A lighting revolution
Technology and design are throwing new light on the interior of many homes.
Retailers and designers says there's much more to lighting than stopping at a shop and buying a lamp.
"I am always dealing with ideas such as balancing natural light and lighting," says South Side architect Gerald Lee Morosco, adding that clients seem to understand that lighting is a big part of home architecture.
Interior designer Nancy Drew from Edgewood says "the earlier I can get to lighting issues in a project the better."
That allows her to install features such as recessed lighting, as she did in the high-tech media room at the Junior League of Pittsburgh Show House in Squirrel Hill in the spring.
It also allows use of styles that range from the ultra-contemporary to traditional wrought iron.
But lighting consultant Joe Rey-Barreau from the Illinois-based American Lighting Association, believes lighting has hit a major junction box.
"We are in the midst of a revolution in lighting," he says, with the growing use of compact fluorescent lamps and LEDs (light-emitting diodes).
Holly Connor, manager of the Lighting Gallery store in Greensburg looks at Western Pennsylvania as a conservative market, but still thinks "LEDs will really take off in the next five years."
She says the practicality of the slender tubes is attractive but it also helps residents "go green," or become more energy-efficient.
Steve Spiegel, owner of Liberty Lighting Products in O'Hara, which specializes in architectural lighting, says he constantly is dealing with LED issues in work with designers. Those systems use little electricity and are well suited to the straight-line designs that show up in contemporary homes and lofts.
While lighting professionals agree at the forward gaze of illumination, they also agree it isn't a sure bet right now.
They sometimes echo of the words of Ronald Cohen, manager of the Lighting by Erik store in Ross.
He says advanced-technology lighting is tempting, "but has a way to go."
Giving the present some style
Lighting retailers say customers in this area are fairly conservative, but interest in newer styles is growing constantly.
The wrought-iron, Mediterranean look maintains constant popularity, says Drew Pascoe, a salesman at Cardello Lighting in Cranberry, "because it is very traditional and fits in everywhere."
Spiegel says the Mediterranean style has been strong for about 10 years and he sees it hanging on because of that staid dependability.
"We're not a contemporary area. We are just more traditional," says Connor, from Greensburg.
She says the colored glass used to offer a decorative element helps the Mediterranean look sustain its popularity.
Spiegel says the retro-'50s appearance has been showing up lately in catalogs and in showrooms.
Lighting by Erik's Cohen says it is one of the more popular looks at his store. But Spiegel raps what he call its " 'Leave It To Beaver' look," referring to the TV comedy from that era.
He much prefers what he calls the "Euro-, straight-line" look that is being used in many contemporary residences.
Consultant Rey-Barreau, who also is an associate professor at the College of Design at the University of Kentucky, sees the use of colored glass in wrought-iron lamps as an increasingly popular style in condos that are part of what he calls the "new urbanism."
"They are very ornamental and very whimsical," he says, adding that they seem to offer a completely different style from the lean starkness that often is the look in lofts.
"There is a new awareness to bringing both looks to the city," he says.
Overall, though, he says, choosing a light or a system is not the easy job of stopping in a furniture store and picking up a lamp. "There is almost too much" from which to choose, he says.
That doesn't even get into the world of LEDs and compact fluorescent lamps.
The glow of tomorrow
Lighting and design professionals see the growth of LEDs and compact fluorescents as changing the gleam of the lighting market.
There are some issues, such as the low illumination of LEDs. Those systems can be used to outline stairs and hallways, but don't work as efficiently with other kinds of jobs, such as brightening rooms.
But Rey-Barreau predicts growth is near with LED bulbs that "will be twice as luminescent as what we have now."
GE Consumer & Industrial, headquartered in Cleveland, sees "ever-heightening interest in energy-efficient lighting from both business customers and traditional consumers," says Kraig Kasler, vice president of marketing for the division recently renamed Lumination.
Rey-Barreau points out that brightness and color are major areas of concern with many consumers. By making light from compact fluorescent lamps closer to the familiar shade of incandescents, manufacturers have been able to capture a bigger audience, he says.
Kasler, for instance, says the fluorescent share of the GE market was only 1 percent in 2000, but is up to 7 percent now.
Susan Bloom, director of corporate communications from Philips Lighting Co. in New Jersey, says sales of compact fluorescents have increased 300 percent in the past five years.
Professionals such as Cohen and Morosco, however, all point to elements that have made acceptance difficult. Cohen, for instance, says the limited number of dimmable fluorescent bulbs has been a drawback.
That can become a major issue. Morosco says he tries to incorporate dimming features in all of his designs as a way of cutting electric use and of creating a better blend with natural light.
He has found an efficient way of doing that with an incandescent built.
He uses incandescent bulbs rated at 130 volts instead of the usual 120 volts. Linking their greater durability with the use of a dimmer, a resident can cut back on the use of power, he says.
That creates a light bulb that will last into the range of the fluorescents.
But retailers and lighting experts see the beam shining one way.
"Fluorescents, whether you like it or not," says Rey-Barreau, "are the lights of the present and the future."
Specific jobs
Rooms should be built around three specific lighting jobs, says a GE lighting expert Kathy Presciano.
• General lighting provides the overall illumination that allows walking or working in a home. It is provided by chandeliers, hanging fixtures or wall lamps. Extra-tall and cathedral ceilings can present special problems because they remove light from users.
• Task lighting provides illumination for special jobs, such as reading or sewing, and can be handled by simple items such as table lamps or more sophisticated elements such as the lamps built under kitchen counters,
• Accent lighting draws attention to parts of rooms or noteworthy elements in them. Presciano suggests lights above picture frames, track fixtures, recessed lighting or wall sconces for decoration.
