Steven Rosen, FIALD, CLD, has announced his retirement as founder and CEO of Available Light, the lighting design practice he founded in 1992. The decision closes a lighting design career spanning more than 40 years and 35 years of company history, during which the firm grew from a single drafting table in Rosen's apartment into a national practice.
Rosen's career began with a plan to spend his life designing in the theater, where he said nothing brought him greater joy than interpreting a dramatic work with light. He supplemented his theatrical work by lighting tradeshow exhibits alongside one of his mentors, Rick Chamberlain. A chance tradeshow collaboration with museum exhibit designer Nick Paffett led to his first museum commission, the Virginia Air & Space Center, and a later encounter with architect Bob Schaeffner produced his first architectural lighting design assignment, a new earth sciences building at Amherst College.
That progression — theater, tradeshows, museums and architecture — shaped the company he built. Available Light was founded on the belief that unrestrained theatrical storytelling could serve a wider audience. Since 1992 the practice has expanded to six studios and almost 40 people, with a portfolio covering museum exhibition, architecture, themed entertainment, trade show exhibits and immersive environments around the world. Rosen's wife, Susan Gochenour, believed in the vision and became the young firm's first Managing Director.
Across his career, Rosen has completed more than a thousand projects and earned numerous awards. He won the first-ever IALD Radiance Award for Available Light's work on Building 7 at MIT, received Lifetime Achievement awards from both LDI/Live Design and The Edison Report, became a Fellow of the IALD, and was named to the 2025 blooloop 50 Top Museum Influencer list.
In a statement, Rosen said his greatest achievement has been assembling the team of passionate, talented and hard-working professionals at Available Light, and that serving as their leader has been an honor and a privilege. He said the firm has multiple layers of people ready for the challenge of running it, which led to his decision that the time is now to hand over the reins and cheer on their success. "I am a very proud Founder," he said.
Available Light said the company will continue to evolve, push boundaries and create meaningful experiences through light. Since 1992 the firm has described its output as compelling, innovative, sustainable and insightful lighting design, serving museums, contemporary architecture, themed entertainment attractions and trade show exhibits.