Tag: mentorship

We Keep the Public Safe

Posted on by Heather

We Keep the Public Safe

On Friday, November 21, 1980, the MGM Grand Hotel, one of the centerpieces of the Las Vegas Strip, had a fire that started small but quickly spread through the property, with devastating effects. The fire killed 85 people, and in the weeks that followed, it would force a wholesale re-evaluation in high-rise building code. Its greatest legacy, however, may be the way it forever changed our understanding of Commercial Interior Design.

The MGM Grand fire remains the deadliest disaster in Nevada history and the third-deadliest hotel fire in modern U.S. history. The fire, itself, however, wasn’t what killed the victims. The burning decorative materials, instead, created toxic fumes and smoke which ascended throughout the hotel tower. Those interior materials also contributed to the speed with which the fire overtook the building. Combustible furnishing and interior finishes, foam padding, and moldings allowed for an extremely rapid fire spread and heavy smoke production.

The end result was that dozens of people were trapped or overcome before they had any chance to escape.

This tragedy has led to many changes in building codes, material uses, and studies on the toxicity of building materials and their impact on the environment and the health and safety of occupants. The MGM fire, as much as any modern incident, reminds us of the importance of designing buildings that keep people safe.

In short, the MGM fire defined the need for skilled, expert Commercial Interior Designers—a professional designation that had never existed before, but which, in the 40 years since, has only grown in importance. Today, commercial interior designers play a large role in the health and safety of the occupants of every public and commercial building. 

Designing for commercial spaces means designing for the public at large. We are not just designing for ourselves (our aesthetic, our preferences). The health and safety of all those who enter and use these spaces has always been paramount, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today architects design much safer buildings than in the days of the MGM fire, but interior designers have not historically been required to meet similar standards of education, experience and oversight. In fact, even 40 years later, Commercial Interior Designers are still struggling to be recognized legally as “design professionals.” Following the MGM fire, Nevada and Florida began to regulate Commercial Interior Designers, registering them as “Licensed Design Professionals”. Here in California, interior designers are not legally recognized as “design professionals.”

So how do we elevate our profession to illustrate the value of our extensive knowledge of health and safety standards in design? We start with a good foundation of education and relevant experience. Our profession also seeks to establish legal recognition through testing, certification or registration, and continuing education to maintain certification throughout one’s career. Currently across the country, the requirements for legal recognition and oversight vary greatly from state to state.

The most common testing for the profession is the NCIDQ (National Council of Interior Design Qualifications) exam administered by the Council of Interior Design Qualifications, which is recognized among professionals as by far the most authoritative, rigorous, and reliable. Here in California, the state instead relies on the IDEX (Interior Design Exam) created and administered by the California Council for Interior Design Certification.

The IDEX does include topics which are specific to California code, which the standard NCIDQ does not. However, many of California’s Commercial Interior Designers elect to take the NCIDQ, anyway, in order to establish their credentials within the industry and to demonstrate their adherence to this higher standard of understanding of commercial interior design principles, expertise, and best practices.

One of the biggest differences between the exam systems is in their approaches to updates — an important consideration in an industry that is constantly changing due to new technologies, new products on the market, and new trends that could easily run afoul of safety standards if followed blindly. To ensure the NCIDQ maintains its rigor, CIDQ regularly gathers a small group of professional interior designers from around the country to discuss the profession in detail and focus on the real world practice of interior design. This practice analysis, unlike anything in the IDEX system, examines how the profession has evolved and what new elements or significant trends need more focus in upcoming exams. As a previous participant in these sessions, I’m inspired by how this process ensures the NCIDQ exam provides up-to-date value to the profession — and therefore the public.

Commercial Interior Designers seek to learn from the past and prepare better for the future. We focus on design and the health and safety of those we are designing for. Our profession was born from disaster, and we look to protect against future incidents by arming ourselves with the best education, deepest expertise, and most up-to-date and consistent standards we can establish.

Headshot of man

Bill Weeman, IIDA, NCIDQ, CID

Associate Principal at AECOM in San Francisco

LinkedIn

The COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on California’s Legislative Process and Interior Design Regulation

Posted on by Heather

September 20, 2019 — International Interior Design Association’s 2019 Advocacy Symposium, held at the Massachusetts State House. Participants taking a tour. Photo by Caitlin Cunningham Photography.

Published  October 30, 2020

2020 has been a year like no other, COVID-19 has affected nearly every aspect of our lives. As humans do, we have adapted. We have developed new ways to work, to socialize and to practice self-care. Many of us have more time to spend with family, explore new hobbies, and tackle long overdue house projects. On the other hand, the uncertainty, upheaval and unrelenting concern about what the future will hold cannot be ignored. Our society’s institutions have also adapted. Businesses, schools and governments all have changed at least some processes, priorities and timelines. While IIDA’s membership of Commercial Interior Designers, industry partners, and students have all experienced the impact of COVID-19 in these personal ways, the pandemic has also affected the practice of Commercial Interior Design itself from the changing landscape of health and safety within interior spaces to California’s legislative backlog delaying the review of occupational oversight hearings for Certified Interior Designers.

