and flowed organically in ways that a digital format cannot accommodate.

Q: How do you see your role as “Member of the Month” of the IESNYC?
I formally joined the IESNYC Programs Committee in January 2023, and that choice has been a major positive catalyst for me. While forging new relationships with other lighting professionals has been enriching, supporting and developing programming for the Section has been a reward in itself. In February 2024, I co-organized a two-part photography seminar with Ryan Fischer of Focus Lighting. Ryan prepared an excellent virtual presentation for designers on how to capture and process compelling architectural lighting photos. We then put his training into practice in the second session, an in-person practicum at Moynihan Train Hall with Ilva Dodaj of Domingo Gonzalez Associates.

Organizing those events and seeing them through to realization was highly gratifying. We helped a large group learn something online, and then the small-group practicum was pretty incredible. I’m excited for the new events that the Programs Committee is putting together for 2025!

Recently, I’ve been shaping my thoughts around how to present more novel experiences for IESNYC members. Just after my career pivot, I found myself dampening my theatrical training in service of more fully embracing this new-to-me architectural field. When you look at the bigger picture, I actually think there’s a wealth of opportunities to blend the permanent built environment with ephemeral  design experiences. Especially with the IES’s very recent introduction of the Experiential Design Award category as part of the annual Illumination Awards. It’s an exciting step forward.

I’m particularly interested in seeing the development and expansion of creative, illuminated spaces in a way that both engages the public and elevates the social appreciation of lighting design as a professional discipline.

Q: In your opinion, what are the best assets of the IESNYC?
The two standout features of the IESNYC are simultaneously the hefty size of the organization and, especially, the number of highly active members. While both of these elements contribute to the diversity of the social and educational programming here in New York City, active participation is truly the key to the organization’s principal benefits.

Additionally, the IESNYC’s cooperative relationships with sister organizations – like the DLFNY, IALD, and WILD – reinforces New York City’s dynamic design ecosystem. The IESNYC is the energetic center of the local lighting community.