Available Light Announces Retirement of Founder Steven RosenSteven Rosen, founder and CEO of the well-known design firm Available Light, will retire in December, after more than four decades of work. Beginning as a theatre lighting designer, Rosen took on side gigs designing lighting trade show exhibits with his mentor Rick Cunningham. A chance trade show collaboration with museum exhibit designer Nick Paffett led Rosen to a commission at the Virginia Air and Space Center. A few years later, an encounter with architect Bob Schaeffner led Rosen to his first architectural project, a new earth sciences building at Amherst College. "Why focus on one discipline when I could do it all?" Rosen recalls. Available Light began in 1992 as a single drafting table in his living room, growing into a national lighting design practice with six studios, nearly 40 staff members, and a portfolio spanning museum exhibition, architecture, themed entertainment, trade show exhibits, and immersive environments globally. Early on, Susan Gochenour, Rosen's wife, signed on as managing director. Rosen won the first-ever IALD Radiance Award for Available Light's work on Building 7 at MIT. He received lifetime achievement awards from both LDI/Live Design and The Edison Report, became a Fellow of the IALD, and landed on the 2025 blooloop 50 Top Museum Influencer list. "My greatest achievement has been assembling this team of passionate, talented, and hard-working professionals at Available Light," Rosen says. "Serving as their leader has been an honor and a privilege. Realizing that we have multiple layers of people ready for the challenge of running the firm, I made my decision that the time is now to hand over the reins and cheer on their success. I am a very proud founder!" 
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