Architect (Large Firm) – Canada Ottawa, Ontario
Lighting Designer Glenside, Pennsylvania
Moriyama Teshima Architects
BEAM
Moriyama Teshima Architects (MTA) is leading the field in environmental responsibility and sustainability. The firm has been a trailblazer in Toronto, designing to Tier 3 and 4 of the city’s Green Building Standards (the city’s step program towards 2030 targets). The firm consistently delivers buildings that are welcoming, enduring, and inspiring focal points for academic and social life. Their integrated approach to sustainability in the overall improvement of a building’s performance is a holistic one. The firm routinely strives to significantly reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in their building designs to achieve as close to net-zero as possible. The breadth and caliber of MTA’s work has positioned their practice as a leader in passive principled sustainable design, decarbonization of buildings, and mass timber technology. MTA believes that the journey is one not taken alone—it is a collective effort to change design and construction culture.
For over 22 years, BEAM has designed a wide range of projects providing excellence in lighting design. Experienced lighting designers with backgrounds in architecture, interior design, film and TV production, and lighting equipment sales create the successful studio. The founder and principal of BEAM is a female architect who realized early in her career the importance of light in creating beautiful and exceptional spaces. Paired with a self-taught lighting designer, they formed BEAM to grow the firm into what it is today: good listeners, passionate designers and collaborative team members that excel in communicating lighting designs. We are also realistic designers: When challenged with a tight budget, we focus on retaining a lighting concept to elevate the space as much as possible. Our award-winning portfolio is diverse: hospitality, workplace, education, religious, civic, facade, and residential. We also relish the small projects, which often are the most transformative: relighting an underlit porte-cochere, illuminating an historic fountain, or enhancing a city garden, as they exemplify how good lighting alters the lives of its habitants.
“I appreciate the variety of lighting conditions that have been created. You definitely don’t get a sense of BEAM being a one trick pony.” —Dori Tunstall
Tom Arban, J.Totaro
“I appreciate Moriyama’s community focus within civic and institutional work. The quality of and consistency across the projects that is represented is also really admirable.” —Stephanie Lin
THE ARCHITECT’S NEWSPAPER
BEST OF 2024
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