Note from Stephanie
August 8, 2025
By Stephanie Freedman
This year marked my third time serving on the Lumen West Awards Gala committee—and my first time chairing the event. With a background in event coordination before joining Oculus, stepping into this role felt like a natural fit. Surprisingly though, the biggest challenge was finding a venue in Los Angeles. We needed a location that could accommodate 400 guests and offer three separate spaces for cocktails, the awards ceremony, and dinner. You’d think that would be easy in a city like LA—but it definitely wasn’t.
After a couple of months of scouting, calling, emailing, and probably spending more time on venue websites than anyone should, I narrowed it down to three places that fit the budget. We ended up choosing the Skirball Cultural Center—and it was perfect.
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July 8, 2025
Oculus is proud to announce that four of our projects have received 2025 IES Illumination Awards of Merit. Each one represents a unique blend of thoughtful lighting design, community impact, and collaboration.
Paramount Library (with Johnson Fain)
This renovation breathes new life into a vital 1966 community hub. A living green wall welcomes visitors, while tunable white “skylights” mimic daylight in the central reading area—bringing nature indoors within an open, flexible layout.
St. Callistus Chapel (with Johnson Fain)
Located beneath Christ Cathedral, this chapel balances sacred tradition with modern lighting. Carefully layered light supports reflection, focus, and reverence, enhancing both architectural form and spiritual experience.
HPS Office (with RIOS)
With sustainability at its core, this office space features locally manufactured lighting and a hospitality-inspired atmosphere. Professional yet warm, the lighting reflects both environmental responsibility and design excellence.
Marian Gardens at Our Lady of La Vang (with Domus Studio)
Honoring a significant moment in Vietnamese Catholic history, this garden is designed to physically represent a Rosary. Subtle, purposeful lighting supports prayer, guides worshippers, and highlights art and architecture throughout.
A big thank you to our amazing design collaborators, reps, and manufacturers who helped bring these projects to life.
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Paramount Library
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St. Callistus Chapel
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HPS Office
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Marian Gardens at Our Lady of La Vang
May 22, 2025
Last week, our Seattle team had the pleasure of attending the 2025 IES Gloria Koch Leonidas Illumination Awards, hosted by IES Seattle at Block 41 in Belltown. The evening brought together a vibrant community of lighting professionals to celebrate outstanding projects from across the region. With multiple awards presented among various categories, it was an inspiring night highlighting the innovation and artistry driving Pacific Northwest lighting design.
We’re thrilled to share that our project, St. Callistus Chapel, received the IES Seattle Gloria Koch Leonidas Illumination Award for Interior Design. This recognition is especially meaningful for our Seattle team, as it marks our very first submission to the local IES chapter, and our first award.
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May 6, 2025
Oculus has a record number of projects nominated at this year’s IIDA Calibre Design Awards! A total of 8 projects were nominated including:
The Congressman Alan Lowenthal Trade & Education Center, nominated by Studio One Eleven in the Public & Community Spaces category, features dynamic lighting that enhances the interactive exhibits describing the operations and suitability initiatives at the Port of Long Beach. The lighting design needed to evolve with the space while remaining intentional so every design decision was about balance – highlighting key moments while ensuring the flexibility to grow and adapt, much like the port itself.
In the Transformation category, 11755 Wilshire designed in collaboration with Rios, epitomizes the design goal of transforming a stale office space into a multi-functional hospitality oasis. The abundance of decorative fixtures and accent coves make every corner of this space perfect for a spontaneous work meeting or a comfortable place to take a break.
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October 24, 2024
Last week, the Los Angeles Business Council celebrated its 54th Annual Architectural Awards, and Oculus is thrilled to announce that three of our projects have received awards.
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The Culver Studios
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Ranch Lot Studios
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9000 Wilshire
The Culver Studios was awarded a Community Impact Award. This iconic 100-year-old studio lot features 13 sound stages, offices, and outdoor event spaces, along with a range of amenities. In partnership with Gensler, Oculus provided lighting for the core and shell of five new multi-story digital media buildings, as well as enhancements to the plaza, event space, parking, and other outdoor areas.
