Shop Talk with Irene Yu Vol. 3

In this interview series, Shop Talk, we chat with friends and collaborators of Rich Brilliant Willing on the ideas, discoveries, and inspirations that drive their design process.

From the rays of morning sunlight to the glow of lamps on our studio desks, lighting colors all aspects of each day, regulating our circadian rhythms and setting the tenor of our mood during moments of work, rest, and play. As designers and manufacturers of light, our work often takes us into a range of spaces and projects—as well as into the company of fantastic collaborators who, like the team here at Rich Brilliant Willing, share our belief in the power of light to create atmosphere.

We recently teamed with the hospitality startup Lyric to outfit its first New York City property at 70 Pine, with 132 suites across four floors in a historic Art Deco building in Lower Manhattan. Irene Yu, senior manager of interior design at Lyric, tells us how the company is rethinking hospitality with concept-driven design—taking aim at the sweet spot between a boutique hotel and an Airbnb—and discusses the inspirations and challenges of working within a landmark structure.

I’ve had RBW bookmarked for quite some time, and when it came time to line up our vendors for this project, it was the perfect opportunity. It was so fun working with the team. The RBW team was really willing to work with us on these design constraints to come up with a creative solution, and together we landed on a custom plug-in version of the Pastille sconce for each of our suites. That willingness was great, and they brought a personal relationship and human aspect to the project which was awesome; I love working with Liz, the director of sales. The amount of color and finish options RBW offers is also incredible—not a lot of companies have that range of capabilities—and there’s a quality to their lighting that’s really warm, consistent, and distinct. 

For the lobby space, I wanted to include a copper fixture with a more patinated, colorful matte finish, and RBW had just come out with a new finish called Breccia that ended up being perfect for us. We used that finish with the Palindrome fixture, which we felt also spoke to this formal language and vernacular of industry and electricity, but in a modern way that felt fresh and dynamic. We also have projection art in the lobby, and the modular design of Palindrome gave us the flexibility to install in a visually exciting way, without impeding on the projector throw—it ended up working perfectly.

Lighting is a multifaceted but nebulous tool. I was always taught, when you design with light, to first think about your floor plan and imagine it as this dark room. Then, you start spotlighting the important features and layering in different kinds of light, understanding where your overhead and task lighting is occurring, and of course, thinking about function: We do pride ourselves in providing guests with actual workspace at Lyric, and making sure there is enough lighting for our guests is really important.

I think lighting is the hardest thing to get right: When you do, I think it’s very, very clear that you’ve got it right, but when it’s wrong, it can be incredibly unforgiving. It’s completely foundational to designing spaces: Lighting can reveal all the weak points of not only the design of the space, but of every design decision you’ve made. As a medium, you have to think about so many things: color, the amount of light, whether it’s setting the right mood or tone, how vibrant you need or want the space to be, which textures you want to bring out, and the finish that’s best for achieving that… the list goes on. Lighting is this beautiful and complex medium, but it’s also an object that brings gravitas into a space. When it’s done right, it really affects the guest experience and can be powerfully transformative.