New East Memphis HQ for Perkins-Everitt Lighting spotlights firm's shining samples

General Contractor: Grinder, Taber & Grinder, Inc.

By Stephen MacLeod – Reporter, Memphis Business Journal, Apr 13, 2022, 2:12pm EDT

Perkins-Everitt Lighting & Controls has had a hand in some of the biggest projects in Memphis.

The company has helped light up recent builds, including The Memphian hotel, the restoration of City Hall for the City of Memphis, Theatre Memphis, the player tunnel at FedExForum, and many others.
Now, the company has moved into a new headquarters in East Memphis, which acts as a celebration of its past projects and a sampling of what it can do.
The 12,000-square-foot facility is part headquarters, part event center, and part sales pitch. Over 400 lights, representing 100 different types, brighten the facility in hundreds of different ways.
“It's an educational tool for the design community," said Steve Munn, VP of business development at Perkins-Everitt. "And that's truly why we built it.”
Perkins-Everitt's office includes a diverse mixture of different types of spaces found throughout Memphis. Some spaces have high ceilings with exposed pipes — similar to the interiors of many adaptive-reuse projects around Shelby County. Other spaces have traditional office tile ceilings. Even the break rooms, restrooms, and server rooms feature unique types of lighting. That allows the company to show off the different ways to light up an area — all while doubling as standard office space for Perkins-Everitt staff.
The firm's headquarters also has a room for events, seating 30 people. The event room's lights can change from warm to soft to wildly colorful using a remote. It also features a projector and screen for presentations.
The company originally moved into the new headquarters in late 2020, but due to COVID, was unable to take full advantage of the space until the pandemic subsided.
Now, the lecture-hall-like event room has hosted several groups, including the UrbanArt Commission and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Memphis. Perkins-Everitt hopes to host smaller groups looking for a place to meet as a way for the company to be a part of the community.
The office also has space to facilitate the company's growth. Its old headquarters was only 2,000 square feet. Perkins-Everitt has 15 employees now, up from five, and is hoping to keep hiring as it grows.
According to Munn, the company is especially focused on bringing in young and diverse voices in an effort to add in different viewpoints. The company has an intern program that works with the University of Memphis. The last intern, who was from Mississippi State University, was eventually hired on full-time.
“I think a good mix for any business is to take the experience of someone closer to 50 like myself, and mix them with someone in their early 20s,” Munn said, "because then you see things in a different light and they can learn off your experience.”
Munn said that the program helps the company stay on top of innovation by bringing in new ideas.
“It's a good challenge to put in front of us,” said Laura Gray McCann, VP of marketing at Perkins-Everitt. “The design industry is not terribly diverse, and that's something that I know organizations … are all trying to bring to the forefront. I think that we are doing a good job of reflecting those efforts.”
The company is hoping to "grow as the city grows," according to Munn. And, the goal is to have a bigger community presence. The headquarters is lined with local art, and the company hopes to host organizations or groups that need a meeting place.
"We want to be part of Memphis," Munn said. "We want to be part of the art scene, the music scene. Those are the people that support us. So we want to make sure that we can support them."