Atelier Magazine Winter/Spring 2020

atelier NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

WINTER/SPRING 2020 | II

New York School of Interior Design

Haven Makers Three Alumni Share Their Passion for Placemaking in Residential Design

WELCOME

atelier WINTER/SPRING 2020 VOL. 2 / NO. 1 PRESIDENT David Sprouls CHIEF OF STAFF David Owens-Hill EDITORIAL AND ART DIRECTOR Christopher Spinelli CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Laura Catlan Jennifer Dorr PHOTOGRAPHY Matthew Carasella Jason Gardner Mark La Rosa Matthew Septimus PRINTING JMT Communications Jeff Tucker, President ADDITIONAL NYSID STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS SUPPORT Hannah Batren Phyllis Greer

New York School of Interior Design 170 East 70 Street New York, NY 10021

I often speak of NYSID’s extraordinary job placement statistics: 100 percent of NYSID’s graduate and undergraduate students are employed or pursuing further study within six months of graduation. One of our features in this issue, “5 Transformative Internships,” provides a glimpse into what’s behind those statistics. Our students are getting the internships that lead to great jobs because they’re well prepared, technologically versatile, and have strong portfolios, but also because of you, our community. Our students and recent graduates often get a foot in the door because NYSID alumni, at firms throughout the industry, crack the door open for them. One of the benefits of a NYSID education is a tightly knit community that extends through generations and is passionate about design in all its forms.

Since our inception, we have developed alongside the field of interior design, working to establish standards that raise the bar of the profession. Ours is a profession invented by creative risk-takers who saw opportunity where others saw obstacles, which you can read about in “Operating Within the System, and Outside of It.” This interview with faculty member Alexis Barr offers a taste of our popular online course that looks back at the fascinating history of the profession. It’s fitting that this course is offered online, because NYSID started as a mail correspondence course in 1916. We were empowering distance learners then, and we’re doing it now. NYSID’s online programs are a growth area for the College, and one reason we’re having a strong year in terms of enrollment.

The Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) just reaccredited NYSID’s BFA and MFA-1 programs, a testament to the fact that our curriculum is always evolving, both driving and responding to ongoing changes in design. We’re in the beginning stages of a self-study and a strategic planning process leading up to our Middle States Commission on Higher Education accreditation review. We will use this process to propel us toward our goals, one of which is strengthening our ties to you, our extended community.

For our cover story, “Haven Makers,” we’ve profiled three alumni, all NYSID faculty members, who are residential design entrepreneurs and dynamic teachers.

Residential design is in our DNA as a college, and half of our studios in the BFA program are devoted to it. We require our students to study residential design because we have always understood that designing the home is a strong foundation for every form of interior design. It teaches students to pay attention to the intimacy of detail and decoration, and the potential for a space to comfort and restore. The overlap between different types of design is growing. Hospitals, for example, are applying principles of residential design to create groundbreaking spaces that contribute to healing. NYSID graduates are benefiting from their exposure to every type of interior design, and from their adaptability.

This magazine is for and about the NYSID community, and we want to hear from you. Tell us about your exciting projects. Share your opinions about what’s going on in the industry. Send your ideas to atelier@nysid.edu. You help us shape the next generation of interior designers, and we thank you for it.

Atelier is published twice a year by the Office of External Relations for the alumni and friends of the New York School of Interior Design. It is printed on recycled paper with vegetable inks.

For more information or to submit story ideas or comments, email atelier@nysid.edu.

David T. Sprouls, President

CONTENTS FEATURES

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Haven Makers

Working Within the System, and Outside of It

Three Alumni Design Homes That Comfort and Restore

Our Intriguing Course on the History of the Interior Design Profession

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Designing Independence

Nate Berkus and “My Home in Sight”

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5 Transformative Internships

Inside Scoop on Coveted Internships

DEPARTMENTS 2 VISUAL THINKER 4 LAYOUT 20 CELEBRATIONS 32 SENIOR STORY

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PORTFOLIO GIVING LEADERSHIP NEXT AT NYSID

ON THE COVER Lawrence Levy ’05 (BFA), Stefan Steil ’08 (BFA) / ’10 (MFA-2), and Alejandra Munizaga ’11 (BFA) standing on the spiral staircase leading to the mezzanine level of the Mario Buatta Materials Atelier in the East 70th Street building.