The road from January to now has been dizzying. It was only 10 months ago that Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled his proposed spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year. California’s cash reserves were high, the unemployment rate was low, and the Governor was positioned to work well with a heavily Democratic Legislature eager to enact progressive social policies. 

Fast forward ever so slightly to early February, when news outlets began reporting that the spread of the coronavirus was imminent, and then to March 11, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. A mere two months after rolling out a healthy and balanced spending plan, Governor Newsom issued a statewide stay at home order on March 19 that shuttered the state economy. California’s budget projections suffered the worst and most sudden loss in history. Seven months later, though the state’s COVID-19 data seems to be trending in the right direction, few among us are willing to declare that an end is in sight. 

California’s state leaders have done their best to respond, but the work of the California Legislature was crippled by the virus. Even the fairly straightforward occupational oversight hearings known as Sunset Reviews were postponed for a year. The Commercial Interior Design Community was directly impacted by the postponement of the CCIDC Sunset Review, which was scheduled for early 2021. CCIDC is the private, non-profit board that administers the CID stamp that many interior designers hold. CCIDC’s hearing will now be held in 2022, giving the interior design community more time to engage with stakeholders and decision makers to influence some positive changes to the way interior design is regulated. 

The displacement of Legislators, staff and other Capitol employees has placed a microscope on working conditions and workplace health and safety. The Capitol, frequently referred to as the people’s house, was under stringent traffic control that stymied the normal flow of operations. A major Capitol renovation project is already underway, and though ground hasn’t yet broken, there will likely be a renewed focus on health and safety considerations that can prevent or mitigate illness. This conversation will not be unique to the Capitol. As the focus of policy-making turns away from COVID crisis response and to prevention and preparation, commercial interior designers have an incredible opportunity to impart their knowledge and inform public policy decisions. Your IIDA advocacy leaders have already started these conversations, and will continue to be at the table when the 2021 legislative session kicks off. 

The intersection of workplace and personal safety was highlighted on the last night of the legislative session when Assemblymember Buffy Wicks was denied the ability to vote remotely, and had to bring her baby to the State Capitol to cast her votes on paid family leave legislation in-person. While that story received national attention, millions of parents and guardians are balancing a need to work with a real concern for their health and that of their family members. In many instances, it is people of color and low income workers who don’t have the chance to work from home. There is a true social justice strand to the discussion on workplace safety, and it’s one on which the commercial interior design industry is poised to lead.

As has been the case for all of 2020, the only thing we know for sure is that the future remains uncertain. With only days until the presidential election, it’s possible that the year’s biggest twists and turns are yet to come. However, California’s leadership and elected officials will enter a new year with some lessons learned from a thoroughly bruising 2020, and will hopefully have the vision and the unity to steer California into a brighter, healthier future.

Christina Marcellus, Capitol Advisors Group
IIDA’s California Lobbyist

Commercial Interior Designers are Driving Innovation for Workplace Health and Safety During a Time of Pandemic

Posted on by Heather

Navigating Unprecedented Times

Commercial interior designers across the country are grappling with the monumental issues of today and how they affect our work and public spaces. The COVID-19 pandemic, racial justice movement and climate change all have major implications for how commercial spaces function and how to make them safe, functionally efficient and aesthetically rich.

“At IIDA, we believe that commercial interior design plays a key role in protecting the health, safety and welfare of the public. That design has the power to heal and bring people together,” Yoko Ishihara, president of IIDA Northern California, recently wrote in a letter to members. “In respect to public health, racial equity and climate change, these are unprecedented times. As highly trained professionals, it is our responsibility to push the value of design beyond our current understanding to make a positive transformation through innovation.”

The advent of COVID: A new design challenge

The COVID-19 global pandemic has presented a new challenge to commercial interior designers. We must now address how commercial building design can help mitigate the spread of infectious diseases and balance that with the economics of managing a business. Factors to be reassessed include how to move people to and through their workspaces or other destinations; interior surfaces and how they can be kept clean with minimal human contact; air quality, filtration and freshness; and how to balance health-driven spatial requirements with ambience and experience in a hospitality space such as a hotel, restaurant or other entertainment venue.

Toro Toro in Fort Worth Texas | Wilson Ishihara 
Designing for changing work patterns

Designing for safety and health 

Health and wellness decisions are supported by materials choices, physical design and aesthetics. Designing for wellness includes such considerations as lighting, ventilation, water filtration, climate control and other aspects of the building itself. In the context of the pandemic, this list now also includes per person space allocation, navigation patterns and shared touchable surfaces.

