2027 Howard Brandston Student Lighting Design Education Grant

Submissions Open October 1

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About The Howard Brandston Grant

The Howard Brandston Student Lighting Design Education Grant was established to encourage and recognize students who have demonstrated exceptional professional promise through the presentation of an original and ingenious solution to a supplied design problem. The Grant Award is a plaque and a grant in the amount of $3,000 USD. Honorable Mention (if awarded) is a certificate and a grant in the amount of $1000 USD. The grant is awarded at the IES Annual Conference each year. Group entries are acceptable. However, if a group entry is selected, each student will receive a plaque or certificate. The monetary grant will be divided among the recipients. To be eligible to enter this competition, applicants must be enrolled as full-time students in an approved academic degree program. Approved programs are those offering a substantial core of illumination studies and are either engineering technology programs accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology; architecture programs accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board; interior design programs accredited by the Foundation for Interior Design Research; or theatre programs accredited by the National Association of Schools of Theatre. If there is a question about accreditation, please query. The purpose of the Howard Brandston Student Lighting Design Education Grant is to foster good lighting and to advance the appreciation of lighting as an art.

Project Description

The project scope is focused on expanding a multi-tenant office building located within St. Louis Missouri. The scope is set by the developer to provide the lighting design a typical floor to be occupied by 1 tenant. This typical floor will be replicated from Level 3 up to Level 9, which is the highest floor in the building. This developer has had a lot of happy tenants in their existing building which caused them to decide on expanding. The requested lighting design should make a statement that will continue the building complexes track record of providing high-quality office spaces. Project scope consists of enclosed office spaces, open office, conference room, zoom room, break area, waiting area and bathrooms.

The expansion building is located on the corner of two cross streets and has an east side connection to the existing building. Across the street on the south side of the office complex is another office building that is eight-stories high. Directly across from the office complex on the west side of the street is a two-story restaurant. The street on the west side of the building is a busy street in St Louis, so the developer saw the opportunity to buy the land and expand their footprint onto well trafficked street. Creating a selling point for any tenants that want to say their office is located there. The window placements also provide a view into the workplace and hopefully influence others to want to move into the building as well.

As a tenant, they will enter through the main lobby and elevator core of the existing building and walk into the welcoming waiting area with a secretary’s office nearby. While the stairs are for moving between tenant spaces and the elevator will be used for deliveries. There are two primary and two secondary offices with windows to the exterior. The open office portion of the space is in a prominent location near large glass windows. The space has a conference room that is large enough to fit the whole office into. And a smaller conference and zoom room that is equipped for video calls with a camera and TV. There is a lunch break area with a display area located nearby where the tenant can display content that defines their company which employees or guests can review. As well there are three bathrooms located within the tenant space.

Throughout most of the space the ceiling heights are at 10’-6” AFF. While in the enclosed offices and conference room the ceiling height is 9’-0” AFF. The ceilings in all areas are GYP with a white finish. All walls in the space are to have a white finish. There will be cork boards mounted to the walls within the display area, the open office and on the 4 walls of the conference room. Understand that ambient lighting levels must vary in different parts of the scope. The circulation, waiting and break areas shall have higher ambiance. While the offices must allow for dynamic ambiance in being able to provide adjustment for the office workers to set the ambiance level that allows them to work best.

As lighting designer, you are being asked to design the permanent lighting systems throughout the scope area. Lighting shall be well balanced and appropriate to the function and requirement of the spaces. The common spaces should have a unified feeling throughout that doesn’t change tone as you navigate through. The offices and enclosed spaces should have their own individual feelings to them but still connect to the theme applied for the full tenant space. Both secondary offices should have matching designs and both primary offices should have their own matching designs. The developer wants to offer tenants similar spaces for their uses without favoring one over another in the pairs.

Any other details necessary for the completion of your lighting design are to be inferred from the drawings and/or developed on your own. Requests for further information will not be honored as this would provide an unfair advantage.

The judges give added weight to your design concepts. While high quality presentations are expected, the judges strongly encourage entrants to clearly demonstrate their design concepts inspired by the space rather than simply producing elaborate computer graphics presentations.

Download Project Plan [PDF 85 KB]
Download Floor Plan [PDF 56 KB]
Download Reflected Ceiling Plan [PDF 42 KB]
Download Floor Plan [DWG/ZIP 386 KB]
Download Reflected Ceiling Plan [DWG/ZIP 301 KB]

Submission Requirements

Submit electronically (1) PDF file with maximum 15MB in size and no more than (5) 11X14 ledge or A3 size pages. PDF file shall include the following:

1. Written statement (maximum 300 words) on project objectives, lighting design approach and concept.
2. Lighting plan (within project scope line indicated) with all light fixtures clearly labelled.
3. Illustrative materials demonstrating the lighting concepts. This may include, but is not limited to renderings, diagrams, sections, elevations, perspectives, and details. Inspirational and reference images are recommended.
4. Lighting fixture schedule. This must include, but is not limited to, fixture designation, description, and specific optic performance.
5. Conceptual lighting control intent (if applicable).
6. The use of AI in your submission is prohibited.

Go to Submission Form