VISUAL THINKER / Design Deconstructed Michelle Jacobson ’18 (MPS-S), NCIDQ, WELL AP, LEED AP ID+C, ASID, was working on this project while she was still in school. An interior designer with 20 years experience, her studies in sustainability at NYSID have changed her perspective on what’s possible in design.

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The windows and skylights have a low-E glazing, which is spectrally selective and helps to make the space energy efficient all year by blocking heat and radiation in the summer and insulating in the winter.

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The walls are painted with low-VOC Benjamin Moore Aura Paint in Pure White.

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Jacobson salvaged these pears from a forgotten corner of another room because “they added organic shape to the horizontal and vertical lines of the cabinetry and counter.”

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The cabinetry was made by Millennium Cabinetry in Michigan. Jacobson says, “I chose walnut so the flat panels would have movement. An entire wood kitchen seemed too dark so we broke it up with high-gloss white panels.”

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The dark brown oak floors are stained with a waterbased product. “The darkness of the flooring helps ground the soaring space and white walls,” says Jacobson.

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BETH SINGER

Michelle Jacobson, principal of ML Jacobson Design, was called in for a gut renovation of this kitchen after it flooded. She normally reuses as much as possible, but the space had to be opened to the studs. Her clients were recent empty nesters in their 60s who expressed that they love “clean lines, stainless steel, and modern furniture, but also the warmth of wood and antiques.”

Jacobson often uses arresting artwork, but this couple wanted views to the outdoors—the forest, sky, and wildlife—to dominate. They requested clutterless countertops and a space in which everything is tucked away. The clients wanted the kitchen to convert into a party space when the kids came home for the holidays. The key to the clean, balanced look of this kitchen is the custom walnut cabinetry set against white walls and marble counters. Jacobson lets us in on her thinking, sourcing, and sustainable choices here.

JENNYFER PARRA

Minimalist Kitchen

LAYOUT / New and Notable at NYSID NYSID’s curricula and offerings are evolving to push the standards of interior design education further. 

BOARD UPDATES

Cheryl Durst and Eric Gering Join Board of Trustees NYSID is thrilled to announce the appointment of Cheryl Durst, FIIDA, LEED, executive vice president and chief executive officer of IIDA (The Commercial Interior Design Association), and architect Eric Gering to the New York School of Interior Design’s Board of Trustees. Durst brings a plethora of skills, perspectives, and contacts to the College. She’s known for her fiscal acumen and organizational leadership skills, having taken the IIDA from the brink of bankruptcy in 1998 to the thriving organization it is today. She also curates and publishes Perspective, the association’s thought leadership journal.

She holds dual bachelor degrees in journalism and economics from Boston University. She has been referred to by Interior Design magazine as “an ambassador for innovation and expansion, and a visionary strategist.”

Eric Gering has been appointed to the role of faculty trustee on NYSID’s Board of Trustees. Gering is well suited to represent the faculty, as he has been a respected faculty member of NYSID since 2000. He has been an architect in private practice for two decades, and before that worked for Gensler, Fox and Fowle, Alfredo de Vido, and Sidney Phillip Gilbert. He has also served as a board member on the Manhattan Landmarks Committee.

CHERYL DURST

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FACULTY & CURRICULUM MFA-1 & BFA Attain CIDA Accreditation Again The Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) reaccredited NYSID’s two professional-level programs, the MFA-1 and the BFA, in 2019. CIDA, an independent, nonprofit accreditation organization, exists to ensure that there are reliable standards in professional-level interior design education programs in the United States and internationally. The accreditation is an important accomplishment, and now that the process is over, Ellen Fisher, NYSID’s vice president for academic affairs and dean, wants to keep pushing forward. “We’re collecting information about trends and directions in practice so we can fold this into our thinking about revisions to the curriculum,” she says.

“We research the world of practice so our students will be prepared for the next three to five years.”

