Conversations: Elizabeth von Lehe. HDR, New York City

Conversations: Elizabeth von Lehe. HDR, New York City

A New York City-based design and brand strategy principal at the international design firm HDR, Elizabeth von Lehe relishes the cross-disciplinary and global nature of her role.

Vibia The Edit - Conversations: Elizabeth von Lehe HDR, New York

The multi-platform HDR is known for its high-profile construction, architecture, and engineering projects around the world, building spaces by “crafting core concepts,” as von Lehe describes it.

“It’s the collaboration—data science meeting art, architecture on a big scale meeting the small, intimate scale of lighting, that makes something much more impactful,” she says. “We craft a holistic experience.”

Vibia The Edit - Conversations: Elizabeth von Lehe HDR, New York
Vibia The Edit - Conversations: Elizabeth von Lehe HDR, New York

She also loves to incorporate the influence of the different cities and cultures she works in, which she calls “smashing new ideas together that never existed before.”

Vibia The Edit - Conversations: Elizabeth von Lehe HDR, New York
Vibia The Edit - Conversations: Elizabeth von Lehe HDR, New York
Vibia The Edit - Conversations: Elizabeth von Lehe HDR, New York

Lighting is always a key consideration in von Lehe’s work, as it represents one of the most important materials in creating a design experience.

Vibia The Edit - Conversations: Elizabeth von Lehe HDR, New York
Vibia The Edit - Conversations: Elizabeth von Lehe HDR, New York

“It gives the softness, or the drama, or the exuberance, or the calmness.”

And lighting is even more critical at a time when the design world has evolved. People require more from the places they inhabit and “design is a differentiator,” von Lehe explains.

They expect “their spaces to make them feel better, to feel curated. That is what people seek and this idea of experience in design is where the industry is going.”