Judging from the comments on our post yesterday, and the phone calls I’ve received this afternoon, the state’s lighting designers are none-to-pleased about a proposal they say will kill their business and they are organizing to stop the bill.

Granville McAnear, a principal at Craig Roberts Associates here in town, passed along a copy of a letter he sent to Sen. Kip Averitt, who added the section to the bill.

Mr. Averitt and Mr. Meeks,

The hundreds of of lighting design companies and thousands of lighting design professionals in Texas have launched a blistering campaign against your added language in Rep Smith’s original HB 2649. We are desperately concerned about why the language was added and how anything like this gets added without open discussions with the lighting, architectural and engineering industries. I’m not sure how the bill “leaked” to the lighting industry ONLY THE NIGHT BEFORE IT PASSED THE SENATE, but had it not, we would all remain oblivious and apparently lose our ability to practice our profession. We are shocked and appalled that something like this can happen without dialogue, debate or notification and expect a written statement with an explanation and reasoning behind your action.

We also demand your proposed solution to how the thousands of architectural, landscape, theatrical, film and entertainment lighting designers and their employees AS WELL AS architects, landscape architects, interior designers, decorators, directors, producers, event planners, home owners and developers that depend on lighting designers are supposed to continue with current and planned projects with a gaping void in the process and effort that lighting designers would provide. We would imagine such severe implications to your added language would have been well thought out in advance and clearly considered before adding this to the bill.

Craig Roberts Associates, Inc., since 1976, was the first and longest practicing architectural lighting design professional in the state with a long history of important and valuable contributions to the built environment, including extensive renovations to our own Texas State Capitol several years ago. In over 30 years we have worked on over 130 hotels and resorts, over 120 retail stores, over 80 commercial and institutional properties and almost 200 residences and would be out of work tomorrow should this bill pass into law.

While we and the lighting design industry as a whole are not opposed to licensing and registering members of our industry, it must be done with the cooperation and dialogue from important organizations directly affected by any such legislation. I am sure the IALD, IESNA, AIA, ASID, IEEE and other societies would be happy to discuss this matter further in a professional manner.

Regards,

Granville McAnear
Principal