(Originally published on 9/2 by the IESNYC)
Shant Madjarian’s May 2025 Fabric of Our Society column lays out a clear explanation of the lighting supply chain’s players and pain points. While I’m not specifically endorsing max pricing, I do agree with his call for more transparency in a system that can too easily blur who’s responsible for what.
We deal with the same challenges across hundreds of projects: lump-sum package quotes, contractors asking for value engineering options to enhance their profit, and the same fixture priced dramatically differently from one bid to the next. Expensive delivery delays can stem from prolonged negotiations on the pricing for each individual project. I expect that designers are often left wondering whether their careful specification will be honored. In the end, clients could end up paying too much for lighting that fails to meet the design intent. In some cases, quality may also be compromised, leading to field failures and further delays.
Read the full guest blog on IESNYC’s Fabric of our Society here.