Another studio project, currently under construction, also received a Community Impact Award. The Ranch Lot Studios in Burbank is set to be the largest under development in LA County. Our lighting design covers the core and shell of a five-story creative office space, production support offices, 16 sound stages, backlot facilities, and the entire 30-acre site. Oculus is working with Krismar Construction Co. and Worth Real Estate Group to meet LEED Gold standards for this project.
9000 Wilshire won a Workplace Award. In collaboration with Neil M. Denari Architects and HLW, this project is not only LEED Platinum certified but also holds WiredScore Gold and Fitwel certifications. Its striking purple facade—symbolizing a tailored suit—and a beautifully illuminated planting wall create a memorable presence at night, enhancing its identity from the street.
Congratulations to all the teams involved in these projects!
Note from Stephanie
July 3, 2024
By Stephanie Freedman
Stephanie Freedman, Oculus’ Marketing and Business Manager, put in many hours of work with the Lumen West Event Committee organizing this very successful show. We are so proud of her work assisting the local lighting design community.
The annual lighting design gala of Southern California, the Lumen West Awards were a grand success this year. Tickets were completely sold out two months before the event and nearly 100 projects were submitted for consideration. A total of 33 awards were presented, including 24 awards of merit and 7 awards of excellence.
Oculus proudly received an Award of Excellence for the Google Visitor Experience project in Mountain View, CA. By the end of 2023, this project stood as the largest new construction project to achieve the Living Building Challenge’s (LBC) Materials Petal Certification, a significant accomplishment in its own right.
From a personal standpoint, I had the pleasure of serving on the Lumen West committee for the second consecutive year. Drawing from my background in event planning, it was a rewarding experience to contribute to an organization highly valued by colleagues.
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April 25, 2024
Oculus Light Studio is thrilled to announce that seven of our projects have been nominated for this year’s 2024 Calibre Design Awards.
Still currently in the design phase, and nominated in the Unbuilt/On The Boards category, is the Century City Cultural Pavilion. We look forward to the completion of this project as we envision attending future galas like Calibre in a venue that we contributed in designing!
Nominated in the Work Medium category:
- Universal Music Publishing Group’s lighting scheme designed in collaboration with Gensler, includes a line of light that traces its way through the project uplighting the wood ceilings and dynamic atrium lighting that can be customized for live impromptu performances.
- 9000 Wilshire, a project in collaboration with Neil M. Denari Architects and HLW, has an eye-catching purple facade (a tailored suit was the metaphor), and the beautifully illuminated planting wall draws attention from the street scale, creating a strong identity at night.
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January 22, 2024
Oculus is proud and excited to announce that two of our coworkers have been selected as 2023 cohorts of lighting design’s global 40 under 40. Congratulations to Sarah Wang, Assoc. IALD, Associate Principal and Joel Weston, Assoc. IALD, Senior Associate.
Both Sarah and Joel are our long-time colleagues, with Sarah soon to celebrate her 10-year anniversary and Joel recently celebrated 8 years.
Oculus, along with Sarah and Joel would like to thank the distinguished panel of judges: Adam de Guara, Andrea Hartranft, Andrew Bissell, Charles Stone, Maneck Tandon, Sakina Dugawalla-Moeller, and Suzan Tillotson.
Thanks also to Light Collective for organizing the competition and FILIX Lighting for sponsoring.
Wishing Sarah and Joel much continued success at Oculus and congratulations to all the winners!
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June 27, 2023
The 2023 Lumen West Awards were held at The Novo at LA Live in Downtown Los Angeles on June 24, 2023. This year we celebrated 50 years of The Illumination Awards with a record-breaking number of awards!
Oculus is proud to have won two Awards of Merit for Interior Lighting Design, including Confidential Technology Company with ShubinDonaldson and CSULA Student Services Building where we collaborated with ZGF.
