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Inside the 2019 New York Lighting Showroom Built for Specification Teams

A launch-era look at Sonneman’s New York Design Center showroom: a workspace with displays, a custom-configuration lab and meeting rooms designed to bring lighting decisions earlier into project coordination.

By ThatPainter Team 18 October 2026
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When Sonneman—A Way of Light opened a showroom in the New York Design Center in August 2019, it presented the space as more than a room of finished luminaires. Architectural Record’s September 30, 2019 report by Kelly Beamon describes a project workspace: display areas at the front, a dedicated project room and kitchen behind them, and facilities intended to help architects, interior designers and lighting professionals develop and coordinate specifications.

The launch-era account matters because it treats lighting as an early design decision. Robert Sonneman, the company’s founder and chief creative officer, argued that teams increasingly need to coordinate lighting while other building decisions are still changeable. The showroom’s layout was meant to support that coordination through hands-on configuration, manufacturer access and meetings—not merely visual browsing.

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What opened in August 2019

Architectural Record says the showroom launched “last month” in its September 30, 2019 article, placing the opening in August 2019. The location was the New York Design Center. The report portrays product displays as the public-facing portion of a deeper work environment, with a project room and kitchen located behind the display areas.

That distinction is central to the story. A conventional lighting showroom can help a specifier see finishes, proportions and light sources. The space described by Beamon’s report was organized to let a design team continue working after that first viewing: configure a custom product, gather around a project, hold a conference and coordinate technical questions with the manufacturer.

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The article does not provide the showroom’s area, a visitor policy, booking procedure, operating hours or a performance evaluation. Its evidence is a launch-era description and an interview, not a current directory listing or a post-occupancy study.

Why the showroom put lighting earlier in the project

The interview begins from a practical change in how design teams work: lighting schemes may be developed alongside other building decisions and, in some cases, before a new building is complete. Sonneman’s explanation is that early coordination can prevent a team from reopening finished walls and ceilings later to accommodate lighting infrastructure.

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Coordination before construction closes up

Lighting affects more than the visible fixture. Locations for luminaires, power, controls, access and related mechanical or architectural details can become difficult to change once ceilings and walls are finished. Treating the lighting plan as an early coordination item gives architects, interior designers, electrical consultants and manufacturers an opportunity to identify conflicts while alternatives still exist.

The account presents this as a reason for collaboration, not as a quantified claim about cost savings or schedule performance. It does not supply a percentage reduction in change orders, a construction case study or a comparison with later-stage specification.

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Controls as part of the design conversation

Sonneman also discusses integrated LED programming and controls as systems that can respond to occupancy and time of day. In the interview, he gives more conversational possibilities as examples: a system might respond in relation to music, conversation or noise levels. These are examples of the kinds of responsive environments he was describing in 2019, not a claim that every product in the showroom offered those functions or that a particular named fixture had been tested for them.

For a specification team, the implication is that the question is not only “Which luminaire looks right?” It is also “What should the light do over the course of a day, who controls it, what signals does it receive, and how will the control strategy coordinate with the rest of the building?” Those questions belong early enough that wiring, ceiling details and commissioning responsibilities can be assigned deliberately.

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How the described facilities supported specification work

The article identifies several distinct areas. Each serves a different point in the path from a design idea to a coordinated product decision.

Showroom element Role described in the 2019 account What the source does not establish
Product display areas Present luminaires and fixtures for viewing as part of the showroom’s front-of-house experience. It does not report display counts, dimensions, photometric results or a current inventory.
“Suspenders Lab” Provide a hands-on setting for specifying custom product configurations. It does not list every configurable component, sample lead time or final price.
Two conference rooms Offer dedicated places for professional meetings. It does not state booking rules, equipment, capacity or present-day availability.
Dedicated project room Give a project team a separate room for focused coordination beyond the display floor. It does not describe the room’s plans, screens, mock-ups or acoustic performance.
Sales office Put sales support alongside the specification environment. It does not define staffing levels, response times or current personnel.
Food service for events Support hosted gatherings and professional events. It does not state the event calendar, catering arrangements or access requirements.

Product displays: seeing the fixture in context

Display areas remain useful for questions that drawings and data sheets cannot answer alone: how a finish reads at close range, whether a fixture’s scale suits a ceiling condition, and how a family of forms relates across a project. The report, however, does not claim that the displays reproduce a completed architectural installation or provide laboratory measurements. A visitor would still need the applicable photometric files, dimensions, controls information and installation requirements for a formal specification.

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The Suspenders Lab: a hands-on custom-configuration point

The named “Suspenders Lab” is the clearest indication that the showroom was designed for active specification. Architectural Record describes it as a place to work through custom product configurations. That could make a design discussion more concrete: a team can examine combinations and discuss how a chosen configuration affects the visual and technical direction of a project.

