faces of the future - Illuminating Engineering Society

FUTURE LEADERS
Some people grow up knowing
their future careers. Others simply
stumble into them. Rachel
Eichorn is in the latter camp. In fact, she
can chalk up her successful lighting design
and project management career to
a series of random coincidences and one
giant mistake.
The daughter of midwestern Mennonite
dairy farmers, Eichorn “didn’t
have tremendous exposure to the lighting
industry. Honestly I didn’t even realize
lighting designers existed until the
end of high school,” she recalls. All that
changed when she accepted a summer
job at the Interlochen Center for the Arts
in upstate Michigan. “I thought I would
be moving stands and chairs for orchestras,”
says Eichorn. “Instead I ended up
on the production crew.”
Eichorn’s introduction to stage lighting
was rocky, to say the least. One night
after a technician joked about taking a
night off, Eichorn decided that she would
run the lighting console for that night’s
performance. “Mind you I had never
even touched a lighting console before,”
she remembers. “However, I proceeded
to stalk the technician until he agreed to
let me run the show.” What followed was
“a disaster. We will skip the details, but
let’s say it involved the following items:
a grand finale, a brother juggling act,
multiple sharp objects, a unicycle and an
ill-timed blackout.”
Afterwards, Eichorn was “completely
mortified.” Rather than cutting her losses
and setting her sights on a new career,
Eichorn decided to redeem herself with
a second try. “I begged and pleaded, and,
finally, I was given permission to cue
and mix the lighting for [singer] Shawn
Colvin. That evening changed my life.
I fell completely in love with sculpting
with light.” Later, Eichorn “was given a
choice: go to SUNY Purchase for Lighting
Design or go to Western Michigan
for Pre-Med. I made the choice to go after
the career that if I hadn’t, I would have
regretted for the rest of my life.”
If Eichorn’s résumé is any indication,
she made the right decision. Since leaving
the midwest to move to the Big Apple,
she has racked up scores of design credits
lighting Broadway productions, highend
residential and hospitality projects,
such as the W Hotel, and nationwide retailers,
like Victoria’s Secret.
A FEW KIND WORDS: “From Rachel’s
[job] interview, she has expressed that
her goal is to be at the top of her career
path. We discovered quickly that she
has the talent and ambition to do so,”
says Jackson Ning II, principal, Kugler
Ning Lighting Design, Inc. “Rachel
can speak with confidence about her
craft, and she enjoys the interaction
and engagement. These skills can’t be
taught, and they give her an edge as a
project manager and help clients gain
her trust.”
DOWN THE ROAD: Next up, Eichorn
wants to master the latest lighting
technology. “Our firm has made the
forward leap towards using REVIT on
projects, and I’m certified in 2010 MEP.
My goals are to continue to utilize technology
that assists with workflow and
to streamline the extensive paperwork
process that architecture demands so
that there is more time to do what I really
love to do: design.”
Elizabeth Hall
RACHEL EICHORN
KUGLER NING LIGHTING
DESIGN, INC
NEW YORK CITY
CAREER CAPSULE
• Key projects: Hamlet; the
Cincinnati Ballet; Nobu
hotel and residence,
Israel; Princeton Club,
New York City; St. Regis
Resort, Bahia Beach,
Puerto Rico; Victoria’s
Secret prototypes; Maple
Leaf Sports and Fine
Dining restaurants,
Toronto
‘I’m in love
with retail. I
really enjoy the
quick nine to
12-month
build-outs.
They allow you
enough time to
collaborate with
the design team
but not dwell
on it’
LD+A December 2010 43