for instance one project they feature above is the California Academy of Sciences, in san francisco that will absorb nearly 2 million gallons of rainwater per year on the green roof and will consume 30 percent less energy than required by SF codes.  i learned of this project last year when my newly married cousin-in-law Buzz gave us all the details after working as a manager on the construction team for the project.   more on the series and featured projects and sustainable pioneers:

The series explores attainable solutions to pressing environmental and social challenges, and its stories are culled from a variety of fields including design, energy, transport, water, food and urban development. Episodes have profiled Nobel Peace Prize-winner Muhammad Yunus’s efforts to bring renewable energy to Bangladesh’s rural poor through microfinance; architect William McDonough and his “cradle-to-cradle” design philosophy; and former Bogotá Mayor Enrique Peñalosa’s sweeping redesign of that city’s transportation network, emphasizing alternatives to automobile culture.

The third season of e2 will be presented in two parts, e2 design and e2 transport, and will visit Cairo, Nova Scotia, Melbourne, San Francisco, London, Paris, Amsterdam and Seoul. Featured interviews include luminaries like acclaimed author Michael Pollan, His Highness the Aga Khan, and Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano.

they did an amazing job of storytelling that appeals to both the architecture community as well as the general public.  the cinematography is unbelievable, and of course it doesn’t hurt to have brad pitt and morgan freeman as narrators!   the program airs on PBS affiliates nationwide, netflix, as well as webcasts through their website.

In January of this year the Interior Design Coalition of Washington (IDCW), of which I am a board member, submitted a practice act that would establish regulations of the interior design industry.  It was the first year we transitioned from a title act to a practice act and we quickly realized that we needed to address bill language and requirements that were not clearly defined.  As soon as the legislative session ended we started looking ahead to 2009.  We have spent the last several months working in high gear on bill language for the 2009 session and are confident it will help clarify many of the issues that people saw with it last year.  Of course any registration or licensing laws within a profession will be met with opposition, but we are on a mission to educate the public and elevate the profession of interior design. 

Recently, Tami Michaels held a discussion about interior design licensing on her radio show “Tami Michaels: Inside Out“.  It was full of mis-information and bashing of both ASID and IIDA and of the ”cartel that seeks to control an industry and eliminate its competition based on untruthful scare tactics.”  In response I wrote the following:

As a board member of the Interior Design Coalition of Washington, I hope to clarify a few things for you. We do not solely represent ASID, in fact, a large percentage of our membership (and board) is not affiliated with any professional organization. IDCW is a unified group of professionals, educators, students and advocates of the interior design profession that want to elevate the interior design industry. To talk so offensively on your program about ASID and its members is nothing short of outrageous.

Licensing of interior designers in the state of Washington is not intended to put anyone out of business. Please remember, the bill introduced in 2008 (that you discussed) does not automatically get forwarded into the coming session. After working with hundreds of people within the industry over the past year, we are in the process of finalizing bill language for 2009 and know the changes will resolve many of the fears and misconceptions you and the interior design industry had from last year.  The bill we intent to present in 2009 will allow for many career paths and specialties within the interior design industry, allowing individuals and companies to keep their businesses healthy and profitable without having to fulfill the requirements to become “Registered Interior Designers.”

What changes are we finalizing?  Here are a few:
- To start, we took a closer look at the guidelines which have already been established by the architectural practice act as required to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public. These new inclusions will enable anyone to continue to design, build or alter residential buildings regardless of the size of the building so long as it does not contain more than four dwelling units; residential buildings of more than four dwelling units, but only if the entire completed building is less than 4,000 square feet; or non-residential buildings not exceeding 4,000 square feet..

- The CIDA education requirement will no longer be a part of the bill language. All nine interior design programs in our state will qualify under the education requirement as well as hundreds of interior design programs across the country.

- This Act will continue to allow people to provide decorative services or assistance in the selection of surface materials, window treatments, wall coverings, paint, floor coverings, surface-mounted fixtures, cabinetry, and loose furnishings provided it is not required to be submitted to the building department for review.

