quotes

“The fabrication of a ‘billboard’ of light for New York City’s New 42nd STreet Studios Building required not only a mastery of the luminous, but also an ingenious interpretation of city guidelines… exuberantly lighted by Anne Militello of Vortex Lighting.”


— Architectural Lighting AWARD OF MERIT
June 2001

“Militello created a dazzling wash of lights.”

— Vilma Barr
MONDO “New Look New York”
Supplement 2001

“The Studios building is an eye-catcher… Personality, though, is exactly what lighting designer Anne Militello has given to the New 42nd Street Studios Building in New York. It has style and personality and long-lasting appeal.”


— Rob Haliday
LIGHTING AND SOUND INT’L.
April 2001

”They are all so very curious when Anne Militello lights the lights. many stop and stare. Others pester her with questions… She is often to busy to notice. There she is on W. 42nd Street, tailing into her walkie-talkie staring at the mysterious new building before her, programming it’s rippling facade of multicolor lights… At night it is a coruscating mirror of cool fire.”


— Glenn Collins
NEW YORK TIMES “Words In A Headset Trip The Light Fantastic”
August 30, 2000

“Unlike anything else in New York City, …a shifting spectrum of colors that offers an elegant relief…”


— Daniel S. Levy
TIME MAGAZINE “Architecture Short Takes”
June 26, 2000

“Working with Anne MIlitello, of Vortex Lighting, the architects created a facade that can played like an instrument and which itself becomes a street performer… Brilliant… A luminous structure, alive with chromatic shifts.”


— Joeseph Gionvanni
NEW YORK MAGAZINE “Sign Of The Times”
June 26, 2000

“At night, thanks to a brilliant computerized scheme by the lighting designer Anne Militello the facade of the building literally becomes
a performance… The lights do not cover up the architecture. They are completely in tune with the structure of that are a part. They make it dance.”


— Paul Goldberger
THE NEW YORKER “Busy Buildings”
September 4, 2000

“It is Militello’s engaging exterior lighting that transports the artistry outside. Rarely has a rehearsal hall come to like with such street side showmanship… a shimmering collage of changing color that creates it’s own version of street theater.”


— William Weathersby, Jr.
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD “Choreographed Illumination Or A Rehearsal Center’s Facade Created It’s Own Street Theater On Broadway”
November 2000

”The fabrication of a ‘billboard’ of light for New York City’s New 42nd STreet Studios Building required not only a mastery of the luminous, but also an ingenious interpretation of city guidelines.”


— MIckey O’Connor
ARCHITECTURE “Another Times Square”
August 2000

“The building seem to become a giant ethereal ice cued with a gentle blue aura.”


— Roslyn Lowe
LD+A “Street Theater”
June 2002

“PInks, blues, yellows, greens and an elegant silvery white shimmered and undulated a dazzling theatrical display… she experimented with pattern after pattern of lights and colors that danced the exterior… the building is almost a lighting fixture itself.”


— Nancy Ramsey
GRID “Sweating On 42nd Street”
July/August 2000

“You might say that her design aesthetic mirrors the dictum of modern architecture: form follows function… NO one will ever accuse Anne Militello of not having a diverse portfolio.”


— David Barber
LIGHTING DIMENSIONS “Diversity Redux — From Downtown To Toontown – Anne Militello's Designed It All”
April 1993

“Exquisite lighting saved this Canadian Opera Company production.”

”This production ultimately worked because of Anne Militello’s extraordinary lighting design. She created a world of arresting color: ghoulish red, floods of Elysian lights, oil-lamp yellows, and even neon purples and greens all got to the pith of any scene and the psychological context that informed it.”


— Freddy Dominguez, OperaWire
October 2018

”Anne Militello was the subject of a BBC Documentary called “interesting People/Interesting Jobs.” Interesting is an understatement… Some of her most innovative work has been in art installations on facades… You name it, she lights it.”


— Roslyn Lowe
LD+A “Anne Of A Thousand Lights”
August 2009

”The tour presents (Leonard Cohen) in an elegant classic setting featuring lighting by Anne Militello. It is a timeless approach… Indeed the designer has succeeded in giving a classic performer a classic presentation.”


— David Barbour
LIGHTING & SOUND AMERICA “Hallelujah Blues”
September 2009

“The tour features a distinctive, highly theatrical design by Anne Militello. Militello has become the go-to designer lately among the highly individualistic acts like Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits – and indeed. She proved to be a perfect for… (the design), is a strong, striking approach…”


— David Barbour
LIGHTING & SOUND AMERICA “Enmeshed — Anne Militello Designs A Tour For The Decemberists”
August 2009

“Militello incorporated some unique concepts into Playhouse in order to achieve originality.”

— Rachel Rogerson
MONDO PLAYHOUSE HOLLYWOOD
December 2009

“Anne Militello’s lighting design is among the best Portland Opera has ever seen, transitioning smoothly from bright sunlight with server shadows to pale interiors to lurid reds. The scene in the second act in which Senta opens a dodo in the dimly lit room to reveal the Dutchman bathed in soft yellow light is breathtaking.”


— James McQuillen
THE OREGONIAN “A Dark Take On “The Dutchman”
March 26, 2007

“One of the street’s (42nd Street) urban pioneers was Anne Militello, who in 1999, came up with an audaciously creative lighting design for the New 42nd Street Studio Building. Militello’s symphony of colors is again making it’s own distinctive Broadway melody, allowing the New 42 to regain it’s pride of place in New York’s most famous block.”


— David Barbour
LIGHTING & SOUND AMERICA “Anne Militello’s Broadway Melody”
December 2007

“If the professional success can be measured by the extent to which a designer penetrates a chosen medium, Anne Militello may be right up there with the best of them. ‘Whether it’s lighting rock’n’roll or Sam Shepard’s latest play, Anne Militello is a unique designer guided by passion and vision.


— Michael Killeen
STAGE DIRECTIONS “The Talented Ms. Militello”
March 2001