It's about the Levetts and the light

"These LED shelf lights are off the chart wonderful." My friend Barry Levett of House of Lights (www.HouseofLights.biz) on Mayfield Rd. beams and gives his passion another run: "These little LEDs are In...Cred...I...Ble." Barry has been in illumination since college 45 years ago; LEDs are the latest innovation to light him up.

The acronym refers to light emitting diode, a semi-conductor releasing energy as light. LEDs initially made an impact as small as the size of the tiny elements in Barry's hand, but in recent years the technology has come on strong.

"LEDs are going to be the future, "promises Barry, but he also notes the technology hasn't matured: the spread of the beam isn't as wide or controllable as a Halogen; an LED chandelier doesn't offer "soft" illumination, and fixtures haven't generally been designed with the grace designers have brought to Halogens and incandescents.

Stay tuned. LEDs offer amazing improvements in energy saving and unit life. Fingering that strip of LED jewels, Barry rhapsodizes: "These puppies are rated for 50-thousand hours and they use a fraction of the energy."

Barry is also high on Halogens: "They're wonderful-no glare, an intense, focused, dimmable beam. It's a triumph of engineered light."

But then the New Haven native is a pushover... for his wife Susie, whom he invited to be his life and lighting partner over three decades ago: for Cleveland sports teams, especially the Cavaliers of his friend Zydrunas Ilgauskas; and for LIGHT.

"Lighting is the easiest transformative element you can do in a living space, it's a simple fix" says Barry. And of course he's right. Anyone who's witnessed good stage lighting understands the magic light can bring. Barry's right about lights - his particular genius is understanding "proper scale" of a fixture in a given space and  appropriate intensity and quality of illumination. He's right about the transformative power of light, and he's right about Susie, who does most buying of the fixtures available in the Levett's lighting center - in Levett ownership since 1972.

The Levett's don't do sales; they "work with people" and in the design community they've achieved a reputation for consummate fairness and integrity. Barry says, "It's all about relationships and collaboration," and he means and lives it.

People who shop on the Internet? Don't get him started, or me. He'll tell you stories about people making a bad choice from a tiny computer image and (without the expertise of the crew at the HOL) not having any idea what they're getting or of how it often turns out to be not a good choice.

The Levett's supplied most of the illumination for the big SoHo project I worked on. I can tell you from long experience they are kind and good people who give you fair and square deals and a wealth of expertise to go with the tens of thousands of fixtures in their system. They go to High Point and all the big design shows and they stay hip. Vendors like the Levetts (I'm blessed with a number) are as off the chart wonderful as those light diamonds in Barry's hand.