- This Act will not apply to employees of retail establishments, wholesale establishments, or commercial furniture dealerships providing consultation regarding interior decoration or furnishings, or in the furtherance of a sale or prospective sale.

- This Act will not apply to an architect who is licensed under applicable Washington State laws.

- This Act will not affect or prevent employees of a registered interior designer or architect from acting under the instructions, control or supervision of their employers.

So why are we pursuing licensing for interior designers?
The interior design profession is a very diverse field including work in healthcare, retail, hospitality, educational, residential, government/institutional, entertainment, and medical spaces just to name a few. Licensing will be focused on the public spaces that the general public walk through every day and may not realize could affect their health, safety or welfare if not designed properly by interior design professionals with the education, experience and examination to show they are qualified.  According to the U.S. Green Building Council, we spend over 90 percent of our time indoors.  Buildings are human habitat – so shouldn’t the spaces where we live, work, play and learn enhance our quality of life and ensure the health of our loved ones?  The air in our homes, schools and offices often times is significantly more polluted than the air outside, and has been linked to illnesses ranging from asthma to heart disease partly due to the materials and off-gassing in those spaces. 

The general public has a perception that interior design is purely the aesthetic enhancement of space which is not the case.  Today’s interior design professionals apply the latest science and technology to make spaces as safe, efficient and enjoyable as possible. Interior designers are at the forefront of the sustainable and green buildings movement, helping to improve energy efficiency, air quality and water conservation. Interior designers make decisions every day that affect accessibility, chemical sensitivity, flammability, toxicity, and safe egress—to name just a few of the health and safety issues they address. To suggest that anyone with a flair for design or a set of computer-generated floor plans is qualified to offer interior design services, in the fullest sense, is to misunderstand the role that today’s interior designer plays in the built environment. The interior design profession is suffering from an identity crisis, educating the public about all the levels of service in our industry will be key to advancing the profession in Washington State.

I will post many more discussions in the coming weeks and months about interior design legislation and what’s happening with IDCW in Washington State.  Remember, all politics are local, so what’s happening in California or Texas does not have any bearing on the bills in Washington State.

“When dealing with clients, be prepared to confront irreconcilable opposites. It’s not unusual for clients to ask for more than they can afford, to have goals that appear to be contradictory, or for approvals agencies to demand modifications to the design that the client simply will not accept. A good designer will embrace paradox and find the common ground. ‘Common ground’ does not mean defaulting to mediocrity. It means determining the essential elements that will make the project truly special and convincing all concerned to hold fast to those core values.”

i was getting training on my upcoming President-Elect role that will begin in Oct. of this year.  i’ve been on past boards (with ASID & IDCW) and very involved over the last few years with our chapter, but it’s always such a boost of energy to get all the board members together for a weekend of team building.  the networking with other chapters was incredible, i ran into the group from Nebraska the first night and recognized 3 of them from the classes at the Univ. of NE. 

a few highlights:

• dinner with our incoming President and Pres-Elect who are from WA State: Bruce Bringham and Sari Graven
• session: the Disney approach to Brand Loyalty, how to integrate the “experience” into everything you do
• aimlessly walking around downtown Calgary with Ernie & Ron, wandering into an event in the park with kareoke (where Ernie got up and sang his heart out), free popcorn, “green drinks”, and a movie in the park
• session: crucial confrontations, by Cricket Buchler of VitalSmarts
• networking & brainstorming with people across the country
• dancing + the after party to end the conference

this was my frist trip to calgary and have to say it wasn’t quite as urban as i thought it would be.  if mark’s family hadn’t been on vacation in seattle, i would have taken an extra day to go up to banff and lake louise. 

more pics from the weekend.

it really was the fashion event of the year with couture designs by the best interior design & architecture firms in the area!  19 teams showcased their creativity and innovation using interior design materials from the manufacturers they were paired up with back in january.  what types of materials did the teams use?  everything you can imagine from tile, carpet, office systems, panel fabric, lighting, vinyl, wallcovering, upholstery textiles and cabinet facing.

