A new archinect member and the owner of contract furnishings bussiness spells out the dark secrets of interior design craft in a discussions thread. An eloquent read for people who want to earn more.
By FashionPlate, 09/21/06 10:08

A tad late to the thread, but here's another perspective from someone who has the lovely job of working within the A&D community for...ahem....22 years. Not that there's anything wrong with getting older.

This is a very good thread and could’ve been written by myself and my professional colleagues 20 years ago. But we didn’t have the Internet then, so we just spread our disagreements out over the grapevine and in person with each other.

Now comes the 3rd perspective – I’m an owner of a contract furniture dealership who provides “interior design” services. We do NOT provide any semblance of architectural work, and I personally will break the news to a client that they need a licensed, registered architect. Most of the local IDs around here will simply attempt the work, and then let the devil take the hindmost. Hence my lack of respect for most IDs, and my unending respect for qualified Architects.

My company is in the business of selling high end business interior products, that’s where we make our profit dollars. Cubicles are not where the big bucks are to be found, though that is the common misperception. I happen to dislike ALL the major panel systems though admit they’re a necessary evil. I’ve been personally trained in Steelcase for 2 decades now, though of the top 3 system manufacturers, they’re the least exciting [but the most honest].

As a contract furniture dealer, we provide interior design services because many clients are afraid of hiring and then being ripped off by an Interior Decorator/Designer [however they’re licensed or accredited]. Many of my clients are Fortune 500 and many are huge health care providers. I do not waste my time or resources on government work of any sort – I happen to like being paid in a timely manner and government doesn’t believe in that concept. Surprisingly, I’m often the first person a new client meets with when it becomes painfully obvious to them that the “facilities dept.” or the bosses wives can’t design worth a dime, and they need to find someone who knows the ropes.

I’m happy to work with Architectural firms, not happy to work with ID firms – the IDs all want kick-backs in the form of money and they all want, literally, that free lunch. Over and over and over. Personally I detest pay-offs and I can assure you, so do the major manufacturers. Sure, they’ll fork over something, but not because they want do so. It’s a well known area of ethical violation if you ask me. I’ve walked away from $1MM projects when the design firm demanded a large percentage of our profits merely because WE specified their client’s project and redesigned it to actually work in the given space, and they want to double-dip so much, it becomes unprofitable for us to work with them.

If most clients knew this revolting practice was rampant amongst design firms, the clients would likely protest. Not wanting to be the proverbial messenger, I refrain from clueing in the clients, as negativity doesn’t do my company any good. If a design firm is involved in a project before I get to it, I do serious number crunching and hassles involved analysis before we go any further. We’ve been burned once too often by IDs who’re dishonest and golden-tongued liars.

I have a little something special to my background too – my mother is a licensed [for what it’s worth] ID and has taken extensive Arch. Classes over the years, and yet, she’s basically an interior decorator. Like Martha Stewart, she had good taste but is clueless about architecture, engineering and what it takes to actually build something. I was also married for 27 yrs to a general contractor, so I know a bit about building commercial structures and the liability issues. Designers often don’t give a fig about liability, nor safety. Including my own mother. She has her own firm for over 30 years, and employs at least one very experienced Architect full time.

I attended my first NEOCON when I was 12 yrs old [that was ‘back in the day’ of Par-TAY hardy and freely flowing liquor and food and circus like milieu at the Mart]. I decided to get my degree in BUSINESS instead of design, primarily because I couldn’t stand the idea of playing a Diva as my own Mom had done for years with her clients. Those clients were and are a mix of residential and business clients, many of them uber-well heeled, some famous.

Being a bit more than slightly creative myself, I happened to enjoy the space-planning, specifying and glorified shopping that goes on with most interior projects including for contract clients. I possess an enormous capacity for details when it comes to products, and keep up with the latest technologies and trends in materials, including green design and ADA issues [not that many clients care, let me assure you!]

