Meyda Lighting designs its future

YORKVILLE — Fifty years after its start by Meyer and Ida Cohen, Meyda Lighting is still going strong with the third generation hard at work at the business. The business got its start in 1974 when Ida asked her husband Meyer to build a stained-glass lamp for their kitchen window to block out the neighbor’s cars. After that, they joined forces — and their first names — to create Meyda, which became known for its stained-glass lighting. Over the years, the business has moved locations after starting in the Cohen home. It operated from a one-car garage in Utica, from a three-story building on Bleecker Street, and eventually settled in its location on Oriskany Boulevard in Yorkville in 1994. Meyda also acquired a number of competitors and suppliers over the years including Quality Bent Glass, which was known for supplying fixtures and components to the original Lous C. Tiffany studios, and 2nd Ave Lighting, known for custom and customizable chandeliers, pendants, lanterns, streetlamps, and other fixtures. During the 1980s, Tiffany style lamps soared in popularity, keeping Meyda busy. Cohen’s son Robert took the helm at the company, which had made a name for itself as “The Home of the $40 Tiffany Lamp” for the 12-inch stained-glass lamps it sold. Today, Cohen’s three sons, Chester, Max, and Ben, all work at Meyda with him and are actively charting the company’s future growth. “We’ve had a huge transition over the past 20 years,” Max Cohen tells CNYBJ in an interview. While the early years focused on consumer lighting products like the Tiffany-style lamps, the business today is growing quickly in the custom-lighting industry, especially for large-scale projects. “We’ve really focused on decorative,” he says. “It seems like we’re building a lot of large-scale fixtures” for clients that include casinos, ballrooms, theaters, and other hospitality venues while also still serving high-end residential projects. Locally, Meyda creations can be seen at The Tailor & The Cook restaurant and the Stanley Theatre in Utica. Meyda lighting will also be featured at the dining and banquet facility at Valley View Golf Course in Utica that is currently undergoing renovations. The business attracts customers looking for something unique, Cohen says, and Meyda’s designers turn their often “wild” concepts into custom light fixtures. “We certainly chase the work that’s the most challenging to produce,” Cohen notes with pride, contending that Meyda’s engineering staff is second to none. These days the high-volume fixtures are imported from overseas, leaving Meyda’s staff of about 50 employees free to focus on the custom pieces. Today the company operates from a 180,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 55 Oriskany Boulevard. While it isn’t going to happen right away, Cohen noted the property has room for another 80,000-square-foot expansion there when needed. Meyda has invested in both purchasing and designing state-of-the-art machinery over the years, Cohen says. The invention of some of its own tools, including a laser tube cutter for three-dimensional cuts, has increased both the quality of products and production time, he adds. “The factory is becoming much more efficient,” he says. Looking ahead, Cohen expects the custom side of the business to continue to grow. “I think we’re going to see more custom lighting,” he says. “We are seeing a little bit of uptick in our Tiffany business as well.” “Upstate New York seems to be having a little bit of a growth spell right now,” he says, and Meyda wants to be part of that.