RTL Design, LLC is the architectural lighting design practice established by Renée Thomas, RA, IESNA to provide consulting services to the AED community in the areas the Architectural Lighting Design, Daylighting Design and Architectural Sustainability. The firm’s design practice is based upon the premise that thoughtfully designed lighted environments highlight great architecture, enhance end-user comfort and productivity and do so with an eye towards good stewardship of the natural environment. RTL Design's methodology is to define the seeing tasks to be performed by the building end-users and explore to what extent those tasks can be facilitated by the creative shaping of both artificial light and “borrowed natural light”. Appropriate lighting design must always achieve supportive seeing environments while working to reduce the project’s energy footprint to the largest extent possible.

Daylight harvesting is one of the primary methods used by architects to enhance the quality of the lighted environment while at the same time reducing the connected loads associated with artificial lighting.  As a licensed architect, Renée Thomas approaches lighting design as a synergistic problem solving process in which she examines urban and site context, building siting, architectural envelope design, glazing location and specification, HVAC system design and appropriate lighting design strategies to facilitate the creation of the most energy efficient design practicable.

 In working out the design solution RTL Design employs several software tools that permit a high degree of sophistication in the study of artificial lighting and contributed daylight. This predictive modeling, on going throughout the design process, allows the Owner and the Design Team to have confidence both in the anticipated quality of the lighted environment as well as the projected unit power density as expressed in watts per square foot.  

 

Professional Affiliations: 

Registered Architect (Arizona) #48025

Professional Member - Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) #029121

Professional Member - National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) certified #013518

College of Architecture and Environmental Design, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

(FIDER & NAAB accredited) 1994 Bachelor of Science in Design, Cum Laude

Current projects include:

RTL Design is currently contracted to Catalyst Architecture, LLC to provide architectural lighting design, daylight design and lighting energy optimization to the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center. This project is funded by the US Fish and Wildlife Service

This 15,000 facility is being designed to meet LEED Platinum certification standards and will operate at a “Net-Zero” facility with respect to energy consumption. The building design incorporates an energy producing poly-crystalline photo-voltaic array, super-insulated SIPS (structural insulated panel) envelope system, high-performance, spectrally selective Low-E glazing and a highly energy efficient LED lighting system. The entire facility is designed to operate on a total unit power density for lighting of .75 watts of electrical power per square foot with 65% of the building’s usable square footage designed to be illuminated by means of “borrowed” daylight.

View from Northeast

View from Northwest

Conceptual Site Analysis

Conceptual Site Plan

Programmatic Analysis

Image courtesy of Catalyst Architecture, LLC

Design Development Lighting Floor Plan

Image courtesy of Catalyst Architecture, LLC

Design Development Switching Plan – Designed per ASHRAE 90.1-2009 and LEED Platinum certification standards

RTL Design has been as a consultant to DFD CornoyerHedrick was engaged with SunCor Development in the design of Hayden Ferry Lakeside Mixed Use Commercial Campus. The

project comprises over 17 acres on the shores of Tempe Town Lake in Tempe, Arizona. At full build out the project will include 950,000 square feet of Class ‘A’ office space in three mid rise towers and 438 luxury condominiums and a European luxury hotel. RTL Design’s specific role in the project is to design interior and exterior architectural and ‘special events’ lighting features and systems to support DFD CornoyerHedrick’s master plan design.

Image courtesy of DAVIS

Images courtesy of DAVIS

Images courtesy of DAVIS

RTL Design was contracted to provide architectural lighting design and daylighting design in support of Catalyst Architecture’s new Highlands Center for Natural History - James Learning Center - achieved LEED Gold rating. Built in the Prescott National Forest adjacent to Prescott, Arizona, the design encompasses a 4,000 square foot building that is utilized by the Highlands Center for Natural History to house its offices, educational program workshops and multi-media interpretive center. The building achieved LEED Gold certification by the USGBC and is designed to operate entirely “off-grid” with respect to electrical power. Daylight harvesting, use of energy producing photovoltaic solar panels and high efficiency lighting and glazing technologies are some of the strategies to minimize the environmental impacts of this project on the Prescott National Forest adjacent to Prescott, Arizona.

Images courtesy of Catalyst Architecture, LLC

Construction Photos courtesy of Catalyst Architecture, LLC

RTL Design provided lighting and daylighting consulting services in support of Carter&Burgess / BOORA Architects design of the new 110,000 square foot College of Business Administration Building for Northern Arizona University - Achieved LEED Gold certification.

  Image courtesy of Carter&Burgess

Images courtesy of Carter&Burgess

Images courtesy of Carter&Burgess

RTL Design was also contracted to provide site lighting, interior lighting and daylighting Design and consulting services in support of Carter&Burgess’s design of the new 76,000 square foot Northern Arizona University - Applied Research and Development Laboratory – Achieved LEED Platinum certification.

