Product Description

A practical guide to residential lighting, both new and remodelled, this text presents step-by-step instructions for lighting solutions for each room in the house and exterior surrounding areas.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1435024 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 203 pages

From Amazon.com
Glenn Johnson, who for more than 20 years has illuminated some of the world's most exclusive homes, galleries, clubs, and museums, now reveals his lighting philosophy and techniques in a step-by-step book that shows the reader how to achieve perfect illumination in every room of the home. In what is almost a textbook for lighting designers, Johnson guides the reader through the basics of lamps and lighting technology to a technical and aesthetic comprehension of how to dramatically transform a room or an entire building with carefully-planned illumination. --Mark A. Hetts

Review
"Johnson generously shares the expertise he's gained in 22 years as a lightning designer...now based in Utah, he jets around the country planning lighting for high-end clients with names like Spielberg, Getty and Newton-John."

Ingram
This new reference from internationally renowned lighting designer Glenn M. Johnson is the perfect step-by-step guidebook for designing the perfect lighting for every type of room in a home. Includes color photographs from the homes of the author's clients such as Steven Spielberg, Aaron Spelling, and others. 250 illustrations, 100 in color.

Customer Reviews

a sad commentary on contemporary aesthetics
Without impugning Mr. Johnson's ability as a lighting designer, I thought his book was uneven at best.

It's hard to separate the book from the work it features: generally the overwrought, more-is-better, ego-stroking stuff that passes for architecture in this era which I hope against hope is not the twilight of American culture. Mr. Johnson's relegation of the architect to a subsidiary of the general contractor in his formula for a design team is telling-it is either the arrogance of the nouveau-riche who blusters, "Just design me the d--d house; I'll attach my architecture to it as I see fit!" -or a sorry statement on feeble, derivative design that is typically being put forth today.

Mr. Johnson is a clever engineer; his innovations, such as removing the silver and etching the perimeter of a mirror to conceal a bathroom light source, are efficient as well as beautiful. However, on the pages of his book, the miniscule diagrams of such details require a magnifying glass to be appreciated.

The best works featured in the book are the kitchens and bathrooms. To me, it is here that Mr. Johnson demonstrates his sensitivity, and acknowledges that shadow is as important as light in creating a pleasing effect.

A cogent, coherent way of thinking about illumination
Those looking for "connect the dots" instructions for various lighting projects will probably be happier looking for more detail-oriented books, perhaps books in the Sunset or Black and Decker series.

That said, I rate this above the other dozen or so books I have recently acquired on this topic in preparation for working on a new house. The reason is simple: this is the book that suggests ways of thinking about lighting and demonstrates the consequences of planning -- or not planning -- in various ways. To think usefully, not to mention creatively, about lighting, I felt I needed a way to think about the overall impact. While other books provide lots of specific information about particular situations, this is the one that offers more of a systemic outlook.

But it is not lacking in specifics. It offers enough detail about every technical aspect of lighting that I finally feel able to listen more intelligently to lighting specialists and electricians. The information seems up-to-date, at least in terms of what's available in the market where we live, and it is the single book on the topic that I would not part with as we begin the day-to-day slogging through making another house into our home.

Don't buy this book if what you really want is a specific recipe to cook up half a dozen recessed lights and some task lighting in your kitchen. You'll be disappointed. But if you're willing to tease apart the vagaries of your particular space and suss out the special uses of your own kitchen, this book will reward you by empowering you to develop and evaluate lighting solutions for yourself.

More of a Sales Brochure
Though creative, this book seems to be nothing more than a sales brochure for Mr. Johnson's firm. There is not enough substance in the book to allow anyone other than Mr. Johnson or his associates to create the design schemes shown in the book. Mr. Johnson's ADAPTIVE design is creative, but is given only in a generalized sense. There is no real design criteria (lumens/ft2, wattage for varying spaces, etc.)to help the reader know if all ADAPTIVE design elements are actually achieved if someone other than Mr. Johnson were to design the lighting scheme. Mr. Johnson's work is very beautiful and artistic. I only wish the book had more substance.