LEFT: UNDERGRADUATE WORK ON DISPLAY IN THE WHITON GALLERY DURING THE CIDA SITE VISIT.

NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

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Barbara Weinreich Becomes Director of Undergraduate Programs After teaching at NYSID since 2008, Barbara Weinreich, an architect with deep experience in the retail and residential sectors, has ascended to the position of director of undergraduate programs. A former principal of MNA with over three decades of professional practice under her belt, Weinreich was responsible for the design of Polo/Ralph Lauren flagship stores in cities throughout the world.

She received a BA, magna cum laude, in art history from Brown University. She has a master’s in architecture (MArch) from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, and is NCIDQ certified. “I am thrilled to play a larger role in the NYSID community,” she comments. “Having learned so much from my students and colleagues, I look forward to building on that knowledge and working together to support NYSID’s stellar program in undergraduate education.”

A Stellar Year for New Instructors The nine new instructors who joined the NYSID faculty this fall are all practicing professionals. The breadth and depth of expertise they bring from different segments of the industry are exactly what makes a NYSID education outstanding. Amy Everard, senior associate at Perkins Eastman, a specialist in corporate interiors and health care, is teaching Contract II in the undergraduate programs. Furniture designer and woodworker Thomas Hucker, principal of Thomas Hucker Studio LLC, is teaching Advanced Detailing in the MFA-1. Architect and digital drawing expert Bahman Jamasbi is teaching Presentation Techniques I in the undergraduate programs. Architect Laurie Kerr FAIA, LEED AP, president of LK POLICY LAB, and formerly policy director of the Urban Green Council, is teaching Principles of Sustainable

Design in the Natural Environment in the MPS-S. Michael Bent IIDA, ASID, interior designer and strategist at Gensler, is teaching Presentation Techniques I in the undergraduate program. Alumnus Topaz Wong ’16 (MFA-1), interior designer, illustrator, and presentation manager at Gensler, is teaching Presentation Techniques II in the undergraduate program.

Alumna Qun Tiffany Yao ’12 (MFA-1) CID, LEED AP ID+C, LEED GA, WELL AP, senior interior designer at TPG, is teaching Architectural Woodwork Detailing in the undergraduate program. Dusan Zdravkovic, architect and interior designer specializing in corporate and residential interiors, is teaching Advanced Detailing in the MFA-1. Alumnus Christian Dunbar Pennebaker ’06 (AAS), principal of Christian Dunbar Designs and a furniture designer for Cliff Young Ltd., is teaching Furniture Design.

New ICPS Director Ashley Rose Brings Her Business Lens Alumna Ashley Rose ’10 (BFA) has worked on the business, sales, and marketing end of the luxury design and antiques field since her graduation nine years ago, and this makes her a great fit to lead NYSID’s Institute for Continuing & Professional Studies. She worked as marketing director for ArtOrigo. com, sales operations manager for Ruby Lane and RubyLUX, and sales and digital advertising specialist for 1stdibs.com. She says, “Social media is a powerhouse, and I know the visibility it can bring to a program that deserves recognition.” Rose believes interior design is a profession in which one always needs to learn more to keep up with the evolving industry, and she’s very excited about the potential of the ICPS to transform designers’ careers.

She says, “I look forward to continuing the work of the previous director, Leyden Lewis, by creating master classes with design professionals, improving the website, introducing new courses, creating suites for the business of design, and more.”

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LAYOUT

STUDENTS

Students Design Offices for a Nonprofit That Helps Victims of Violence & Abuse As part of the Summer Experiential & Service Learning course taught by architect Terry Kleinberg, MFA-1 students Yangfangfei Gao, Joanne Park, Mika Jiaravanont, Karina Infante, Mallie Gusset, and Nico Liu designed beautiful, functional offices for Safe Horizons in Staten Island. These students had to design an intake and counseling space for women and children traumatized by violence, a play space, a workplace for social workers, staff, and more. Part of the service learning experience is working within real parameters (and budgets) for real clients, so the students had to present to Safe Horizon staff and administration, including Safe Horizon’s vice president of real estate and facilities. They created a digital walk-through of the space that thoroughly impressed the client. Says Terry Kleinberg, “I was very proud of my students.”

