The Lumen Awards were established in 1968 by the New York City Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IESNYC) and developed to publicly recognize excellence, professionalism, ingenuity and originality in lighting design with the following distinct award categories:

Lumen Award of Excellence
Highest level of achievement for a permanent architectural application

Lumen Award of Merit
Meritorious achievement for permanent architectural application

Lumen Citation
Special recognition for a permanent or temporary lighting installation, technical detail, portion of a single project, or other work