Annabelle Fung, a student at USC School of Architecture was Oculus’ summer intern. It was a first for Oculus, along with many other firms, to try internships remotely, and though the day to day interactions were missed, we realized that there were plenty of learning opportunities. Following is Annabelle’s account on her summer at Oculus. Here’s wishing you all the best in your upcoming endeavors, Annabelle!
Upon finishing my semester online, I was extremely grateful to have the opportunity to virtually join the Oculus cohort this summer. Working closely with the Oculus designers, I hit the ground running, wearing many hats as I dabbled in a variety of projects from mixed-use complexes to office buildings to single-family homes, designing away for interior and exterior lighting, crafting up renders, and even performing lighting calculations.
We hope you have all been staying safe and healthy out there during this unusual and unprecedented time. As you may know, we are currently on week 6 of working from home and it has been an interesting ride to say the least.
Earlier this month, we celebrated the birthdays of our Senior Associates, Jane You and Carol Prendergast. Usually, we like to plan a surprise craft activity, get a cake, sign a card, and sing as loud as we can to embarrass them, but this year was different. We had to figure out a fun and creative way to put together a birthday card as well as continue to help make their day feel special for them. We also sent some yummy birthday cupcakes to brighten their day!
Here are the digital birthday cards that the team put together (click photos to enlarge):
From all of us here at Oculus, we wish you both the happiest of birthdays and look forward to gathering together in person soon!
So here we are in week 2 of the work from home, WFH, situation.
We have been following the statistical charts produced by Johns Hopkins University and see that as of today the US has the 3rd highest number of confirmed cases and many people who need testing are not able to get them yet. The outlook has not become positive yet with the rate of cases going up faster than in Italy, though we all try to make the best of a tough state of affairs.
Oculus is excited to announce the opening of a studio in Seattle! We have been fortunate to work with long-term clients in the Seattle area for numerous years and even though we were a little further away, the collaborations have continued with multiple firms and repeat clients.
With Oculus Seattle, we will be closer to our many clients we enjoy working with, and it will be an opportunity to cultivate new relationships in the dynamic design community of the area. We will also be able to better service our projects already in design and construction in the region. Joel Weston, Associate, who has been in our LA office for over 4 years, is now permanently based in Seattle, where he is leading our work in the Pacific North West.
Another 5 year anniversary here at Oculus and this time we’re celebrating Chao-Wei! Time flies when we’re having fun!
Chao-Wei started off as an entry-level designer in 2014, only a couple of years after Oculus’ inception. During his time here he has grown to be a reliable and knowledgeable lighting designer with a fair share of lighting design awards. His portfolio consists of upscale restaurants and office projects with repeated work with his many clients. One of his recent projects, Birdie G’s, has been called ‘Hottest Restaurant of the Year’ by the LA Times.
Oculus Light Studio is proud to announce that Jane You has been promoted to the position of Senior Associate. Over her 6 years with Oculus, Jane has designed a wide variety of projects located nationally and internationally. These have included several large office spaces including those for Netflix and Amazon, buildings for Google and Facebook, retail and mixed-use projects in China and the Middle East, and aquarium projects across the U.S.
Oculus had one last summer hoorah on the beautiful island of Catalina! Thanks to Kathie, Stacie, and the SCI Lighting Solutions team, we had a fantastic group outing– it was a beautiful sunny day, and the team was ready for action!
Half of the group went ziplining for an adrenaline-filled aerial view of the island, while the other half went on an exciting off-road jeep tour around the east end of the island where they caught a glimpse of the local bison population.
With summer coming to an end, we’re reflecting back on our vacations, which have taken us all over the world, including to Europe, Hawaii, India, Chicago, Vancouver, and Portland. We hope you enjoy these snippets from our travels!
SARAH
During the Labor Day weekend, Sarah went hiking in the mountains surrounding Portland. She walked along the creeks deep within the forest to find the hidden waterfalls, and it definitely was worth hours of hiking to discover them. Having endured a long hot summer in LA, she felt refreshed and re-hydrated in the mist from the falls. After finishing her long hike, Sarah visited a local beekeeper; nothing tastes better than newly harvested honey paired with fruits just picked from their orchard!