NYSID Community Joins the Global Climate March Shane Curnutt, president of the NYSID chapter of The Green Design Group, organized a group of NYSID students and faculty members who marched together on September 20, wearing their “Green Design Group” T-shirts and waving signs of their own making. “It was comforting to be around a mass of people who had values that aligned with ours,” says Curnutt. “We live in a system that goes against our values of responsible choices and sustainability. It’s obscene to live like we have a backup plan. We don’t. We have only one planet.”

NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

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Students Shine on Nantucket For the fourth year in a row, NYSID students have traveled to Nantucket in late July to reimagine two rooms of the Oldest House on the island, as part of the Nantucket Historical Association’s Nantucket by Design fundraiser.

Supervised by Ellen Fisher, NYSID’s vice president for academic affairs and dean, and mentored by designer Philip Gorrivan, the students were tasked with weaving the history of Nantucket into their room designs. BFA students Baily McGrath and Monica Seroiczkowski based their design on their research of Maria Mitchell, a famed astronomer born on Nantucket.

AAS students Christine Simeon and Valerie Goldin-Rhem created a place of repose intended for a poet.

We’re grateful to NYSID Trustee David Kleinberg for underwriting the project and making NYSID’s participation in this event possible.

Sampling Interior Design Before College Fifty-four high school students from around the country, and around the world, traveled to New York this summer to participate in college-level interior design studies in NYSID’s Pre-College Program.

Students who took Pre-College I designed a onebedroom apartment. Students who took Pre-College II designed a hotel with a small restaurant. Drawing skills were emphasized by the four NYSID faculty members who taught different segments of this program: Don Kossar, Francisco DeLeon, Pam Giolito, and Ana Peñalba. Students visited interior design firms and showrooms as part of the experience.

Don Kossar, director of Pre-College at NYSID, says, “This program opens the field of interior design to teenagers. I love to see these kids discover new things out in the design world.”

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LAYOUT

ALUMNI

Discovering the New Kravet Workspace

Catching Up Over Cocktails at The Shade Store

On September 19, the NYSID Alumni Council and event co-chairs Linda Sclafani and Ethel Rompilla welcomed alumni to “A New Shopping Experience” at the NEW Kravet Workspace in The New York Design Center. Alumni were given a sneak peek at this innovative showroom.

On October 16, the NYSID Alumni Council, along with event co-chairs Lawrence Levy and Erin Wells, hosted a cocktail party at The Shade Store showroom at East 59th Street. Alumni networked over cocktails as they experienced demonstrations in The Shade Store’s dynamic space.

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NOTEWORTHY

NYSID at “What’s New, What’s Next” NYSID’s panel at this future-facing, industry-wide event at The New York Design Center in September was focused on how designers can hone their brands and find their ideal customers through social media.

NYSID drew on the expertise of alumni, faculty, and even a very media-savvy student to give the audience ideas on how to ignite trends, even movements, within design. Panelists included NYSID faculty member Leyden Lewis, principal of Leyden Lewis Design Studio and an early member of the Black Artists and Designers Guild; alumnus Gideon Mendelson, founder of Mendelson Group; alumna Beth Diana Smith, principal of her namesake firm; and Dahiana Peña, a second-year MFA-1 candidate who also serves as social media coordinator for NYSID’s Graduate Student Association.

ABOVE: GIDEON MENDELSON, DAHIANA PEÑA, BETH DIANA SMITH, LEYDEN LEWIS. LEFT: PANELISTS AT THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION IN THE NEW YORK DESIGN CENTER.

NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

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NOTEWORTHY

The Michael I. and Patricia M. Sovern Lecture on Design: Annabelle Selldorf On October 30, a crowd of roughly 200 turned up at NYSID to hear architect Annabelle Selldorf discuss her storied career, especially her work on interiors.

