Renée believes in human-centric design, and in finding the beautifully simple solution to a design challenge. Every day is a chance to collaborate with other creative minds and leverage an understanding of light and human factors to create healthy built environments that bring delight to users.
Renée is a lighting designer and project manager with experience in a diverse range of projects from infrastructure to houses of worship, historic renovation and labs. Renée has served on the IALD Education Trust Stipend Committee since graduating from the University of Oklahoma with a bachelors in Interior Design. She also teaches lighting design for architecture and interior design at the Boston Architectural College.
A rainbow over St. Francis hospital the morning she was born might have foretold her future in lighting design, or later her interest in architecture and photography, but Renée was around 16 when she picked up a coffee-table book of a lighting designer’s portfolio at the library and saw a spread showing four different lighting scenes in the same space. “The potential of light to impact human experience, necessarily inseparable from space-making and materiality, continues to fascinate me. To share the transformative power of light is why I am a lighting designer.”
EDUCATION
Bachelors of Science, Interior Design — University of Oklahoma College of Architecture,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Light and Health Institute
AFFILIATIONS
International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), Design Member
Illuminating Engineering Society (IES)
International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), WELL Accredited Professional (WELL AP)
US Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED AP ID+C
International Interior Design Association (IIDA), Associate Member
SERVICE
International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), Student Ambassador (2012 - 2013)
International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), Education Trust Stipend Committee (2015 - Present)
International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), Awards Committee (2018)
International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), Education Trust Board of Directors (2022 - Present)
RENÉE LESKOWAT, DESIGN IALD, IES, WELL AP, LEED AP, ASSOC. IIDA
Senior Designer
