While growing up in Mumbai, India, during the 1970s and ’80s, Abhay Wadhwa had little idea that one day he would helm his own architectural lighting design firm based in New York City, he says. Nor did he envision that the roster of projects for his practice, AWA Architectural Lighting Designers, would be his passport to a globetrotting adventure that has led him to enhance the form and function of an array of buildings around the world. These days, Wadhwa shuttles for several weeks most months between his Manhattan base to assignments in Chicago, Asia, and India. He collaborates with an in-house, 15-member team of interior designers, engineers, and architects. (The staff is split between offices in Dubai, Mumbai, Hong Kong, and the Manhattan headquarters.)

After receiving his B.A. from the Sir J.J. College of Architecture in Mumbai, Wadhwa worked as an architectural designer and then a theatrical set and lighting designer. His creative, career-shaping epiphany came, he says, as he strode the catwalk high above a theater stage. “It was the first time I had selected a range of very specific color gels and diffusers, saw the magical results they could achieve, and focused my first rig of light fixtures. I was hooked right then on pursuing the discipline of lighting design full time. Now, 20 years later,” he adds, “I still have a passion for lighting, and my roster of assignments allows me to work on the bigger stage of large-scale architectural projects.”