Annabelle Selldorf is the founder and principal of Selldorf Architects, a 70-person architectural design practice in New York. “AD Pro” covered the event, and said, “Selldorf spent time discussing a number of projects that hold personal significance for her—a residential building at 10 Bond Street with loftlike units, the Osborne apartment she created for longtime client Michael Werner Gallery, her upcoming expansion of the Frick, and of course, the Neue Galerie.” Selldorf also discussed the building she was raised in, a multistory unit that encompassed both her family home and her father’s furniture company, Vica, which Annabelle Selldorf is relaunching for a new generation. NYSID is grateful to the Sovern family for making this endowed lecture possible.

RIGHT: MICHAEL SOVERN, PATRICIA SOVERN, ANNABELLE SELLDORF, DAVID SPROULS.

HOME in Its Second Printing; Grab a Book & a Hoodie at Da Vinci “HOME: The Foundations of Enduring Space,” a primer on design and décor based on NYSID’s Basic Interior Design curriculum and written

by Ellen Fisher, dean and vice president for academic affairs at NYSID, has gone into its second printing. It’s easier than ever to grab one as a gift, because the book is now on sale at the Da Vinci store at 70th Street, in the same building that houses the undergraduate facility. You can also get zip-up black hoodies with the NYSID name and other spirit wear in the store.

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DEPARTMENT

HAVEN MAKERS Designing Homes That Comfort & Restore

NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

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esidential designers and NYSID faculty members Lawrence Levy ’05 (BFA), principal of Lawrence Allan Inc.; Alejandra Munizaga ’11 (BFA), principal of Natura Interiors; and Stefan Steil ’08 (BFA) / ’10 (MFA-2), principal of Steilish Interiors and Architecture, share insights into their careers and what drives them to design homes.

The three residential designers profiled on these pages – all alumni of NYSID’s BFA program who have gone on to become faculty members at the College – were employed by firms doing many different kinds of design when they entered the work world, but they ultimately chose to make their names as residential design entrepreneurs. They started their own companies to shape the personal spaces where people eat, sleep, play, love, and parent. These designers value the intimacy of their relationships with clients, as well as the freedom they have to be artists. They possess deep knowledge of the decorative arts and strong relationships with artisans, and they source custom and one-of-a-kind pieces that make interiors truly unique. It’s interesting that each of these interior designers was a different kind of artist early in life, and that they have funneled the experience of their first careers into their practices. All share a passion for place-making in the home that reveals the importance of what they do.

THE CONCEPTUAL CHAMELEON Some interior designers take pride in having an identifiable visual brand, a look that everyone associates with them, but not Lawrence Levy ’05 (BFA), principal of Lawrence Allan Inc. (lawrenceallaninc.com). He says, “I have always viewed interior design as a collaborative art form. I get to know my clients and create a reflection of them. It’s very difficult to brand my work because it all looks so different.” Levy spends time getting to know his clients at the outset, and he won’t start a project until he has a lock on a big concept.

He explains, “I’m idea-driven. The big concept comes from spending meaningful time with clients. They will often tell you something quickly as a throwaway comment that reveals something essential about them.”

Levy had the privilege of designing three different homes for the same family over the course of many years, as their needs evolved. He did the family’s New York City apartment when they were a young couple, newly married with no kids, the gut renovation of their vacation home in Sag Harbor, and, just last year, the gut renovation of a new home for the growing family of two parents and two children in Washington, D.C. Says Levy, “All three projects for the same family were so different because the client was at different stage of life every time, and because the architecture of each building and culture of each locale sparked a new concept.” Levy feels his pièce de résistance was the design of the D.C. house. He says, “I knew them so well at that point. I knew she had a quirky modern aesthetic but had

purchased an old house with Federalist architecture. So the design concept became ‘A Modern Life in History.”