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October 18, 2022
Lumen West Awards are finally back in person! We are excited to announce that we won two Awards of Merit – one for the for 5670 Wilshire located in Los Angeles, and another for Amazon Frontier in Seattle.
5670 Wilshire was designed in collaboration with Rapt Studio and includes a remodeled lobby and amenity areas of a mid-century style tower located within Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile. A sculptural line of light forms a chandelier to enhance the high-end hospitality vibe of the space. Concealed lighting within knife edge coves highlights the fluted marble walls. The vibe is one of understated luxury.
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August 9, 2021
IES just announced their list of Illumination Merit Award Recipients and… drum roll please… Oculus has won 3 of these awards!
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July 1, 2021
Oculus Light Studio is proud to announce that we’ve won Architect Newspaper’s Best of Practice Award for Lighting Designer in the West! It’s a privilege to be in the company of the great design firms who have received this award this year and especially our clients and collaborators.
We are honored to be chosen for this award from amongst all of our fellow creative lighting design firms located in 13 states along the West Coast of the United States. And we look forward to continuing to deliver even more innovative and award-winning work as we near our 10-year anniversary.
Thanks to the Architect’s Newspaper for this award, and thank you to our clients, manufacturers and reps, and our talented, hardworking team!
June 26, 2021
Oculus is honored to receive an IES Lumen West Award of Merit for the new St. Louis Aquarium located in a historic train station, where guests travel from the “grand hall”, to river exhibits, to the ocean surface and into the depths. The lighting design brings this journey to life, transitioning from warm colors mimicking dappled sunlight over river exhibits, to the ocean tanks where bluer tones evoke the feel of being deep in the ocean.
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June 24, 2021
You heard it here first, Oculus Light Studio has just been awarded a prestigious IALD International Lighting Design Award of Merit for Amazon Nitro! We are truly honored, having spent over 5 years from beginning to end on this 850,000sf project for Vulcan and Amazon.
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June 22, 2020
The winners of the 2020 Lumen West Awards were announced this weekend, and although we didn’t get to dress up and have a fancy dinner this year, Oculus was still excited and proud to take home two more awards! Our IES Lumen West Award of Merit winners this year are the Aviron offices and Athletic Propulsion Labs retail store.
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April 10, 2020
Nominations for the 2020 IIDA Calibre Awards were announced this week, and Oculus is proud to be recognized in three separate categories!
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June 27, 2019
Oculus Light Studio has been on a roll this awards season! Starting with the Emerging Lighting Design Practice of the Year Award at the Lighting Design Awards, many more have now stacked up in the recent weeks.
This summer Oculus has won two IES National Awards of Merit for Mayumi and Saks Fifth Avenue Brickell; and at the Lumen West Awards, Mayumi and 5300 McConnell won Awards of Merit for Exterior Lighting.
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May 16, 2019
A big thank you to the Lighting Design Awards for distinguishing Oculus Light Studio as the Emerging Lighting Design Practice of 2019! We are incredibly honored to receive this recognition.
The Lighting Design Awards are presented by the Lighting Design Magazine based in the UK. This year, the gala was held at the Troxy in London on May 16, 2019. Of the 5 finalists selected, Oculus was announced as the winner and praised as “a studio whose passion is at the heart of everything it does.”
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March 21, 2019
We were just notified that Oculus Light Studio made the Shortlist for Emerging Practice of the Year for the Lighting Design Awards 2019! The qualifications were to be in the business for 7 years or less with proven exceptional innovation and consistent project successes. Check out the full shortlist here.
December 6, 2018
Oculus is pleased to find out that not one, but two of our projects are 2018 Winners awarded by the ICSC, the International Council of Shopping Centers. The ICSC U.S. Design and Development Awards are stated to “honor and recognize the premier design and development trends of retail projects, new developments, renovations, expansions, and retail store design within the U.S.”
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