1. Scottsdale Senior Center
Granite Reef
City of Scottsdale, Arizona
Architect of Record – Gabor Lorant Architects
Phoenix, Arizona
Lighting/Daylighting Design Consultant
Renee Thomas, AIA, LC
RTL Design, LLC
*While employed with another firm
2. RTL Design, LLC was the architectural lighting design practice established by Renee
Thomas, AIA, 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, established in 2003, was 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, Renee Thomas approaches
lighting design as a synergistic problem solving exercise in which she carefully examines
urban and site context, building siting, architectural envelope design, glazing location and
specification, HVAC system design and appropriate lighting & daylighting design strategies
to facilitate the creation of the most energy efficient designs practicable.
In working out the design solution Renee employs multiple software tools that permit a
high degree of sophistication in the study of artificial lighting and contributed daylight. This
predictive modeling technique, ongoing throughout the design process, allows the Owner
and the Design Team to have confidence both in the anticipated quality of the lighted
Lighting/Daylighting Design Methodology
3. While employed by Gabor Lorant Architects, Renee Thomas, AIA, LC served as Architectural 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 building envelope, high performance glazing to facilitate daylight harvesting and reduce heat
load transfer, a high performance HVAC central plant to provide district cooling and roof and translucent
shade canopy mounted 50 kW photo-voltaic arrays for on-site power generation.
Design Narrative