I have never done a single residential project, and hope to God I never will. I can’t stand all the frou-frou associated with the majority of IDs, nor much of the hideousness that many, if not all, pass off as ‘designed spaces’. Personally, I’d ban from the planet all forms of flowery fabrics, wall-coverings and those demonic ‘faux finishes’. I’m a clean uncluttered kind of woman, and can’t abide frilly nonsense. Areas at which my own Mom excels, and which has paid her handsome rewards. She lives far better than most Architects ever will, I can assure you, dear readers.

My personal preference at this point is that I truly enjoy working with the Architects, basically detest working with any Interior Designers/Decorators [which is an interchangeable term in my mind w/good reason]. IDs are frequently living embodiments of their stereotypes, made all the more real for the public by television shows featuring obnoxious know-it-alls who are talentless hacks. I can prove this point in the real world by demonstrating how terribly not difficult it is to provide good quality design work with a modicum of training [I’ve been trained in space-planning, attended dozens of manufacturer seminars and weeks-long training sessions at Steelcase, Haworth, HM and many others]. I’ve personally designed umpteen business interiors, including done the drawings by hand and CAD, provided conceptual space-planning, done all the specifying and of course, selling of interior products.

Not one single client of the many has ever requested of me to provide them a “licensed” ID, but I’ve personally instructed many clients to hire a licensed, experienced Architect. Because most of these otherwise smart business people have been trained like seals to believe that moving a major structural element is easy to do! I blame that on the lack of education of the public done by Architects, and RAs allowing IDs to fill the void with fluff and gobbledygook.

I’ve had many conversations with clients [such as The Gap execs – the big guns, not the regional guys] with me insisting that a knowledgeable Architect be hired forthwith. I keep handy names and numbers of those in the architectural field whom I know are honest, ethical and very good at what they do. I do not tack on any sort of kick-back. I do insist on professional courtesy and have been lucky enough to receive it back. I do not know a single ID in this town [a large-ish East Coast city] who’d do a single thing without demanding a financial kick-back or incentive that costs other professionals directly out of their pockets. In addition to all the wining and dining they expect, IDs are frequently in my experience, greedy beyond all belief. One ID firm insists we only cater lunches from a 5 star caterer, and then they turn around and stiff us by shutting us out as a dealer when it comes time to bid, unless we’ve agreed to pay the percentage of our profits to them. You don’t think clients know about that, do you, dear readers? Pulease.

That is the difference between projects I produce and those IDs seek to produce: I know the differences between the disciplines, clients do not, and I know when to seek out professional help with life safety issues, when most IDs will simply prevaricate and go ahead. I’ve personally known several prominent designers in my town who’ve caused major structural damage to client spaces or buildings, costing them enormous sums of money to rectify and yet not even one such incompetent ID has been sued. I find that sort of behavior unconscionable. And these same designers will defame dealers up and down the street, while their hands are secretly inside our pockets.

As a dealer, I’m in the business to make money. I don’t do this for the glory, nor to fulfill some deep-seated desire to ‘create’ a nice space so as to leave my mark on the world. I love beautiful spaces with a passion, but I look at projects firstly in terms of profit margins. My other passion is making sure that employees aren’t crippled by lousy furniture, not that anyone else ever seems to care. So yes, it’s true: I happen to be a business person firstly and someone who was blessed with a good eye for color and good taste. I have encyclopedic knowledge of products across the board, and represent the top lines. I’ve done well in a “man’s world” among dealers. Trade-persons love me because I’m fair, competent and bring them work they otherwise would’ve struggled to secure. Same for the Architects I’ve worked with over the years.

By contrast, the IDs whom I’ve had the displeasure of working with have been uniformly detestable headcases, greedy, pathological liars, downright dangerously incompetent and in at least 2 cases, willing to steal the work of others [architects] and claim it as their own!! The two most high profile IDs in this town are both horrendous unethical women meeting all the low criteria laid out herein. One goes about to a local hoity-toity country club to secure business and residential clients, while handing off the work to interns but claiming she personally did the work. One local ID school has had such bad reports on her firm, they stopped allowing students to intern there. Her work can best be described as excretory. She practices architecture without a license, and has costs many clients big dollars to remedy her screw-ups. And, she’s a drunk.

