BS Honors, Interior Design – The Art Institute of California – Los Angeles, CA: Graduate award for outstanding graduate portfolio Graduate award for outstanding achievement, Six times, Best in Quarter
Management Training – Vital Factors, 2010 and 2012 MAP Consulting – Newport Beach, CA
IES Lighting Fundaments / LC Prep, 2006 – IESNA Inland Empire Chapter
Architectural Studies, 1999 - 2001 – The Ohio State University
Nick Albert is a long-time veteran of the architectural lighting design industry, with a background in architecture, interior design, and construction. As a professional, Nick has led various studios and design teams in Los Angeles and across the US, designing hundreds of projects around the globe at all scales of design and typology. Bringing technical, practical, and intellectual practices into harmony, Nick views lighting as a critical interface between people and the built environment and believes that light is a critical means of connecting architecture to human experience.
As an educator, Nick believes in empowering designers with a fundamental technical acumen for working with light as well as developing an understanding of how light is a fundamental part of the language of design. Nick has developed and taught introductory and advanced lighting design curricula for architectural and interior design students as an adjunct instructor at UCLA Extension and as a Senior Lecturer at OTIS College of Art and Design. Nick has also guest-lectured at USC School of Architecture and has presented on lighting-related topics at various trade and industry gatherings, professional society meetings and conferences, and symposia related to lighting design, and equity and allyship in the design industry.
Chromatic, Inc., 2021 - Present
- Principal and co-owner of Los Angeles-based Lighting Design firm. Manages design and business operations providing extensive expertise and high-quality lighting design for projects of varying types including hotel, hospitality, high-rise residential, commercial buildings and retail developments, institutional and healthcare facilities, single and multi-family residences, landscape and street and park developments as well as providing professional technical analysis and design guidance for environmental impact reports and design master-plans.
Adjunct Associate Professor, UCLA Extension, Graduate Interior Architecture Arc_ID, 2014 - 2021
- Developed and implemented course curriculum for graduate-level interior de- sign students covering basic lighting topics, including light and texture, light and color, focal lighting, light sources, fixture schedules, switching patterns, and the required drawings used by designers in both residential and commercial spaces. Instruction includes lectures, research, and student projects.
Illuminate Lighting Design, 2013 – 2021
- Director of design and business development for North American division of international lighting design firm, providing expert architectural lighting design for top interior designers, architects, developers and municipalities throughout North America, Asia, and the Middle East.
Francis Krahe & Associates, Inc., 2004 – 2013
- Lead a team of Designers and Interns to execute high-quality lighting design projects for over 150 total projects, directing the workflow and design efforts of the production team and managing critical project and business objectives. Applied innovative design ideas and technical expertise to maintain project parameters and Firm business planers and renderers, transition design into deliverable construction documents, and construction administration including focusing on lights and programming color sequences.