David Mintz
In Memoriam
“Founding Father of Lighting Design” David A. Mintz Remembered
The New York City lighting community remembers David Mintz as one of the founding fathers of modern lighting design, held in high esteem by his contemporaries. He was always willing to share his insights with colleagues and employees, shaping the profession of architectural lighting design from its inception.
With a career spanning five decades, Mintz founded The Mintz Lighting Group and its predecessor David A. Mintz Incorporated. For over 30 years, he was the exclusive lighting designer for the May Department Stores Company, overseeing the illumination of more than 85 million sqft. His most prestigious projects include the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston, the relighting of several iconic structures on the National Mall, such as the Jefferson, Lincoln, and King memorials; and the Sears Tower in Chicago, once the tallest building in the world.
Randy Burkett, Reed Burkett Lighting Design, recalled collaborating with Mintz on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in the aughts: “He certainly played the charmer; keeping content the sculptor, Nationals Parks Service, GSA, National Capital Planning Commission, and not least, the King family. Our late-night mock-ups were an absolute necessity. David loved the process and experimentation – such as the manipulation of light and shadow to reveal Dr. King’s sculpted image. It took us three long nights to reveal the needed emotion and visual intensity after dark. We both loved the collaboration. It never grew stale.”
Though he discovered his passion for lighting through the theater, Mintz entered architectural lighting as he exited the Army. Stanley McCandless became his mentor. Mintz was a founder and Fellow of the International Association of Lighting Designers, where he served on the Board of Directors and was the first Chair of the College of Fellows. “We, as lighting designers, desperately need a common voice so we all didn’t sit in our offices reinventing the wheel,” Mintz said in an interview in 2000. The IALD bestowed on him its highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2007.
A Fellow Emeritus of the IES, Mintz also served on the IES Board of Fellows. His firms were known to welcome student interns, whom he nurtured into full-time employees. According to the IALD: “His influence will continue to shine through every project undertaken by those he inspired, every standard upheld by the organizations he built, and every designer who follows the path he helped create.”
Joe Conti, SLS Lighting, remembers him as an astute navigator of the lighting business, “typically with a level of clairvoyance.” He traveled the world extensively, seeing cultural sites and sampling the local cuisine. “David used humorous events in his life to spin a good yarn…. An enthusiastic golfer and accomplished skier, his loyalty was unwavering to those he called friends.”
David also received a Lumen Award in 1968 for his innovative lighting design of the Friden Inc. Showrooms on Third Avenue in New York City. Receiving a Lumen Award during the program’s earliest years placed David among a distinguished group of pioneers whose work helped shape the future of the profession.
As a devoted family man, Mintz is mourned by his wife of 49 years, Helene Stern Mintz; his children, Beth Stern, Louis Mintz, Brad Stern, Doug Stern, and Stephen Mintz; and 11 grandchildren. He was 92 at the time of his death in December 2025.
.
