A New York City-based design and brand strategy principal at the international design firm HDR, Elizabeth von Lehe relishes the cross-disciplinary and global nature of her role.
The multi-platform HDR is known for its high-profile construction, architecture, and engineering projects around the world, building spaces by “crafting core concepts,” as von Lehe describes it.
“It’s the collaboration—data science meeting art, architecture on a big scale meeting the small intimate scale of lighting, that makes something much more impactful,” she says. “We craft a holistic experience.”
She also loves to incorporate the influence of the different cities and cultures she works in, which she calls “smashing new ideas together that never existed before.”
Lighting is always a key consideration in von Lehe’s work, as it represents one of the most important materials in creating a design experience.
“It gives the softness, or the drama, or the exuberance, or the calmness.”
And lighting is even more critical at a time when the design world has evolved. People require more from the places they inhabit and “design is a differentiator,” von Lehe explains.