We are currently looking for full-time entry-level lighting designers to join our diverse team currently working on a wide range of architectural lighting design projects located both locally and around the globe.
Happy New Year, everyone! We hope you had a wonderful holiday, as did we! Some of our Oculus team members rang in the new year with new travels– here are a few recaps:
STEPHANIE
While in San Francisco for the holiday break, Business & Marketing Manager, Stephanie, went to Onedome’s LMNL, an immersive experience designed to inspire, amaze and transform. There are 14 interactive rooms full of multiple artistic forms of lighting and projection. She enjoyed playing around in each room, making her feel like a kid again. continued→
This year the Oculus team went out for Holiday dinner and drinks at two of our recently completed lighting design projects located inside of the new Palisades Village! We started the evening out for fancy cocktails at Hank’s where we sat on the patio surrounded by the twinkling tree lights. Above us was the iconic and vintage-inspired Hank’s sign. Then it was time for our dinner reservation at Blue Ribbon Sushi. There we enjoyed sake and a delicious three-course sushi dinner. Afterwards, we strolled off into the Palisades Village and took a snapshot in front of Santa’s cottage, he must have been visiting from the North Pole that day. Oculus also held a white elephant style gift exchange the next day, and after some trading hopefully everyone left with a gift they wanted.
Happy holidays from Oculus and here is to another great year in 2019!
This month, Oculus Light Studio designer Nico Meyer attended the IALD Enlighten Europe 2018 lighting conference in Barcelona, Spain, and was sponsored through the Emerging Lighting Design Professionals Program. We are also proud to say this is the fifth sponsorship won by a young Oculus designer!
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.
This year’s LightShow West at the Las Vegas Convention Center is just a day away! Be sure not to miss Oculus Light Studio Principal, Archit Jain, participating for his second time as a panel member for the seminar The Dos and Don’ts of Working with a Commercial Lighting Designer!
THURSDAY – OCTOBER 18
9:00 – 10:00 am | Seminar S13
The Dos and Don’ts of Working with a Commercial Lighting Designer
Once a lighting designer has signed on for your commercial project, what’s next? What does this person owe you, and what do you owe them? This panel will discuss the mutual obligations and accountability of this relationship, and the determining factors for a successful and amicable outcome. continued→
It feels like only yesterday that Jane started here at Oculus, and here we are celebrating 5 years! The years passed by in the blink of an eye!
In the meantime, Jane has progressed to a creative, knowledgeable, and effective lighting designer with an extensive portfolio of projects ranging from large core and shell projects, tenant improvements, aquariums, multi-family developments, and retail stores and retail centers. She is also instrumental in mentoring younger designers to graduate to the Oculus design standards that we so zealously guard. And she remains a favorite of her many clients!
Being busy lighting designers throughout most of the year, it is always good to have some time away from our desks to explore, to travel, and to create lasting memories. Each year we ask our Oculus Team to reflect back on what they enjoyed about their summers and to share a bit about what they did. Please enjoy our pictures and notes in the galleries below, and we hope everyone enjoyed their summers as much as we did!
JANE
Red rock, glacial melt, oasis towns, figs, olives, honey, mint tea. The sun is bigger as it sets on the horizon in Morocco than at home, and the summer day stays hot well into the night. The most memorable night would be riding to camp in the Sahara and rushing into a tent to escape a sudden sandstorm followed by a passing thunderstorm… then coming out to clear skies with the milky way in full bloom above the dunes.
Ruoxiao Zeng is our student intern this year, and we feel lucky to have her here for the summer season before she goes back to her busy school schedule studying for a Master’s in Building Science at the University of Southern California! We asked her a few questions about her background, experience so far at Oculus, and why she has a general interest in lighting. We hope that after her internship she will consider a career as a lighting designer.
