MCLA, Inc.

MCLA Architectural Lighting Design was founded in 1996 as a small design office in Georgetown, working with architects and developers in the Washington, D.C. region on educational facilities, performing arts buildings, historic preservation, federal, state, and local government projects, corporate offices, and hospitality projects.  Our mission is to integrate lighting design within spaces to enhance and support the architecture with a consideration for maintenance and budget. MCLA’s extensive experience enables us to approach projects with a balanced perspective: blending the practical requirements of lighting with the aesthetic components to create a cohesive design.  MCLA works with state-of-the-art computer and office resources including AutoCAD for computer-aided design, Revit for building information modeling, and AGi32 for lighting calculations and daylight simulations.

MCLA has been honored with over forty-five awards from the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES). In 2014 MCLA’s work on the University of Baltimore Law Center won the 2014 IES DC Section Guth Award, a IES Regional Award of Merit, and a IES Illumination Award of Excellence for Interior Lighting Design. In 2015 MCLA received two IES DC Section and Regional Awards for 1776 Eye Street Lobby and Georgetown University’s Historic Dahlgren Chapel. Later that year, MCLA won their second IES Illumination Award of Excellence for the 1776 Eye Street Lobby project.

MCLA is 100% woman-owned and has been certified as a CBE in the District of Columbia, MBE by Maryland Department of Transportation, and nationally by Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).