When a Summer Job Taught Me More Than Wiring
When I was 13, growing up in rural Georgia, my dad told me to get a summer job “to keep me busy and out of trouble.” I joined a small electrical contractor, running wire and helping on job sites—a role I kept through college while studying electrical engineering. Those early years taught me lessons that no textbook could: the value of coordination, communication, and understanding the roles of everyone involved in a project.
That perspective still guides how I approach lighting and controls today. The systems themselves are complex, but even the best technology can fall short if the people behind it aren’t aligned. In modern campus and healthcare projects, success is less about the fixtures on the plan and more about knowing who does what—and making sure the right voices are heard at the right time.
Why Lighting Can’t Be Ignored
Lighting shapes experience, comfort, and productivity—and it brings the architect’s vision to life. In hospitals, it can affect patient recovery; in universities, it influences learning and focus. Poorly planned lighting or mismanaged controls can create frustration, reduce performance, drive up long-term operating costs, and undermine the aesthetic and experiential intent the design team worked to achieve.
Getting it right requires foresight, coordination, and an understanding that buildings aren’t static—they’re systems that will be maintained for decades. Staff, budgets, and schedules all collide in real-world projects, making thoughtful design and early engagement essential.
When Projects Drown in Complexity
Construction projects today juggle tight budgets, aggressive schedules, and increasingly sophisticated technology. Between evolving code requirements, sustainability goals, and multiple stakeholders, it’s easy for details to slip through the cracks.
Complexity is the true villain: mismatched responsibilities, late-stage changes, and unclear sequences of operation can turn a carefully designed project into a chaotic mess. Facilities teams often get pulled in at the last minute, asked to provide input while they’re already running full-tilt to keep the lights on. It’s not that facilities teams aren’t capable—they’re simply overextended. The real onus is on design and engineering teams to anticipate their needs and engage them thoughtfully.
Who’s Really Holding the Flashlight?
A major source of confusion in lighting design—and in building projects generally—is who holds which responsibilities. The sales funnel muddies this further: manufacturers push product, contractors chase install efficiencies, architects focus on aesthetics, and engineers safeguard code and performance. Somewhere in this maze, facilities teams are asked, “What do you want us to do?”
That’s the wrong question. It’s not the job of facilities leaders to map every detail of fixture layouts, controls, or long-term maintenance implications. Their priority is uptime and smooth operations. The responsibility sits with engineers and designers to bring facilities into the conversation at the right moments—to frame choices, explain trade-offs, and confirm what aligns with long-term goals. That engagement requires respect for facilities’ limited bandwidth, offering clarity instead of expecting them to wade through technical noise.
The Hidden Traps That Derail Projects
When lighting projects stumble, it’s usually not because anyone lacks intelligence or good intentions. It’s because complexity and chaos creep in. Consider these cases from the field:
Case 1: Motion Senors and HVAC Integration
Consider a project where temperature setback control is needed based on occupancy. To meet energy code requirements, motion sensors are placed in the electrical package rather than the HVAC package. The intent is to share the motion sensor logic with the HVAC system via a shared BACnet/IP protocol, eliminating duplication.
Here’s where the breakdown happens:
- The HVAC contractor does not allocate programming time, since the sensors fall under the electrical scope.
- The electrical contractor underestimates programming needs, because there is no clear sequence of operations defining how the data should be shared.
- The owner ends up facing finger-pointing between contractors, while the intended system performance remains unmet.
What began as a smart integration strategy turned into a costly oversight. Neither contractor felt responsible, and the Owner paid the price.
This entire issue could have been avoided if the facilities team had been engaged during design to help establish a clear sequence of operations. If this sequence, along with a points list, had been documented in a Division 25 specification (25 90 00), then both the electrical and mechanical drawings could have pointed to the same reference. Each contractor would have understood their programming obligations, and the Owner would have realized the intended benefit.
Case 2: Value Engineering and Lighting Quality
Another common pitfall occurs during the value engineering process. Cost pressures often drive contractors, distributors, and reps to propose substitutions for lighting fixtures. While this keeps budgets in check, it often degrades performance.
For example:
- A signature chandelier, central to the architectural intent, might be replaced with a lower-cost alternative that reduces the intended visual impact.
- A carefully coordinated lighting control sequence might be simplified, limiting flexibility and energy efficiency.
If this process happens without designers or facilities in the loop, the project can lose both performance and design vision. A better approach is to involve designers and facilities staff in evaluating substitutions. In many cases, it may be acceptable to swap “white goods” (standard fixtures), but critical design elements should remain untouched.
With facilities involvement, decisions are made with both cost and long-term operability in mind.
All of these failures stem from one villain: a chaotic process that misaligns rols and responsibilities.
Building Bridges, Not Silos
The antidote to chaos is not more paperwork or heavier oversight. It’s relationships built on clarity. Successful projects happen when engineers, architects, and facilities leaders know what’s expected of them and when.
For lighting, this means:
- Engineers and designers lead by setting strategy and translating goals into technical solutions.
- Facilities teams are engaged at key checkpoints—not to carry the burden of design, but to confirm that choices align with operational realities such as maintenance, staffing, and energy management.
- Architects define the design vision, while contractors ensure it can be built. Together, they keep aesthetics and constructability aligned.
The goal is not to hand off responsibility to facilities, but to respect their expertise and ensure their voices are heard in ways that protect both short- and long-term outcomes.
The Real Payoff: Beyond First Cost
When roles are clear and relationships are strong, projects move forward with fewer surprises and better results. The payoff is multi-layered:
- First cost: Clear coordination avoids expensive last-minute redesigns or change orders.
- Process: Teams spend less time fighting chaos and more time focusing on quality.
- Long-term support: Facilities inherit systems that are intuitive, maintainable, and aligned with their staffing and budget realities.
This isn’t just about saving money—it’s about building trust. When facilities staff feel heard and respected, they are far more likely to champion new projects and support innovative solutions in the future.
A Final Word: Light the Path Forward
Lighting is too important to leave to chance. Complexity and chaos will always be waiting at the edges of every project, ready to derail budgets, timelines, and long-term performance. The way forward isn’t to pile more responsibility on facilities teams who are already stretched thin. It’s for engineers and designers to step up—to guide the process, clarify roles, and engage facilities with respect and precision.
With the right collaboration, lighting goes from a potential headache to something that quietly does its job—and maybe even earns a nod from the architect. Feel free to contact Nathan Dietrich, PE, npd@ba-inc.com, at Barton Associates if you have any questions.