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Mark Major, co-founder of architectural lighting design consultancy Speirs + Major, has paid tribute to his friend and business partner Jonathan Speirs, who died of cancer in June at the age of 54.

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Calling Speirs his 'long-time creative partner and dear friend', Major wrote on the company's website that Speirs was 'charismatic, energetic, ridiculously enthusiastic and totally passionate about architecture and light'. He continued: 'Whether you were a client, a fellow architect or designer, a hard-working employee or simply met him at a party, you would always come away from any encounter with Jonathan much the richer.'

The pair met in 1985 when Speirs employed Major, then a postgraduate architecture student at Edinburgh University, in his practice Lighting Design Partnership. They founded Speirs + Major in 1992. Their projects together have included the interior and exterior lighting of St Mary Axe (better known as the Gherkin) in London and the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan Mosque, Abu Dhabi. The practice has also posted a visual tribute to Jonathan Speirs on its website.
speirsandmajor.com/blog/article/entry_visual_tribute1