Finding the Light

Long-time Design Institute Instructor, Cynthia Burke, could never have predicted the direction her career would take when she first decided to pursue her degree in Interior Design. As a Michigan native, Cynthia started her education there but then put it on hold to have a family. A few years later she finished her degree and finally was able to live out her passion. While juggling school and life, Cynthia worked as a sales representative at a lighting showroom. That real life experience coupled with her Light and Color class is what sparked the realization that this would be the direction her career would go. "I realized that I can apply the art of design plus the predictable mathematical side that really satisfied both sides of me."

Cynthia left the lighting showroom to join a company that specialized in energy efficient conversions where she got her biggest exposure. "The artistic side of lighting really speaks to me more than the mathematical side but I think it's nice that we can support our designs by providing information. Understanding how much it changes our environment is what really affected me the most. It can change how we feel and perform."

Her favorite project was also the most challenging: a 54,000 sq/ft residential project that had multiple ceiling heights and a lot of glass, while also designing the lighting for the 26 acres of exterior property. "They have vast interior and exterior art collections. The home is often used for charity and fundraising events. It was a huge challenge and took over 5 years."

Cynthia has owned and operated an architectural lighting design business, Burke Lighting Design Inc., for 19 years. She makes an effort to bring her 30 years of experience into the classroom to help students understand how design teams are formed, how that changes from project to project and the whole business of doing business. She helps students learn to translate their ideas to the other people involved in the process. "I think it's exciting when I can take the student on the journey while I'm involved in a project. I always have current projects, whether it's churches, conference facilities, or parks. Every one of them has its own challenges and that's what keeps it fresh."

Cynthia pushes her students to become more observant and engaged outside of the classroom and to bring those observations back to the class. She believes that this approach has been successful. "I've gotten more and more students telling me that they never even realized that when they felt a certain way that it could be because of the lighting. At first you want to associate the feeling with more familiar items such as furniture and finishes. I hope that I can help them become more aware of the affects of lighting."

"I really enjoy teaching. There's a passion that exists through most students here that I haven't seen anywhere else. I think the students that graduate from DI are so well prepared. I've been blown away by a number of senior projects. I feel like they're taken into account architecture, humanities studies…everything! It is so well rounded. I am so proud to be involved in this school. I go to graduation and know that the students who apply the knowledge they gain here will be working for the best firms or will have their own best firms in short order. It's so wonderful to be part of the fabric that makes the 'new' them."

Cynthia, who seems to have enough passion to go around, also enjoys giving back beyond the classroom. As a polio pioneer in Kindergarten, Cynthia participated in the first national tests of a trial polio vaccine. She has now come full circle and gives back by doing tours at the Salk Institute once a week. "My take on the Salk is about light." She found a quote from Louis Khan that really resonated with her; "'All material in nature, the mountains and the streams and the air and we, are made of Light which has been spent, and this crumpled mass called material casts a shadow, and the shadow belongs to Light.'" All of Cynthia's projects in which she is always giving seem to give back. "My life has become better because of the tours I give at the Salk."

Where is the future of lighting going? "The trends are just so exciting. We're going towards a luminous environment where it's not even obvious where the light sources are. Is that daylight or is the wall just glowing? Also more energy sources that are truly efficient. The state of change of even the lighting controls is phenomenal. My latest client just uses their iphones as lighting controls!"

"I feel privileged that I have found this as something I can do and teach. I've seen how it's changed people. I find it ever-inspiring and ever-challenging. Lighting and the human spirit…it's everything to me."