Hervé Descottes, Lighting Designer
In just the last year, lighting designer Hervé Descottes’s company, L’Observatoire International, has lit buildings by Frank Gehry, Steven Holl and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. But the real proof of his skill is what he did with a water treatment plant in Brooklyn (shown here)—draping the structure (by Polshek Partnership Architects) in a haze of bluish light. Next up: His lighting for the High Line, Manhattan’s linear park on the old West Side elevated tracks, where Descottes’s fixtures will brighten paths, people and plantings—while keeping the night sky dark (LObsIntl.com).—Fred A. Bernstein