Designed to meet the exacting performance standards of an international student competition in which it was highly placed, Victoria University’s First Light House was a totally engaging project. The Victoria University students made a very impressive attempt to reconcile a typological narrative and mandated sustainable features with architecture. Given the variety of criteria that had to be satisfied, it is understandable that the building, in a design sense, struggled to transcend the sum of its parts. However, it is a significant achievement for a New Zealand design team, of whatever vintage, to produce a building for public show on The Mall in Washington, DC, and the authors of the First Light House are to be thoroughly commended.