The archive
All stories
83 stories from two October 2026 editions. Each one opens as its own page, with its sources and credits.
83 stories
Who lights a Toronto houseThree GTA outfits, three ways into the same problem: make the house read as a house after dark, and make the door easy to find.
Trace every gable. Leave the stone quiet.Home Highlight outlines a complicated roof in warm light and lets the walls stay walls.
Light the tree that owns the lawn.Moonstruck Lighting lifts a multi-trunk canopy and keeps the stone house as a warm backdrop.
The city’s front door gets its chandeliers backA New York studio has been working on the lighting of Union Station’s Great Hall since 2015, with the City of Toronto and Parks Canada.
Light the tree before the facade.In this Kichler photograph, one tree in the entry court is the subject and the house stays quiet, with a few uplights on the entry screen. One warm uplight on a front tree can do more than a wash across the whole wall.
The approach is the welcome.A driveway of small uplights leads the eye to the door without lighting the whole garden. Keep the fittings below eye height and aim them into the foliage, not back toward the street.
Three layers, one house.Path lights mark the walk, a porch light marks the door, and the rooms behind the glass are the third layer. Add them in that order, and stop when the route feels easy.
A low light makes a long shadow.Aimed bollards keep the light on the walk and off the neighbours.- The transformer is the quiet part.Every low-voltage garden starts at a box on the wall: the transformer, a timer and a circuit you can find. Mount it where you can reach it, and label the runs before the beds are planted.
The path can be the whole point.In Kichler’s whole-home picture, a stepping-stone path carries most of the light and the rest of the garden is allowed to stay dark. It is a rendering, but the lesson holds: start with the route.
Find the edge of the garden room.A single path light at the corner of a bed marks where the planting stops and the stepping stones begin.
Light the pause between two steps.Around a pool and a pavilion, small step lights mark each change in level, and the water and the fire do the rest.
The tree is architecture after dark.One trunk lit from below, the porch lit from above and a line of low path lights between them: three jobs, each done once.
Let the planting keep its mystery.A path light over flagstone steps lights the treads and one boulder. The planting behind stays in shadow.
Build a route, not a grid.Lights tucked under the caps of a stone wall graze the stone below it. The wall becomes the route marker, with no stakes in the lawn.
A hierarchy of light, fourteen acres wideAt Presidio Tunnel Tops, the brightest light is on the paths, the lawns get less, and the playground switches off at night.
The boardwalk that dims for batsCanada Water’s red timber boardwalk is lit for commuters on winter evenings, then turns warmer and dimmer as the night goes on.
A bench with its own reading lightAt Elephant Park, the lighting is built around places to sit, and the paths are lit just enough to find them.
Nothing points upThe Tree House at Elephant Park uses 2700K light and no upward-facing sources, for the people on its roof and for wildlife.
Leave the lawn darkSalisbury Garden lights its edges and lets the lawn become a place to watch the skyline.
Leave room for the distant skyline.At Presidio Tunnel Tops, a low glow on the near paths and planting sits below the evening horizon, and the city lights stay far off.
Let the bridge be the horizon.From the Presidio, restrained lighting on the near paths leaves the Golden Gate Bridge as the destination in the view.
Light the path. Leave the bridge alone.Bollards every few paces carry the walk. The bay and the bridge stay in their own light, so the park does not have to compete with them.
A garden room above the city.At Nature Discovery Park in Hong Kong, the lighting makes a dining pavilion the warm destination, with playful details around it and learning spaces that are lit to work.
A halo around the lawn.At the University of Birmingham’s 12-acre Green Heart park, a halo of light rings the central lawn, and the brightest light goes on the main walking and cycling routes.
Don’t light the facade. Light the door.At Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross, the bold decision was not to over-light the old brick buildings, and to draw people in from inside instead.
Trace the old frameAt Gasholders London, custom lenses keep the light on the ironwork and out of the flats.
Water between glowing stepsAt Exchange Square, the light is low, the steps glow, and the birch trees change colour with the seasons.
A quiet square, held by lightRathbone Square balances its garden against the lit windows of the flats and offices around it.
Choose one sculptural focus.At Palm Court in Miami’s Design District, Buckminster Fuller’s Fly’s Eye Dome is lit from inside and sits in a pool kept dark on purpose, so that it reflects.