At the same time, strictly clinical considerations must be translated for the varied usages of commercial spaces. 

“People come to restaurants for cultural experiences and to be part of a community,” says Ishihara, who is a principal at Wilson Ishihara in Sonoma and Oakland, CA. “The space has to feel hospitable—not like a hospital. So even within the context of a pandemic, we must focus on maximizing diner experiences—how it feels to sit at every table, and adjusting spaces so the customers feel safe, yet the experiences are still meaningful and delightful. That is what will ensure they return—and ensure the long-term health of the business.”

With the sudden shift to working-from-home that the pandemic shutdown required, the very nature of work has shifted in ways that are likely to endure. According to researcher Jennifer Magnolfi Astill in a recent interview with Harvard Business Review, “This event will mark a permanent change in our perception of workspace …. [and] new ways of working together will emerge, at first in the form of innovation in digital work tools,  – and later in innovation in physical space.”

With many companies delaying a return to their offices, Northern California commercial interior designers are already generating possible solutions for both short- and long-term needs of the new work dynamic. San Francisco-based design firm RMW modelled its New Office Paradigm on the assumption that shared workspace is vital for full team collaboration and creativity, even while physical distancing and hygienic practices must be maintained.

New Office Paradigm | RMW

Designing for flexibility and sustainability

Commercial interior designers are experts in understanding the required quality and durability of materials selected to meet the projected needs, resources and usage of the space.  With that very usage undergoing rapid transformation, flexibility is critical as well.

For a new shared laboratory facility that houses biotech start-ups actively researching COVID-related healthcare solutions, the interior design team at MBH Architects of Alameda, CA, reworked the large common spaces into seating areas that offer numerous options and are completely changeable. The designers’ deep relationship with furnishings vendors yielded the “energizing” colors that the client sought, even while meeting the health needs that require non-porous, completely cleanable surfaces.

Bakar BioEnginuity HUB in Berkeley, CA | MBH Architects 

Ensuring the health of the environment and mitigating the impact of climate change are growing world-wide concerns. Regulations, clients and the public are demanding that commercial buildings be constructed using environmentally sensitive materials and practices so that they function in a sustainable way. With some of the strictest and most progressive building codes in the nation, Northern California’s commercial interior designers are increasingly applying LEED certification and WELL building standards to create “healthy buildings” for all.

Three IIDA Efforts to help Interior Designers Meet the Moment

Posted on by David Kerr
Close up shot of green I Design Button

Published October 08. 2020

It has certainly been an unprecedented year – unlike anything we’ve ever experienced—with a pandemic gripping our nation, a movement to fight systemic racism, and numerous historic wildfires raging across our state. These difficult times have also given us the opportunity to reflect and rethink what is important to our community and how to best support our industry in order to continue to advance the commercial interior design profession. 

Our collective minds can overcome any obstacles. Together, let’s continue progress so we ultimately come out stronger on the other side.

This year, we at IIDA NorCal are focusing our efforts and resources in three primary ways:  

1. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We believe interior design plays a key role in protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the public. Design has the power to heal and bring people together. However, we must collectively take action in order to make progress. Therefore, we have launched a series of equity initiatives to fight for diversity, equity and inclusion throughout  our society –  and particularly in the interior design field. 

Our Dignity, Equity & Justice by Design series of conversations is underway, bringing together both compelling speakers and lively participation by attendees. Session 2 is coming up on October 21, and I encourage you to register and participate in this important work.

2. Mentorship, Training and Resources

In order for our industry to thrive, it is critical that each and every one of us takes the time to inspire, teach, and mentor the next generation of professionals. For this reason, we are launching a new website and a virtual mentorship program this fall. Each of these are new vehicles that will generate opportunities for our community to connect and learn from one another. Mentorship, of course, is deeply connected to our goals of dignity, equity and justice, so emphasizing the creation of tangible opportunities to diversify the voices, backgrounds and talents of our industry will greatly inform all of these efforts.

3. Nurture the Culture of Innovation

Our industry is shifting as we have endured many life-changing experiences in the last several months. As designers, we’re trained to think creatively and to approach each challenge with fresh thinking. It is also our responsibility to push the value of design beyond our current understanding, in order to make a positive transformation through innovation. 

Supporting these efforts is a fully redesigned website, launching next month, as well as our ongoing and proactive advocacy efforts. Despite challenges with the state’s legislative calendar that the pandemic has imposed, we’re forging ahead to ensure our industry receives the recognition and regulatory status it needs. The  above work cannot happen without the continued support and involvement of our community. Please join us and let’s make progress together.