Available Light has announced the retirement of its founder and CEO, Steven Rosen, FIALD, CLD, closing a lighting design career that has spanned more than 40 years and 35 years of the firm's history.
Rosen's route into museum and architectural lighting began in the theater. According to the announcement, he set out to spend a life of design on the stage, where visually interpreting a dramatic work with light brought him his greatest joy. He supplemented that theatrical career by lighting trade show exhibits alongside one of his mentors, Rick Chamberlain. A chance trade show collaboration with museum exhibit designer Nick Paffett led to his first museum commission, the Virginia Air & Space Center. A few years later, an encounter with architect Bob Schaeffner produced his first architectural lighting design assignment, a new earth sciences building at Amherst College.
Rosen said he deliberately chose not to narrow his focus. "Why focus on one discipline when I could do it all?" he mused in the announcement.
He founded Available Light in 1992, beginning with a single drafting table in his living room apartment, on the belief that unrestrained theatrical storytelling could serve a more expansive audience. The practice has since grown into a national lighting design firm with six studios and almost 40 people, and a portfolio spanning 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.
Awards and recognition
Rosen won the first-ever IALD Radiance Award for Available Light's work on Building 7 at MIT. He 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.
Handing over the reins
In the announcement, Rosen described assembling the Available Light team as his greatest achievement. "Serving as their leader has been an honor and a privilege," he said, adding that with multiple layers of people ready for the challenge of running the firm, he decided the time was right to hand over the reins and cheer on their success. "I am a very proud Founder!"
Available Light said the company he built will continue to evolve, push boundaries and create meaningful experiences through light. Founded in 1992, the firm describes its work as crafting compelling, innovative, sustainable and insightful lighting design solutions across a diverse range of project types, including museum experiences, contemporary architecture, themed entertainment attractions and trade show exhibits.