For this home, Levy did all of the interior architectural detailing in the Federalist (American neoclassical) style, including the moldings, woodwork, and a grand staircase at the entrance. He studied the breakfast room at Mount Vernon for inspiration, which influenced his application of vibrant, deep blue silk wallpaper to the walls of the dining room. He says, “With drapery and wall coverings, we created rooms that enveloped them.” For Levy, the excitement was juxtaposing two different aesthetics. He set modernist artwork and furniture against period-inspired motifs and architecture to make the rooms feel less formal, and more livable. “Right at the entrance of the formal foyer, we placed a huge painting of black ink etched into stainless steel, which immediately signals this is not an old-fashioned space,” he explains. “We added raw clay lamps and a raw-edged, custom-made table to the living room to hint at kicking back.” The rooms are dramatic, yet relaxed.

Levy believes his first career in musical theater and acting has much to do with his approach to design. He says, “With my clients, I’m always trying to uncover character. I’m asking myself, Who is this person? Who are they really? As a designer, you have to use your charm to dig. If you’re sincerely interested in people, they will reveal some part of themselves to you.”

Levy is always busy, juggling the client-facing facets of the job with the back end of the business, but he makes time to teach at NYSID because he has “deep affection” for the school.

It’s the place where, in his 30s, he finally found his calling. He says, “I never knew performing was the wrong fit until I went into design and felt so in command of my skills. When I landed at NYSID, I knew it was where I belonged.”

Levy, whose father died when he was a child, grew up in a working-class family with a hardworking single mother. When he was young, it was difficult for him to envision himself as a designer or architect; it was something he was drawn to but saw as the province of the rich. But once he found NYSID, he was hooked on interior design and what his teachers had to offer. Among the things he loved about NYSID was the small size and intimacy of the school and the accessibility of the faculty. Barbara Lowenthal, associate dean, was never his instructor, but he once asked her for a critique. She sat down with him, radically changed his perspective, and she soon became an informal advisor.

OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP: LAWRENCE LEVY, ALEJANDRA MUNIZAGA, STEFAN STEIL.

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Levy, who now teaches Residential Design II and Design Process at NYSID, says, “There were teachers who saw something in me and grabbed me by the hand. I teach because I am the product of great teachers.”

Scott Ageloff was Levy’s Residential Design III professor and hired him right after his graduation in 2005. Levy worked at Ageloff & Associates for a year and then left to start his own New York City firm, Lawrence Allan Inc., in 2006. He says, “Don’t do what I did! It was like shell shock. The first years on my own were tough and so many long hours. I am a big believer that graduates should go work at a firm for three to five years and learn the ropes. I like the business management and development part of the business, but not everyone is cut out for that.” These days, Levy employs a design assistant and keeps his office small. He likes the creative freedom that comes with having a hand in every stage of the design process.

Networking is key to his business. Levy believes he was ultimately successful because he’s resourceful and outgoing, unafraid to strike up a conversation with a stranger at the bar

FEATURES

at Gramercy Tavern or a gallery opening—things he’s actually done—and won new clients. Something a teacher told him has stuck with him: “If you are running a successful business you’re going to be thinking only two things: God I’m so busy and where is my next client coming from?”

These days, Levy believes there is a trend toward simplicity and livability in residential design because technology has made life so complex. He says his clients want to knock down walls and create big gathering spaces where people can meet face to face for meaningful conversation. Clients are seeking rooms that are easy and social, with less of an emphasis of formality. “The world has become a very complicated place.

Technology is driving our lives. Devices are isolating us. Work is so competitive. People are juggling family and jobs. There has to be some place you can go that’s a retreat, that’s secure and nurturing, where you can step away from the noise and get back to family, peace, and love,” Levy says. “That’s what a home should be, and that’s why what residential designers do is so important.”

ABOVE: DINING ROOM BY LAWRENCE LEVY. OPPOSITE PAGE: STUDIO APARTMENT BY ALEJANDRA MUNIZAGA.

NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

THE SANCTUARY SHAPER Alejandra Munizaga ’11 (BFA), principal and founder of Natura Interiors (naturainteriors.com), recently renovated what started as a “chopped-up, closed-in, unlivable” first-floor space in the Hamptons. “Let’s not forget to mention the mauve carpet!” she says with a laugh. She loved every minute of this challenge. The only upside of the space was that it was set on the edge of a charming woods, with glass doors that opened to the scent of the ocean in the distance, so she worked from the concept of “Earth & Water.” In all of her designs, Munizaga brings elements of the outdoors in.

