BENYA’S ART & SCIENCE
Randy Borden - He Spoke Bespoke By JAMES R. BENYA, PE, FIES, FIALD
The faux alabaster chandelier designed by Randy Borden and Allen Reaves in an Everline Hotel and Resort (formerly Resort at Squaw Creek) meeting room in Olympic Valley, CA.
As most lighting designers know, not every luminaire can be found in a catalog or website, especially those with a significant aesthetic relative to the project. While many of us have aesthetic skills that include being creative enough to imagine what a luminaire should look like, a small percentage of us are skilled at manufacturing engineering and realizing our ideas. Most of us, including me, rely upon lighting fixture sales representatives and the companies they represent to help us find the perfect luminaire. And often our visions need a custom or specialty lighting
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designing lighting
manufacturer to make them come true. In the history of lighting design in Northern California, a number of companies set up shop, and their products served many markets. Several had great significance to me as a lighting designer, including Gardco, Peerless, Boyd, and Prescolite, most of which have since been acquired as the lighting industry consolidated in the last three decades. What remained were a few smaller and specialty companies, and there was one company, Shaper Lighting,