We invited Dan onto Restoring Darkness to discuss wallpacks, those glaring lights you see on the sides of commercial and industrial buildings that seem to point straight into your eyes when you’re driving on the road or walking on the sidewalk. As these lights are purportedly for safety and security, the conversation morphed into a discussion about the need for light at night. Dan points out that there is light needed for safely walking down the sidewalk, light to feel safe and secure, and light to know where you are. There are many nuances to solving this, but as Dan points out, we can at least start with the glare from wallpacks. Dan Weissman, AIA, IALD, IES is an award-winning Architectural Lighting Designer, researcher, and craftsman specializing in sustainable design and digital technologies. As Associate Principal and Director of Lam Labs at Lam Partners, he collaborates on innovative projects and engages with leading academics to advance the field. Dan serves as Chair of the IES Daylighting Committee, is an active member of the IES Sustainable Design committee and Solemma’s Climate Studio Product Advisory Group, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Flint Collective. He periodically teaches at Harvard Graduate School of Design, and is a frequent guest lecturer nationally and internationally. An avid musician and amateur luthier of mandolin-family instruments, Dan also tends a garden, and two children along with his artist wife Lanie, and bakes two sourdough loaves a week.
Connect with Dan:
LAM Partners
Connect with Dan on LinkedIn
Dan on Instagram
Connect with The Soft Lights Foundation: www.softlights.org
Louis the XIV made Paris the first city to be lit at night and now, ironically, it seems France may be the leader in mitigating light pollution. David tells us about France’s law that shops must turn off their lights after the store is closed. Of course we have local ordinances in North America for that, but France seems to be better at enforcing the law. David contends that our cultures’ fear of night and the dark is Alfred Hitchcock’s fault. David is a French engineer, musician, amateur astronomer, and motorcycle enthusiast who speaks 3 languages and has worked in cybersecurity. He discovered the light pollution phenomenon 5 years ago, and is now acting to make people aware of this problem, and to fight it. David maintains that the difficulty is that people do not care, because they are not informed.
Connect with David:
https://rallumons-les-etoiles.eu/
https://www.facebook.com/p/Rallumons-les-Etoiles-100079622841681/?_rdr
https://twitter.com/rallumonetoile
https://fr.linkedin.com/company/rallumonsletoile
Connect with The Soft Lights Foundation: www.softlights.org
If you’ve driven in the country and experienced a car coming at you with their high-beams on, you sort of know what Michael Evenson experiences. Regular low-beam LED headlights are so bad for him that, wherever he is on the road, he has to stop until the “terror brightness” passes. Michael points out that we should look at Europe where headlights must be shielded or aimed to point only on the road. Why can’t we do that here?
Born in 1945 at the head of the Boomer Generation which meant that anything Michael was interested in became a fashion for much of the country. He got a liberal arts degree from UC Berkeley, and headed for the hills to carve out a life with other community building individuals, raising children, and preserving environmental health. He turned to farming and ranching, and has owned the Lost Coast Ranch, from the late 60s to the present. He is the owner and founder, in 1986, of OldGrowthTimbers.com specializing in dismantling old buildings to salvage the precious old redwood, while routinely trucking lumber and livestock on the back roads and highways of California. He is the long time President of the Mattole Salmon Group, spending a lifetime restoring salmon to the Mattole River.
Connect with Michael:
https://www.facebook.com/LostCoastRanchOrganic
https://oldgrowthtimbers.com/
Connect with The Soft Lights Foundation: www.softlights.org
We’ve all experienced a camera flash that leaves us blind for a couple of seconds. Now imagine that happening every time some LED headlights hit your eyes from cars on the freeway. And you’re going 60 MPH.That’s what happens to Johanna Wilson. Ironically, emergency lights are the worst of all! It’s so bad that she cannot drive at night. Let’s get these LED lights off the road! (https://www.facebook.com/p/Petition-to-ban-LED-headlights-100066336797916) Johanna Wilson is a seasoned business management professional with focuses in business administration, operations, and regulatory affairs. She is also deeply committed to her community, regularly volunteering for organizations in women’s leadership and human trafficking prevention. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and boxer-lab mix, Kingsley.
Connect with Johanna:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johanna-wilson-pmp-939a23ab/
Connect with The Soft Lights Foundation: www.softlights.org
In John’s case, bad lighting literally makes him sick. John has photophobia, which is a bit of a misnomer. He’s not afraid of light like someone is afraid of heights. Bright, artificial light gives him intense headaches, feelings of sickness and can bother his eyes so much that he can’t keep them open. Grade school was a challenge for him as he just couldn’t concentrate. The next time you see a kid in school fidgeting and disrupting, consider how the lights might be impacting him. John is from Vancouver British Columbia, growing up there and in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and now lives in Davis, California. He has been a reservoir oil engineer and a water resources control engineer. He is retired and now writes and records music for film and TV.