To create a vibrant studio apartment out of this depressing lower level, Munizaga opened up the entire space, leaving structural columns, and creating a view from the bed toward glass doors that open to the woods. She passed all the cables through one beam, increased the height of the ceilings, and drenched the space in a cool hue of white, with pops of aqua and orange. She drew on natural elements to give the space textural qualities: a thick wool blanket, a reclaimed cedar chest, a woven rattan headboard, a wood-flap ceiling. She used a tile that looks like wood to create a bathroom that feels like a Scandinavian sauna. The overall effect is soothing and joyful.

Munizaga has an identifiable visual brand, what she calls “barefoot bliss,” a style that draws particular clients. It stems from her philosophy of what a home should be. She says, “The home should be a refuge. I design spaces of warmth and calm that allow people to be completely themselves. My job is about connecting with the true essence of who my clients are. I don’t want their homes to be showcases to impress other people. I want their homes to be sanctuaries.” She believes customers are increasingly looking for designs that help them heal and unwind. “I see a return to more meditative and contemplative

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space,” Munizaga says. “So much about technology speeds up life and divides attention. The home becomes a place to recalibrate.”

Munizaga is based in the Hamptons, and her clients are usually seeking something there, perhaps a new way of life.

She says, “Most of my work is inspired by nature in some shape or form. This aligns with people who are going through a change, people who are semiretiring, divorcing, looking for a respite from work.” Munizaga spends a lot of time on the front end of the design process, getting to know her clients personally. She never rushes the discovery phase or concept formation. She adds,” Having a strong inspiration, a clear vision, a bold concept is everything—it’s the center of the wheel. It should drive the whole project.”

Munizaga is obsessed with color and composition, and she likes to use the work of local artists and craftsmen in her interiors. Perhaps this is because she started out as a fine artist, a painter and sculptor who taught for years at The School of Visual Arts. “At a certain point in my art career, I felt the desire for a change. I had always loved architecture and three-dimensional space,” she remembers, “so my entry into interior design at NYSID felt seamless.” She views interior design as an art form that relies on the same principles as fine art. “As an interior designer, I became even more fascinated by the way light can influence color, she says. “Color is important work for human psychology.” In her composition, she favors balance over classical symmetry.

Munizaga’s knowledge of art and architecture is deep, so her influences are broad. She has been most inspired by Scandinavian modern design. The Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has influenced her with his use of light and materiality.

She’s learned from the way Louis Kahn handled wood and concrete. The artist whose work she finds most compelling

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right now is Andy Goldsworthy, a Scottish land artist who makes transitory pieces made of natural elements, sculptures that melt or decay, what she calls “art that documents the process of change and ephemerality in nature.”

Munizaga didn’t always know that she wanted to work in residential design. After graduation, she worked in the interiors department for two large architecture firms: Swanke Hayden Connell and, later, NBBJ. It took five years for her to decide to start her own firm. She says, “The transition to working on my own as a residential designer was about having a direct and more intimate connection to the client.”

Color for Interiors and Design Process are the two courses Munizaga currently teaches at NYSID. She urges her students to get anywhere from five to 10 years at another firm before attempting to start one’s own business. She says, “You need the exposure to technology and business management. You should experience how other people work. At small firms, you get well-rounded administrative experience. At large firms, you make more connections.”

The single most important piece of business advice she has for someone who wants to start a residential firm is, “Find your niche.” She says, “The more specific you can get about your aesthetic, the more likely you are to find the kind of client that values what you can do. Ask yourself: What do I love; What is needed in the area where I live; What am I good at?”

“I learn so much from my students. It’s the way to stay updated on trends and talent.

Plus, I find out whom I want to intern or freelance for me, and whom I can place at companies that are looking for new talent.”

STEFAN STEIL

OPPOSITE PAGE: LIVING ROOM BY STEFAN STEIL.