The source does not enumerate the available options or say how a configuration becomes a quotation, shop drawing or approved submittal. Those steps would have to be confirmed with the manufacturer for any live project.

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Conference rooms and the project room

Two conference rooms and a dedicated project room separate different kinds of collaboration. A conference room can accommodate a formal presentation or consultant meeting; a project room can keep drawings, samples and unresolved decisions together while a team works through them. The article gives no room sizes or equipment list, so the useful conclusion is functional rather than architectural: the plan reserved space for coordination instead of treating meetings as an afterthought to product display.

Sales support and event hosting

A sales office and food service for events indicate that the showroom was intended to host professional relationships as well as one-off visits. The interview’s broader argument is that manufacturers need to participate in design conversations involving materials, manufacturing, technical constraints and mechanical issues. A sales presence located next to project facilities can make those conversations easier to schedule, but the report does not measure response times or claim a particular service level.

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What collaboration changes in a lighting specification

Sonneman’s central point is explicit: “Those kinds of solutions require collaboration with the manufacturer.” He later condenses the responsibility further: “In short, you need lighting professionals.” The statements are his argument in the interview, not an independently quantified industry finding.

Read as a workflow, the showroom model supports several stages. The following is a practical framework derived from the functions the article describes; it is not a published procedure for the showroom.

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  1. Bring the project brief early. Define the spaces, ceiling conditions, intended atmosphere, maintenance expectations and control ambitions before selecting a final fixture family.
  2. Separate visual questions from technical questions. Use the display areas to assess form, scale and finish, then identify the electrical, structural, control and installation information still needed.
  3. Use hands-on configuration for nonstandard requirements. At a facility such as the reported Suspenders Lab, work through custom combinations rather than assuming a catalog image answers every coordination issue.
  4. Invite the relevant disciplines. Include the architect or interior designer, lighting designer, electrical consultant, contractor or other responsible specialists as the project requires. The interview links successful solutions to knowledge of design, manufacturing, materials, technical details and mechanical issues.
  5. Record decisions in project language. Convert a preferred configuration into dimensions, finish schedules, control intent, mounting information, responsibility assignments and the documentation required for approval.
  6. Close the loop before ceilings and walls are finished. Confirm that the selected solution fits the coordinated reflected ceiling plan, power and control strategy, access requirements and installation sequence.

This sequence does not promise that a showroom meeting will resolve every issue. It makes the meeting productive by distinguishing what must be seen, what must be configured and what must be documented.

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Questions a specification team should take to a manufacturer

The 2019 account emphasizes collaboration, but it does not replace project due diligence. A professional team can use a showroom meeting to obtain clear answers to questions such as:

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None of these items is supplied as a showroom policy in the article. They are the practical records a team needs if a collaborative conversation is to become a buildable specification.

How this model differs from a display-only visit

The distinction can be summarized by the work each setting enables:

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Activity Display-only visit Collaborative specification setting
View a luminaire Primary purpose. Still essential, but connected to project decisions.
Test a custom configuration May require separate follow-up. Hands-on configuration is represented by the reported Suspenders Lab.
Coordinate technical issues Often handled later through correspondence. Project and meeting rooms are intended to support live coordination.
Engage the manufacturer Usually limited to a sales interaction. Presented in the interview as collaboration involving design, materials, manufacturing and technical or mechanical knowledge.
Advance a project package Visitor leaves with observations and literature. Teams can work around a project room, although the article does not document specific deliverables or outcomes.

This is a functional comparison, not a ranking. The source reports no measured performance difference between showroom types.

What the 2019 report cannot tell you about the showroom now

The article is a contemporaneous launch account. It does not establish whether the New York Design Center location remains open, whether the described rooms or lab still exist, who currently staffs them, or whether professionals can access them without an appointment. It also does not establish current product availability, event programming or manufacturer referral arrangements.

Anyone planning a visit today should independently confirm the address, operating status, appointment process, accessibility, sample availability and the technical documents needed for the project. Those current facts are outside the September 2019 report.

What architects and designers can take from the launch-era idea

The lasting lesson is organizational rather than promotional. Lighting was presented as a discipline that benefits from being discussed before construction decisions harden. A showroom can contribute most when it gives teams a place to see products, configure exceptions, involve the manufacturer and keep project information together.

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The described facilities—display areas, the Suspenders Lab, two conference rooms, a project room, a sales office and event food service—make that idea tangible. They turn a product appointment into a setting for coordinated decisions. The account does not prove that the arrangement produces better projects, and it does not describe the showroom’s later history. It does show how one manufacturer, at its August 2019 launch, designed a physical environment around the way professional lighting specifications were increasingly being developed.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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