How Engineering, Creativity, and Artistic Design Lit Up This Office Space
A multi-discipline civil engineering firm mixed outside and inside lighting to open the space of this high-speed railway office redesign in Houston, Texas.
Edited by Terry Persun
Cool Stuff
May 26, 2026
The two foundational principles of lighting include the qualitative (or aesthetic) aspect and the quantitative (or engineering) aspect of light. Architectural lighting is concerned with the qualitative lighting experience. The qualitative pertains to ensuring that a space has a pleasing ambience. It is the artistic interspersing of shadows and light, darkness and illumination, highlighting certain figures and form. This is where creativity truly matters.
Othon Engineering is a multi-discipline civil engineering firm focusing on private and state-sponsored projects, such as a segment of California’s high-speed railway with offices located in Houston, Texas. At the very beginning of the project, “Othon’s goal was to [afford] every desk’s seat a direct view outside—a challenge proven difficult with private offices lining the perimeter of the window walls,” designer Amy Vonderau explained.
Vonderau goes on to explain that Othon Engineering’s original space was a typical closed private office with full-height panel cubicles, which basically created a maze of long corridors. There was a snag in hiring new talent because of the compartmentalized work environment. By opting to design their new space with an open concept, this gave way to community areas for project teams to easily interact.
As the plan took shape—the goal of direct exterior view posed a problem with ensuring that lighting levels were balanced. “The building wasn't originally designed for an open concept ceiling, so when the lay-in ceiling was removed we had to make the most sense we could of the existing elements,” Vonderau said.
Vonderau decided to create the storefront eyebrow that extended from the top of the glass in the private offices into the open ceiling area, creating a shelf. Within the shelf they used the 1-inch linear light that followed the perimeter of the private offices which in return balanced the exterior natural light into the open space. This also served as a wayfinding element that leads one from the reception to the open work area, then down the corridor to the community conference room—while ensuring this light wasn’t a glare bomb but rather an ambient continuous glow. The eyebrow flowed through the space creating the perfect path to be illuminated to help balance the natural light from the exterior into the core.
Ultimately, private offices were kept along the perimeter window walls but rebuilt with glass to allow the center work area a direct view of the outside from every desk. When Vonderau specified a long linear 1-inch LED tape light that needed custom lengths and continuous corners, Jason Long, from Long Term Builders, submitted Alcon Lighting’s product, which she approved. “The linear LED light strip was the main design element within this renovation,” Vonderau said.
The client for this project was Othon Engineering, while the architect was Lettie Harrell of LH2 Architecture. Amy Vonderau was the designer and Jason Long of Long Term Builders was the lighting specifier.
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