Wash the stone. Leave the glass dark.In a Kichler photograph of an office building it names the Monarch Centre, a low, warm graze makes the stone readable while the windows stay a dark mirror.
A railway bridge, lit like a landmarkThe Ordsall Chord in Manchester is the world’s first asymmetric network arch bridge. Its lighting was worked out with mock-ups and 3D models.
Twenty years of light on one small riverFor the 20th anniversary of Lights in Alingsås, two of its longtime designers gave the town a permanent installation on the river Lillå.
A hillside of luminous treesAt 1000 Trees, each planter is treated as a pixel in one night-time image, and every tree had to be lit without glare.
Frame the harbour.Along Hong Kong’s Avenue of Stars, soft white light ripples along the harbour wall and the promenade stays quiet, so the skyline across the water remains the show.
Reset the city’s grey light.At Taikoo Place, Speirs Major replaced the grey layer of light spilling in from neighbouring plots with a darker ‘night light’, which let it introduce contrast, something the studio calls unusual in Hong Kong.
Follow the corners.On Napoleon Bridge at Barangaroo, linear light along each corner of the twisting frames reveals the bridge’s form for people walking between the CBD and the new district.
Torchlight for a mud-brick cityAt-Turaif, the first capital of the Saudi state, is lit in one exact shade of gold, as if by flickering torches.
A farm from 1782, lit at 2700KCascina Ranverso’s long restored facade gets one warm colour, fitting by fitting.
Let a gateway emerge from the treesAt Gabriele d’Annunzio’s hillside estate, lighting added in 2017 washes the paths from inside the old stone walls.
Let stone carry the warmth.A late-19th-century tuff building among olive groves in Puglia, restored as a holiday house by the architect Angela Sabatelli, is lit with the same restraint as the architecture: every fitting listed is 3000K.
Give the entrance a soft outline.At Villa Punta Pennata, narrow lines follow the central arch and softer washes find the side windows, while the planting stays a dark foreground. Most fittings listed are 3000K.
Give each garden island its own light.Corte Martinelli, a late-19th-century villa in Andria with a park of almost 30,000 square metres, lights its colonnade, summerhouse and fountain as separate islands, with dark paving between them.
End with the trees.In a grove around a small stone cross at Moraña, in Spain, the trees are lit at 4000K, one of only two cool choices in this issue. The canopy holds the scene together.
Half a million lights, hung by handLongwood Gardens’ holiday display is the work of dozens of gardeners, arborists, craftspeople and volunteers. Last December, the garden photographed them at work.
Stars on still water.On Longwood’s Small Lake, star sculptures sit on and beside the water, and the calm surface doubles them.
An arch is a promise.The 200-foot tunnel of lights in the Meadow Garden returned last season: a bright canopy over a darker walking surface.
Keep the route inside the blue.On the Meadow Garden boardwalk, cool light on the trees sets the mood and small edge lights show where to walk.
Light that vanishes when it’s offAt Skyhouse, a white penthouse with framed views, Tillotson hid the light in glass-fronted troughs and two-inch ceiling reveals.
A Zen-like oasis on Park AvenueAt a 525 Park Avenue apartment, the light is seen as softly glowing planes, and only a few fittings are allowed to show.
An apartment lit for its artAt 322 Central Park West, adjustable downlights wash warm wood walls, and an onyx wall glows from within.
A lobby with quiet prestige.Fisher Marantz Stone lists 15 Central Park West, by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, among its New York projects; stone columns and a lit oculus carry the lobby.
The park that dims itself for Brooklyn HeightsBrooklyn Bridge Park was lit to protect the view of Manhattan from the homes above it, and it was among the first parks to dim its lights park-wide.
Five hundred chandeliers under the treesAt Tavern on the Green, Focus Lighting hung 500 handmade crystal chandeliers over the courtyard and kept the rest simple.
Under the highway, down to the riverOn the East River esplanade, a glowing girder guides people under the FDR Drive to the water without blocking the view.
An aquarium lit like the seaFor Ocean Wonders: Sharks!, Focus Lighting studied how light behaves underwater and rebuilt it with lamps.
Eight floors of amber, and a blue skylightIn the Tribeca Grand’s atrium, each floor’s ceiling glows a deeper colour than the one below, until the skylight turns blue.
A hotel lit like a Broadway houseThe Civilian Hotel was built new on a tight budget and lit to feel as if it had been there forever.