our “team steam” actually completed our design days in advance (shocking for us stereotypical interior designers who thrive on last minute work).   we had a large cheering section from gglo and atlas in attendance and we were having a blast!  to start of the evening emcee glamazonia, the 7′-2″ drag queen dressed in a tight pink dress with hair to match, performed Jimmy James’ “Fashionista” to an ecstatic crowd.  we were all thrilled to have the celebrity judges, and it was pretty obvious the gay boys came out of the woodwork to see the ever gorgeous jack mackenroth from project runway season 4! :)

IDCW members had reserved seating so mark, lisa and i took advantage of that opportunity and sat up close at the end of the runway (also a break from the heels that were killing me).  :)  it was such a thrill to watch each team’s model (also part of the design firm or student member) strut their amazing design down the runway.  we were second in line so it was really nerve-racking to watch the remaining designs come after us!  a few of my favorites:

during the judging interim the models mingled in the crowd so people were able to see the details close up (it was obvious all the hours of work that went into each design).  after all the killer prizes were raffled off the judges returned to announce the top 6.  we were so excited to make the big cut!  each team’s model and 2 representatives from the team went on stage for the Q&A discussions with the judges. 

and then it was down to 3… and team steam was still standing!  3rd place was announced: Callison 2 and Allsteel.  so it was down to the final two teams our entire gglo cheering section was freaking out…  could this really be happening?!?  and what we had been waiting for all night… second place to Collins Woerman 2 and Momentum Group and first place to GGLO and Atlas Carpet Mills.  we were the winners of product runway!  Bassetti and Inscape, Gensler and Tandus, and Sechrist and BINW rounded out the top 6. 

the top 3 teams joined the VIP lake union cruise (boarding just 50 ft from the naval reserve at the new south lake union dock) with the judges and committee members after the show.  we had a few glasses of champagne to toast our big win! :)

more pics from the show and behind the scenes prep.  i can’t wait for next year!

the master plan for springbrook is extensive with 450 acres of land in newberg, OR (20 miles SW of portland down hwy 99) being developed into new residential and commercial lots, as well as the hospitality and village (gglo was awarded the inn & village in the winter of ’06). looking back over this year-long design process, i’ll start with a few of the positives from my perspective.  after 6 years of designing mainly multi-family projects, i was extremely excited about working on my first hospitality project.  also a big plus on this project was that it was new construction, which is always exciting because the design is more flexible starting from scratch.  we have 32 acres of land for the 85-guest room hotel, conference center, restaurant & spa.  our arch team presented many different building site plans over the first few months ranging from smaller separate buildings to having all the spaces in a combined building.  after meeting with the client and multiple consultants (hotel, spa, etc.) the overall site plan was finalized in late spring of ’07 and it was decided that the one-building approach was the direction we were headed. 

the design of the building features that of the timeless northwest contemporary movement: wood, metal, glass and stone.  the overall concept for the inn & spa is a “feast of the senses”.  during the groundbreaking ceremony in October ’07, Carol talked about the interiors:

GGLO interior design principal Carol Schaefer said she was inspired by the area’s natural surroundings in creating a color palette that draws on the rich farmland legacy and the earthy colors of the nearby wooded hills and vineyards—lichen, bark, berry, pear, beet and squash.

another positive was the integrated design team, which led to easily integrating the interior and exterior through materials and design concepts.  it’s always a dream to work with such a high-end budget and over 15 consultants, every specialty you can imagine from hotel consultant, lighting, spa, and acoustics.  the allison inn & spa is slated to be a LEED certified project so that has been a great process.

