Suzan Tillotson,
BID 1981
President & Founder, Tillotson Design Associates, New York
Lighting designers operate within a niche of specialists who understand the physics of light production and distribution and the physiology and psychology of how humans perceive light. They focus on fixed lighting, working with architects, engineers, interior designers, theatrical consultants, and others to illuminate the built environment, inside and out. Although the importance of lighting design is ever-increasing, most people outside the design professions couldn’t name a famous lighting designer or point out an architectural gem known for its lighting design. In fact, most people only notice lighting when it’s absent or poorly done. Fortunately, Suzan Tillotson (BID 1981), president and founder of Tillotson Design Associates, has never suffered from this lack of insight.
Suzan has always been interested in light. She transferred to a major in interior design after taking a lighting design course during her second year in the architecture program. “I fell in love immediately and knew that lighting was what I wanted to do,” she recalled. Thanks to the LSU Career Center and career days, she met several representatives from prestigious lighting design firms who helped further her interest in the field.
Married prior to receiving her degree in interior design, Suzan began her career in Baton Rouge where she and her husband were living. She worked as a draftsperson at Levy-Kramer Associates, a local engineering firm, where she quickly moved up the ladder to head the lighting department. In her six years at Levy-Kramer, Suzan cut her teeth in lighting design on churches, schools, and hospitals; she worked on the Pennington Biomedical Research Center and the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition in New Orleans. “But it still wasn’t quite the work I wanted to do,” she said.
In the economic downturn of the 1980s, Suzan and her husband both started looking for new careers. Suzan’s experience in lighting design helped her land a job at Flack + Kurtz Engineers in New York City, at which point the Tillotsons did something very brave—even by today’s standards. They moved to New York on one salary with a two-year-old son!
Suzan worked at two engineering firms in New York before joining Jerry Kugler, where she became a 49 percent owner and later formed Kugler Tillotson Associates. She established many of her long-term client relationships during her 16½ years at Kugler. But after 9/11, the majority of architecture projects were on hold, and business continued to slow down due to yet another economic downturn. Proving two economic downturns can sometimes make a right, Suzan left Kugler in 2004 and started her own company, Tillotson Design Associates. The independent lighting design firm entered its 11th year in business in 2015.
TDA’s impressive list of projects include interior and exterior lighting for academic buildings, corporate facilities, libraries, lobbies, museums and galleries, performance spaces, places of worship, residencies, restaurants, restoration, and retail. The firm completed the lighting design for Lincoln Center Plazas, the School of American Ballet, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Wright restaurant at the Guggenheim, and the East River Waterfront in New York. They worked on the Seattle Central Public Library, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Israel Museum, and retail spaces for Diane Von Furstenburg, PRADA, Vera Wang, and more. Outdoor lighting is one of their specialties and an area Suzan particularly enjoys. “I love extending the public’s ability to go outside,” she said. “Last year we were hired by the Vieux Carre Commission to write exterior building, mounted lighting guidelines, which have since been adopted.”
View Suzan’s alumniportfolio.
Suzan is most proud of the projects she’s done but also the opportunities TDA has given to so many designers. She enjoys being a mentor and hopes everyone she has worked with can look back and say they learned something from her—whether it be balancing a career with home life or overcoming professional challenges as women. “So many women—still—in the architectural and engineering firms hit a glass ceiling that doesn’t exist in lighting design. Knowing so much about such a specific subject provides security; no one can challenge your level of expertise,” she said.
When asked to give advice for those interested in pursuing a career in lighting design, Suzan shared her opinion. “The only way lighting designers can really make it is to live in a large, metropolitan area like New York City. Sticking to residential lighting will always be a struggle—not many people can afford specialty lighting services. Similar to the acoustical and theatrical consultant fields, lighting designers need big projects. It’s tough living in the city when you’re young, with an entry-level salary. But the sacrifices you make in the beginning will pay off big in the end.”