The other unethical ID uses religious connections to secure clients and is openly a racist. She has a horrendous reputation amongst trade people, who can share their own horror stories working her firm. This ID has gone so far as to list in her client brochures and materials the work of a very nice, talented Architect I know well, and when confronted on it, told him to sue her if he wanted her to cease and desist! This woman has been named a business woman of the year around here, and I just weep at the idea of it. Needless to say, unless my company is willing to give her a substantial cut of our profits, and we aren’t, we don’t have access to any of the projects she’s hired to specify and “design”. She’s defamed many people within the larger industry, including myself. She’s a living bane on the business community and clients at large.

I’m happy to work with most architectural firms, even though they too treat us as red-headed stepchildren. However, we often know far more about the products and materials, and are consulted without any assurances of having a shot at the project. Therefore, I’ve come to limit our advice to the very generic, unless I have an agreement in writing with the Architectural firm that we’re going to be given a fair shake at the client’s project in terms of bids and fairness. What I’ve discovered is that relationship building and cooperation trump cheaper prices and ‘dime design’ offered by so-called ID firms. We bill at $95.00 an hour presently for space-planning and designing that goes beyond our first presentation of design boards. We do not provide copies of our drawings or boards so that the client can use them to shop around town to different dealers, unless the client has paid for the work at the above rate. Unfortunately, ID firms around here will often hold CDs hostage until given assurance they’ll be getting that kick-back fee. Generally speaking, I pass on those “opportunities” as in the past, we’ve ended up having to correct a myriad of gross mistakes by essentially redesigning and specifying the entire project.

Oh the stories I could tell about IDs, and the few negative I can relate about Architects. Suffice to say, IDs are a PITA and I could do without if I had my way. I admit it, I have strong contempt for most IDs and their ideas of ‘design’ and how they conduct business. I've never yet met one who I'd considering hiring, if that means anything. I can't say the same for most Architects. Thankfully.

FP

(continued)

09/21/06 12:07
Treekiller - Yes! Thanks for the compliment BTW. I think having been immersed in so many aspects of A&D, and even engineering w/my EX, has given me a unique perspective.

I should point out that as a dealer in the business primarily of selling stuff, versus providing design work [we do project mgmt, installs, etc.], we're driven to only provide product that actually works well. And lasts. And doesn't cost so much the client runs to Office Depot or IKEA. Yet my other abiding dislike is of sales people. Most of the top manufacturers do hire young people who have good manners, understand business protocols and who follow up on promises. Most dealers on the other hand, do not. Many are akin to used car salespersons in terms of temperament and character [or lack thereof]. Dealers wedded to the likes of Herman Miller & Haworth & Steelcase for example, are so driven by the lash of numbers [sales] they can't be bothered with discussing creative design with contract clients. I've managed to squeeze into the niche and or void created by their master/slave deal with the big manufacturers. In my town, several of these IDs have hooked their wagons to these dealers, and will only spec that product line, regardless of fit or suitability. Few will bother with custom work.

The one thing I love about architects and their firms in general is their eschewing of this voluntary enslavement to a product manufacturer. That is something far more IDs need, but I don't forsee anything changing as there's a huge financial incentive for IDs to align themselves w/powerful dealers. For instance, in my geographic area, there is ONE, only one, HM dealer for a 150 mile radius. They've been the only authorized dealer forever. Each year I go to NEOCON, I enjoy the Herman Miller showroom, then realize that most clients in our area will never see the innovative designs the product line boasts as this dealer is run by tired old men who hire other good old boys like themselves to sell the product. Few client projects I've seen ever reflected the highly stylized interiors capable of being achieved with that product line. And that's because the IDs are in the pockets of the dealer, who is beholden to the manufacturer to crank out the numbers, not the 'designs'.

Kinda sad really.

FP