JP/20/DANIEL

JP/20/DANIEL

Daniels enjoys lighting up lives

Sri Wahyuni The Jakarta Post/Magelang, Central Java "I'm like a moth drawn to the flame. When you switch on a light bulb at night, you will see moths are flying around it. Moths like the light, and so do I."

Seeing the light is important to American Robert Daniels, a world-class lighting designer who has just finished working on the country's Borobudur Temple.

"I even have a spiritual name -- 'the very gift of light' -- a Sikh name from India. My life, in part, is about light and enlightenment. With lights I make the world more beautiful and create a greater understanding of God," said the Miami-based 56- year-old.

Daniel's love of lighting has brought him 18 national and international awards for his more than 220 projects in the U.S. and around the world.

They include the Paul Waterbury Award from the Illuminating Engineering Society International for his Golden Moon Hotel and Casino project illumination in Philadelphia, Mississippi, (2002) and for the Torre Colpatria project in Bogota, Columbia, (1999).

He was also honored with three U.S. General Electric Edison Awards, one for his lighting of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1950, Daniel was a structural engineer for 12 years and an aerospace engineer for three in Los Angeles before he decided to switch to being a lighting designer in 1993. He was moved to do so because while working mostly on buildings, he noticed some were being lit up to make them look more beautiful.

"So I changed my career and had to teach myself lighting," he said.

Daniels took many courses and seminars on lighting and eventually learned the art.

"When you go to university, you learn how to learn. So, I found the information and taught myself how to do lighting. I read many books. I took seminars, but there was a point where lighting has to be from experience and from something inside of you to be the best."

Now president of the Brilliant Lighting Design company that he established in Miami, Daniels, however, admits to one special teacher.

"He is retired now but his name is John Kennedy, the No. 1 in GE (U.S. company General Electric). He was one of the best lighting engineers in the U.S. I was honored to learn how to make lighting from the best."

One of Daniels' first major projects was the design for the 1996 Olympics, in Atlanta. But the one he considers the most- challenging is the design for the bridge over the Panama Canal.

"It was a four-year project. We established 1.3 kilometers of lighting on the bridge but nothing was the same. There were many, many parts of the design ... and all were different," he said.

But for Daniels, every project offers a new challenge; a different design and often-complex engineering to create an original image.

His experiences as a photographer for almost 40 years have greatly influenced his lighting designs. Daniels says he creates each design as if he were making a beautiful picture of the building that should expose its form, beauty and elegance. Borobudur, an international treasure, was a fantastic object to light, he said.

"I could have made Borobudur look entirely different, but I felt this would not have been appropriate -- I tried to make the images of the carvings and the statues more important than the lighting."

"So when you look at Borobudur from a distance, it looks like a postcard. It has a beauty when you look at it that you want to buy the postcard."

Passionate about great architecture, Daniels says he would like to work on projects with the world's best building designers.

"That is my goal. I want to do lighting on the tallest building in the world. I want to light up the Petronas Towers (Malaysia) that I think can still be better lit up. I also want to light up the 200-story building that is going up in Dubai (Saudi Arabia). I know how to light this if I'm given the chance."

So far, he said, he had only lit up a height of 230 meters with a single beam.

Daniels said he found skyscrapers challenging to light up because it took an understanding of how to make a light work from a distance.

"Whether we're doing a long 'throw' with a single beam or we're putting smaller lights up there, the ability to make light visible from a long distance takes great engineering skills."

"You have to understand the power of light and the direction of light."

Divorced with two teenage daughters and an adopted Indonesian girl, Daniels says he has planned to live in Indonesia for some time; he has with houses and offices in Jakarta and in Jimbaran, Bali.

"I would love to light up the Hindu temples in Bali and beautify the mosques in Jakarta. I'd like to make beautiful lighting around the houses of God."