Following Philippe StarckFor the Royalton’s renovated lobby, Focus Lighting uplit teak screens and hung glass pendants that seem to do all the work.
Warm wood, live plants, efficient lightAt 1 Hotel Central Park, Focus Lighting layered LED light to bring out natural materials and living botanicals.
A bar that dims when the trains slow downAt Moynihan Train Hall’s food hall, the lighting moves from bright and busy by day to softly dimmed after dark.
A wall of keys, lit from behind.WestHouse takes its cue from a 1920s Manhattan residence: decorative pendants, LED grazing built into the shelves, and a front desk set against a backlit wall of keys.
A 1927 lobby, made new.Park Central Hotel, near Central Park and Carnegie Hall, has been part of Midtown since 1927. Its renovated lobby mixes decorative fittings that nod to its history with careful accents on the new finishes.
A hotel that is also a gallery.The Chambers Hotel shows an extensive collection of original art in its lobby, corridors and rooms, and each piece gets its own accent light to hold its place on the wall.
Dim enough to talk.Focus Lighting’s pictures of Moxy Chelsea’s dining room show deep tones, warm pools on the tables and a ceiling that doesn’t steal the scene. The studio’s page publishes the photographs without project notes.
Light for dancers, not for dramaAt the School of American Ballet, ribbons of light run across the studios at right angles to the mirrors, so every corner is bright enough to work in.
An office whose light follows the dayAt R/GA’s New York offices, the ceiling light starts at 2700K in the morning, cools to 4000K at noon and warms again by evening.
A school hall with columns like treesAt Marymount School, One Lux Studio lit a new hall where ribbed columns open into the ceiling like branches.
Light for an open planAt Bloomberg, Fisher Marantz Stone used perimeter lines, strict downlight grids and coves to give an open office order and depth.
A lobby that reads as one plane.In One Lux Studio’s photographs of 96+ Broadway, the reception is lit indirectly: the ceiling stays a calm plane and the stone desk is the brightest object in the room.
A law firm with a moss wall.One Lux Studio’s pictures of Bass, Berry & Sims show a pantry with a green moss wall under warm pendants, and a reception lit from coves. The page names the client but not the city.
Gaslight, rebuilt in LEDThe Veterans Room at the Park Avenue Armory was finished in 1881 by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Stanford White. Its 2017 restoration brought back the look of gas.
Carnegie Hall, from the facade to the stageFor the 1987 renovation, Fisher Marantz Stone lit four things at once: the facade and canopy, the lobby, the halls and the stage.
Lighting a facade through the treesThe museum’s 77th Street front is hidden by old trees, so FMS modelled it in leaf and bare before deciding how much light to use.
Light the audience as if they were on stageOn Lincoln Center’s new Grand Entry Stairs, the challenge was to light the people as evenly as the steps.
A facade like a Torah scrollAt Lincoln Square Synagogue, LEDs hidden in the frames of undulating glass ribbons make the facade glow without a single visible source.
A building that has to light anything.The Shed commissions new multidisciplinary work, so every space needs flexible lighting: continuous track in the galleries, and work light hidden in the beams so the ceiling stays clear for theatrical rigging.
The first renovation since 1940.Tiffany & Co.’s Fifth Avenue flagship, transformed with OMA in its first renovation since it opened in 1940, moves from the original facade into an immersive main floor lit for art as well as jewellery.
A store that rearranges itself.Nike’s 68,000-square-foot House of Innovation changes its layout with the seasons, so the lighting is designed to cope with almost any arrangement, and the fitting rooms have colour-tunable light.
A crown that keeps its own viewsOne Vanderbilt’s crown can burn like a flame for Yom Kippur or flash for July 4, but its everyday scenes are graded so they don’t spoil the observation deck.
A clock tower, relit and partly reusedFor the Edition Hotel’s tower, once the Metropolitan Life building, FMS mixed new technology with refurbished original fittings.
Let the brick hold the warm lightAt the 1903 Mansfield Hotel, Focus Lighting placed small fittings so the facade’s stone, ornament and rhythm could carry the night.- An award for 1717 Broadway.Focus Lighting’s exterior lighting for 1717 Broadway was named in The Architect’s Newspaper’s Best of 2015 for architectural lighting, according to the studio’s news page. We could not confirm which of the studio’s photographs shows it, so this brief runs without one.
No stories match. Try a studio name or a place.