Header: Will Ellis
The Travel Agency Union Square is a lighting project by Tm Light, with B. Alex Miller as lead designer, and was recently awarded in the Retail Lighting Design category at the LIT Lighting Design Awards. The client, The Travel Agency, was opening its first dispensary location and partnered with Tm Light and architecture firm Leong Leong to establish the brand in the heart of New York City.
The lighting design was developed in close coordination with the architectural concept, so rather than introducing separate lighting fixtures, the team focused on integrating light within the geometry of the space. Light was designed to emerge from architectural elements—such as reveals, joints, and surface transitions—so that its presence is visible only through its effect on surrounding materials.
At the Union Square location, the central architectural feature is a vaulted ceiling, with lighting concealed in a continuous sloped reveal where the ceiling meets the vertical walls. From this position, light can be softly diffused along the walls, producing ambient illumination without exposing the source.
Additional lighting was embedded in custom-designed display cases and immersive rooms, located at the back of the store. These areas utilize color-adjustable lighting to create more vibrant and varied visual experiences.
