A Word of Caution From Paul Marantz

Paul Marantz is an American architectural lighting designer, whose work includes the discothèque Studio 54, the Times Square Ball, the Tribute in Light, the World Trade Center Memorial, the Barnes Foundation, and the Burj Khalifa. He is a founder of the lighting design firm Fisher Marantz Stone.

Recently Fisher Marantz Stone received Tesla Awards for the Paradise Club at the Edition Hotel and the Ford Foundation, both in New York City. After discussing those awards in detail, Paul and I had a conversation about the state of the industry. He had some concerns to share about manufacturing before the pandemic. Paul explained that the world was moving from a lighting scenario that was built with 100-year old tried-and-true light sources to a scenario where everyone wants to replace all of their lighting with LEDs. He said, “It’s a little bit scary.” He explained that a large portion of the company’s work (along with everyone else’s) is based on technology that is not yet fully mature. Another concern was the state of manufacturing. “We are losing many of the manufacturers that we relied on. They are either being swallowed up or they are going out of business,” he said. We discussed Edison Price’s recent Chapter 11 filing.

Paul told me that these are very challenging times for everyone, “All designers bank on certain levels of quality from the companies which they specify and we always had a roster of manufacturers that were mainly based in the US, but also in Europe. Much of the product today is sourced controls to which we have become accustomed.” 

from Asia and not, I think, subject to the same quality