Connect with John:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-m-141b14296/
https://music.apple.com/au/album/goodbye-rachael-single/1712241258
Connect with The Soft Lights Foundation: www.softlights.org
Nick raises a good point: We all know some lighting designers, but how many lighting planners do you know? These people think differently about the context of lighting – transportation safety, environment, and the impact on livability and the quality of life that outdoor light at night will have on us. Are we stuck with 4000k LED street lighting? Can we turn this ship around? Nick Mesler is a Director at Evari Consulting, where he takes a data-driven approach to achieving positive street lighting design, livable communities, and active transportation outcomes. Nick considers himself a “plangineer” and prides himself in understanding both the big picture forethought and honest realities of implementation necessary to bring successful projects to life. Nick specializes in transportation safety, with a background in mobility planning and transportation operations. Nick has worked on large street lighting projects across the United States. Nick is a registered Civil Engineering PE in Oregon and Washington and a registered Traffic Engineer in California. He frequently presents and participates in events through the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), and the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP). He is a member of the IES Outdoor Nighttime Environment Committee and the IES Roadway Lighting Committee. Nick is regarded as an authority on lighting for transportation safety.
Connect with Nick:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickmesler/
evarilux.com
nightscore.com
Connect with The Soft Lights Foundation: www.softlights.org
Light should radiate outwards. That is Mark’s and the Soft Lights Foundation’s contention. LED’s by their nature radiate inwards, more like a laser than a traditional light source. As Mark says, is that really how we should be illuminating our living rooms and streets? Visit the Soft Lights Foundation (softlights.org)
Awareness. That is what light pollution needs. Awareness on the part of the consumer and the supplier. Tim Ryan is a landscape lighting designer who is aware of light pollution. A good designer is not looking for the brightest LED. It’s about nuance, balance, layering, and texture. As Tim says, “a little bit of light goes a long way.” Tim is The Lighthouse Group executive director, one of the principal lighting designers for the Lighthouse Design Studio and the professional photographer documenting all of the finished projects for our group. He has been on this “lighting ride” for 27 years, starting with integrated lighting into his landscape designs from the very beginning and 5 years later moving into the outdoor lighting business solely after falling in love with the mood, magic and totally new perspective that the illuminated garden space provides. He’s been with Lighthouse since 2015 and is passionate about educating the next generation of outdoor lighting designers for the future of this art.
The Lighthouse Group – https://lighthouse-lights.com
Connect with Tim on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-ryan-793b6857/
One thing leads to another. Jessica’s family’s favorite place is Joshua Tree National Park. There she likes to sneak out of the tent at night and look up at the stars. Living in the city and knowing what they’re missing there, she dove deeper into the subject of Light pollution. That brought her to FLAP Canada and discovering that the Lights Out movement really started there. Not only that, it was children and teachers that brought it to light. And so she thought it fitting to point that out in her book, “Lights Out: A Movement To Help Migrating Birds.”
Jessica Stremer is an award-winning children’s author who combines her love of science and writing to create books that inspire kids to explore and think critically about the world around them. Her other titles include GREAT CARRIER REEF (a Cook Prize Silver Medalist and NY Public Library Best Book of the Year), FIRE ESCAPE: How Animals and Plants Survive Wildfires (a JLG Gold Standard selection), PLIGHT OF THE PELICAN: How Science Saved a Species, TRAPPED IN THE TAR PIT, and WONDERFULLY WILD. Jessica obtained a B.S. in Biology, with an emphasis in Ecology, from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. She was a recipient of the 2023 Stephen Fraser Encouragement Award and 2023 finalist for the Russel Freedman award. When not writing you can find Jessica cheering from the sideline of her kids’ soccer games, spending time outdoors, and planning her next family adventure.
Find Jessica’s book here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Jessica-Stremer/195822105 https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1665931973?tag=simonsayscom
Connect with Jessica: www.jessicastremer.com @jstremer
Yep. Our first politician. And she’s on our side. Senator Ellman got Bill SB3501, The Outdoor Lighting Control Act, passed in both houses in Illinois. Senator Ellman will admit she didn’t get everything she wanted in it, but as she says, this is just one step on the path (this IS politics after all). We were impressed with her humility, honesty, and down to earth approach – politician or not. NOTE: There were some video and audio issues with Senator Ellman, but we deemed them not bad enough and the content too good not to release the episode. State Senator Laura Ellman was first elected to serve in the Illinois General Assembly in November of 2018 and re-elected in 2022. Senate District 21 includes parts of Bolingbrook, Downers Grove, Glen Ellyn, Lisle, Lombard, Naperville, Wheaton and Warrenville. Senator Ellman currently serves on a number of committees, including Agriculture; Appropriations, Chairperson of Environment and Conservation; Vice-Chairperson of Financial Institutions; Transportation and Veterans Affairs. Senator Ellman was the first child to attend college in both her parents’ families. After graduating from Grinnell College with a degree in mathematics, she earned a masters’ degree in applied statistics at the University of Iowa. Professionally, she has more than 25 years of experience working in manufacturing and engineering and dealing with regulations and policies. Senator Ellman currently lives in Naperville with her husband Pete, a musician and small business owner, and they are proud parents of two adult children.
Connect with Senator Ellman:
http://senatorlauraellman.com/
https://www.facebook.com/senatorellman/
https://www.instagram.com/statesenatorlauraellman/