i’ll try not to elaborate too much on the downsides, but there will always be a few on a year-long design process.  this was a revit pilot project for our office.  revit is a BIM (building information modeling) program, which basically means that we’re designing in 3D and the plans and sections are just “slices” of the building model.  a huge benefit of revit is that everything in the “model” is connected, so making sure all the views are “updated” isn’t a problem since everyone is working on the same file in “real time”.  if someone updates a wall or window, the next time you “save to central”, you’ll see the changes.  since we’re all working in the same file, the downside is that the team coordination compared to a standard AutoCad project is much greater (bonus is that there IS coordination on every component of the building).  we had training, but throughout most of the project we were learning everyday the benefits and downsides to using revit.  with over 15 people working in one file, we always had surprises (deleted ceilings, random sections popping up in every elevation, grid lines moving) and the gremlins towards the end of the project were out in strong force!  attempting to do a fast-track project like this in revit, was a crazy decision, but i don’t think we could have pulled off the drawing coordination if we hadn’t have done it in revit.  i think one of the hardest things for me in using revit is that it was hard to predict how long a task would take us, whereas after working in cad for over 8 years I knew how to manage the work schedule.  sometimes the easiest thing would take 3-4 times longer than you thought (then the hard things would take 1/4 of what you thought), and we couldn’t predict the implications of moving or hiding elements in views.  with our integrated design team, another coordination issue was the updates we wanted to get into revit during the week were not always on the same level of importance for the arch team.  in the end, we did an amazing job of coordinating throughout the design process.

we really needed to double our interiors staff from the beginning, (it was only lindsey, carol & i for the first 6 months) but during the last two months we grew to 8 which helped dramatically.  the fast-track schedule was one of the biggest challenges along with the monthly meeting deadlines.  we would design for 2 weeks, then prepare for the client meeting during the next two weeks.  our core team at gglo had quite a few first-timers in both hospitality and with the firm (including myself) so we had a slight learning curve to deal with along with the fast pace.   this was also the first hospitality project for the client, but carol, james, alan and mark did an incredible job walking the clients and consultants through the design process. 

last friday marked the end of the project for most of the team with CDs wrapping up.  it was a little anti-climatic for interiors as we have another big milestone at the end of may.  lindsey, carol and oya are still hard at work finishing up the FF&E specs and custom furniture detailing.  i will be working half time on CA through the end of construction next summer ’09.  even after working on this project for the past year, i’m remaining optimistic about doing CA.  i’ve always enjoyed construct admin; following the design throughout construction and i do enjoy problem solving, which is the biggest element to overcome in CA.  we had a very thorough set of drawings so hopefully it won’t be too painful over the next few months! :)  while i’d love to follow up with in depth design images, that will have to come after the project is built. 

this friday marks the debut of product runway, our big fundraising event of the year for IDCW.  it’s been a year in the planning and Christina and the incredible committee has made this an event you won’t want to miss!  although if you don’t have tickets by now, you better hope that you have good connections, because it’s been sold out for over 2 weeks and the waiting list has over 150.  what is all this talk of product runway?

For the first time in Seattle, leading interior design firms and students will flaunt their creativity by sending couture garments crafted from a diverse range of interior materials and finishes down the runway.  Innovative teams from regional firms will design and construct their creations using everything from carpet to lighting – as they compete for prizes and bragging rights!

Part runway fashion show, part theatrical production and part indulgence for guests, Product Runway promises to be the event of the year and a showcase for the Puget Sound design community.

the amazing creations by all 19 teams will be judged by a stellar list of celebrity judges (and one glammed up host:  Jack Mackenroth: Former Seattleite and competitor on Bravo’s fashion-design show “Project Runway”; Matt Lorenz: Winner of Bravo’s interior design show “Top Design”; angela adams: Furniture, interiors and lifestyle designer; June Rau: Nordstrom fashion director; Glamazonia: Seattle’s best known drag queen emcees the event.  the seattle times featured product runway today with team unison from callison.

i will of course be rooting on my “team steam” from gglo.  we were paired up with atlas carpet mills back in january and our 11 team members have been hard at work creating our couture design out of everything related to carpet (backing, yarn, machine parts, and of course the pre-backed carpet itself).  tina has been keeping an update of the skirt and jacket progress on her blog. 

looks like their new website will be coming soon…  until then it’s still at the environmental home center.