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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November 6, 2018
We are excited to learn that our lighting design project, Mayumi, won an AIA Los Angeles‘ Design Honor Award! We are especially proud of our hard work in helping to create this unique hotel environment and were happy to have been included on the project team with architect Shubin Donaldson.
This adaptive-reuse building features common areas that act as social hubs, such as the courtyard with a fire pit and a community kitchen, as well as flexible-stay options in their private micro-units.
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August 10, 2018
We’re happy and honored to announce that Oculus Light Studio has won three awards at the 2018 IES Illumination Awards:
Award of Merit for Fender Los Angeles
Award of Merit (Interiors Category) for RDC/S111 Urban Office
Award of Merit (Energy & Environmental Category) for RDC/S111 Urban Office
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June 25, 2018
We are happy and honored to announce that Oculus Light Studio was a recipient of four awards at the 2018 Lumen West Awards Dinner on Saturday, June 23, 2018 at the Millenium Biltmore Hotel. The Illuminating Engineering Society of LA and Orange County (IESLA & IESOC) yearly hosts this big awards night for the best of Southern California lighting design.
Award of Excellence – Energy & Environmental Design for RDC/S111 Urban Office
Award of Merit for RDC/S111 Urban Office
Award of Merit for AT&T San Francisco Flagship
Award of Merit for Parasol Park
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June 1, 2018
International Interior Design Association Southern California Chapter hosted their 2018 Calibre Design Awards on Friday, May 18th, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. We are happy to announce that our lighting design project, RDC/Studio111 Office, won in the Work-Medium Category at the Gala Event! Congratulations to RDC/Studio111, and a special thanks for including us as part of the design team.
You can view all the winning projects here!
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April 6, 2018
We are proud to announce that Oculus Light Studio is a recipient of a 2018 Shop! Retail Gold Award. Per their website, “The Shop! Awards Competitions recognize the best new designs in retail environments and experiences. Considered by many as the “Academy Awards” of the retail design and brand marketing industries, we offer four award programs, each celebrating a different area of design expertise.”
2018 Gold Award Winner
Roots, York, ON, Canada
Congratulations to: CallisonRTKL