Images courtesy of Carter&Burgess

Schematic Window Section Studies

In 2005 RTL Design was contracted with Pearson Engineering to provide lighting and daylighting design and electrical engineering services to the City of Scottsdale in support of its efforts to renovate its 100,000 square foot Primary Fleet Maintenance Facility. The specific challenge was to design and engineer a cost effective system of high performance skylights and T5HO Fluorescent ‘high-bay’ fixtures that would deliver high quality lumens to the shop floor with no increase in connected load over the previously installed system of 400-watt metal halide high bay fixtures. The new lighting system was additionally designed to dim in response to available daylight by means of photocell and motion sensor control systems. The result was a lighted environment that achieved an increase in average shop floor illuminance from the previous 35 foot-candles to a new minimum of 75 foot-candles with nearly 2:1 uniformity.

Photographs by RTL DesignPast projects include:

 The Scottsdale Senior Center at Granite Reef - achieved LEED Gold certification While employed by Gabor Lorant Architects, Renée Thomas served as Project Manager and Lighting Designer for The Scottsdale Senior Center. This 40,000 square foot multi-use facility was built for the City of Scottsdale and was completed in 2005. This project includes a super-insulated envelope, a significant quantity of high performance glazing to facilitate daylight harvesting and reduce heat load transfer, a high performance HVAC central plant to provide district cooling and a roof mounted 50 kW poly-crystalline photo-voltaic array.

Photograph by RTL Design

 Photographs by RTL Design

Photograph by RTL Design

Photograph by RTL Design

While employed with DLR Group: 

Identified as a corporate consulting resource for Lighting and Daylighting Design. 

Past projects included: 

Amazon.com Union Station Corporate Headquarters 460,000 square feet – Interior Designer / Lighting Designer In conjunction with DLR Group-Seattle – Architect of Record. Recognized among all DLR Projects in 2002 as one of two Outstanding ProjectsFor Client Responsiveness and Outstanding Design.

 The Amazon.com project was completed in full compliance with Seattle’s rigorous design guidelines for maximum unit power density and daylight utilization. The project solution also

addressed the complex illuminance and uniformity requirements of Amazon.com’s software engineers.  The lighting design successfully addressed the goal, as articulated by Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, that all employees should enjoy the “democracy of daylight”. The lighting designer worked closely with the design team to “borrow” daylight from the curtain wall and spread it deeply throughout the interior spaces on each floor. The artificial lighting system was designed to balance the available daylight so that each space was properly lighted but well within the requirements of ASHRAE 90.1-1999 for total allowable unit power density.

 

Photographs courtesy of DLR Group

Schematic Phase Programming Exercises

Schematic Phase Programming Exercises

Images courtesy of DLR Group

Photographs courtesy of DLR Group

Clark County (Nevada) School District Daylighting Design ConsultantClark County 2-Story Prototype Elementary School Project – in conjunction with DLR Group-Chicago and Friedmutter Group (Architect of Record), Las Vegas, NV.

Image courtesy of Friedmutter Group

Typical 24’ x 24’ Classroom Module

The lighting design goals included developing daylighting and glazing design strategies to address daylight harvesting as a methodology to reduce total connected electrical load and increase user satisfaction and student academic performance. Studies conducted by the Heschong Mahone Group and peer reviewed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1999) established a strong statistical correlation between daylighted classrooms and significant increases in student performance in standardized tests. Prototypical elementary school was designed to provide optimum building performance and connected lighting load reduction despite variable future siting configurations. Generally, the classroom spaces were arrayed around the periphery of the building. This architectural programming decision coupled with the use of high performance glazing, internal and external reflective lightshelves and shaded rooftop light wells achieved significant reductions in connected electrical load approaching 40% during peak daylight hours. At the same time, maintaining average illuminance levels 50 foot-candles and 3:1 luminance uniformity ratios on the horizontal and adjacent vertical task surfaces of the classrooms.

Saint Thomas More Catholic CommunityGlendale, Arizona – 1600 seat church – Lighting/Daylighting Designer.DLR Group-Phoenix

Recognized by Southwest Contractors Magazine 2003 Best of Awards – Masonry Building Category.Recognized by DLR Group Corporate as a 2003 Outstanding Project for Client Responsiveness and Outstanding Design

The design of the main sanctuary at Saint Thomas More is strongly influenced by the unity and equanimity of the circle. It was the intent of the designers to incorporate daylight to give form and depth to the architecture as well as reinforce a sense of spaciousness and openness. Both the siting of the building and design of the fenestration was explored using both scale model studies and complex computer modeling using the lighting design software Lumen Designer/Lumen Micro. This powerful suite of software tools allowed the design team to explore the best balance between daylight and artificial light entering and exiting the sanctuary. The result is a environment in which carefully directed natural light softly suffuses the interior of the space during the daylight hours and interior light celebrates the spiritual life of the congregation and it’s place within the larger community context at night.

Photographs courtesy of DLR Group

Images courtesy of DLR Group