News

Helen Diemer, president of The Lighting Practice, a leading lighting design firm headquartered in Philadelphia, will speak about sustainable design in site lighting at the annual meeting of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. The conference, to be held January 24-26, 2010, at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J., is expected to attract 600 landscape architects. Diemer's presentation, "Sustainable Techniques for Site Lighting," will be held from 3:10-4:00 p.m. on Sunday,
January 24.

Diemer, who has more than 25 years experience designing lighting for public, corporate, retail, healthcare, hospitality and education environments, will speak about strategic choices in site lighting design, from selecting the most appropriate lighting source for each space to deciding the duration, intensity and hours of energy usage.

"When it comes to appearance, safety and enjoyment of outdoor areas, how you use light impacts the viability of many places, from shopping centers and parking lots, to college campuses and pedestrian bridges," Diemer said. "To ensure this important lighting is also sustainable, the site lighting design must be strategic. It must serve the needs of people first, use natural resources efficiently and effectively, and be economically viable."

Diemer is currently at work designing new, sustainable lighting for the U.S. Capitol Dome in Washington, D.C. Her firm has also created the sustainable lighting for other public buildings and spaces, including Asia Trails at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C.; the Stewart's Building, an office and retail complex in Baltimore, Maryland; and the Domain mixed-use development in Austin, Texas.

She is a Fellow and past-president of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) and a member of The Illuminating Engineering Society (IESNA). As a former chair of the IALD's Energy Committee and a member of the IESNA Energy Management Committee, she was involved in development the lighting energy requirements of ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1. She has a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering degree from the Pennsylvania State University and has lectured and authored articles on a variety of lighting design issues.