Architectural Lighting Design
The interdisciplinary minor in architectural lighting design (ARLD) requires 18 semester hours and is open to all TCU students wanting to learn more about how lighting impacts the environment. Design professionals and community members interested in the lighting courses may sign up through TCU Extended Education. Minor course requirements vary depending on the student’s declared major.
See the course catalog for a complete list of course offerings and descriptions.
Why Study Architectural Lighting?
Once considered a specialty held only by electrical engineers and architects, architectural lighting design is now an independent discipline that melds both art and science. At TCU, interdisciplinary courses and hands-on projects provide architectural lighting design minors with the experiences that practicing interior designers and lighting designers encounter but most design programs don’t offer. You’ll learn how to manipulate natural and artificial light to affect visual merchandise displays, theatre sets and a range of physical environments.
Internships
ARLD minors have landed internships with Steelman Partners in Las Vegas, Archilume in Austin; Johnson Light Studio in New York City, Bouyea & Associates in Connecticut, and Craig Roberts Associates in Dallas. Lighting graduates are in high demand and often return to work with the organization for which they interned. Learn more about internship opportunities.
Career Opportunities
TCU architectural lighting design minors pursue careers in visual merchandising, architectural lighting design, interior design and sales. Some students obtain advanced lighting or architecture degrees at graduate schools such as Parsons School of Design and the University of Las Vegas. Learn more about career opportunities.
History
With the Nuckolls Fund for Lighting Education grant in 1996, lighting design at TCU emerged as an interdisciplinary minor with a dedicated, well-equipped educational lighting lab within two years in response to high student demand. The lighting designer-in-residence program has attracted a veritable who’s who of lighting design, including Paul Gregory, Chip Israel, Jonathan Speirs and Anne Militello.