FEATURES

THE BRINGER OF BALANCE Stefan Steil ’08 (BFA) / ’10 (MFA-2), principal of Steilish Interiors & Architecture (steilish.com), started out life as a fashion designer, tailor, and patternmaker for German brands such as Bogner and Rena Lange. He believes that the making of a beautiful interior has much in common with the making of an elegant garment. “My process is about stripping design to its essentials to achieve the right proportions,” he explains, “and then elevating it again through the layering of beautiful materials.” He believes the goal of design—the crux of what he learned while attaining two degrees at NYSID—is to use light, scale, proportion, color, and texture to achieve an overall harmony that makes the user feel comfortable and centered in a space.

Steil, who is not a fan of the trend of maximalism, says, “To see true talent in design, you have to take away the noisy elements, and what you have left are the shapes, forms, and textures that create balance and harmony.” One of his major influences is the British architect John Pawson, a master of minimalism. Steil says, “I think he uses only five materials in all of his projects, yet his spaces leave me in awe. It is all about details, proportion, and beauty of materials.”

Though Steil’s interiors are as diverse as his clients, there is something orderly, refined, organic, and almost Zen in everything he touches. You can see his impulse toward creating equilibrium in his gorgeous interior design of a former hunting lodge in Princeton that was built in the 1920s. He says, “The intricate, warm wood paneling in the room was beautiful, but overpowering. The previous owner had the space furnished with traditional furniture, floral fabrics, and Persian rugs. What we did in this traditional space was not only balance the orange tint of the wood with blue and cool gray colors, but also infuse it with modern and contemporary furniture to balance the traditional envelope. Design is about a balance of contrasts.” Steil is further inspired by the balance inherent in natural forms and ecosystems. Nature surfaces in his designs in everything from stylized textiles to objects like taxidermy or pieces of bark.

For Steil, a sense of order is not just about the look of a space —it’s also about its function. He says, “Benjamin Franklin said, ‘A place for everything and everything in its place,’ and it’s a motto I live and design by. Everything should have its place, and everything that’s used should be returned to that place in the home. Designing homes is about beautiful furniture, objects, and color schemes, but also about where to store the vacuum cleaner and toilet paper.” He asserts that programming, creating a list of what’s needed in a space and how it will be used and stored, is one of the most important facets of the design process. Steil wants the homes he creates to streamline life.

Some of the value an interior designer brings to a project is the sourcing of materials that can’t be found just anywhere.

Says Steil, “I think every client wants to own something special, a one-of-a-kind piece. For unique antiques, platforms

NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

such as 1stdibs and InCollect allow designers to access and source thousands of antique dealers around the world. For custom-made and new pieces, I usually work with well-trusted artisans, millworkers, and craftspeople.”

Steil started his BFA at NYSID when he was well into his 30s, and despite the fact that the curriculum was demanding, he opted to work in interior design while in the program because he “wanted to make up for lost time.” He also worked while pursuing his MFA-2 at NYSID. He was hired at Groves & Co., Annabelle Selldorf, MR Architecture & Décor, and Pierce Allen.

At these prestigious firms, over the course of six years, Steil designed every type of interior: hospitality, retail, workplace, and residential, and he did it all over the world. Yet he found himself drawn back to residential design. When an internet entrepreneur approached him to design a private residence, he thought, “This is my opportunity. It’s now or never. If I am going to be working 10 to 12 hours a day, I’d rather do it for myself.”

What Steil loves about running his own residential design firm is the personal relationship with the client and the freedom he has to make his own decisions. He says, “I am a good listener. I figure out how I can I bring my client’s ideas together, and improve on them. I study what they love and integrate that into my design.” As Steil’s business has grown, 50 percent of his business has become contract design. In addition to homes, he designs offices, showrooms, and the

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lobbies of apartment buildings. The contract designs he has created are heavily influenced by the residential lens: they feel cozy and approachable, and in many cases, they tell a personal story about a company’s founder. The fun, exuberant, busy-yet-orderly office he created for illustrator and designer Darcy Miller celebrates her love of the color gold and her predilection for collecting beautiful objects. There’s even a wall display of scissors in many sizes and shapes. The fact that other designers hire Steil is a testament to his skill.

Steil loves teaching at NYSID. “I learn so much from my students,” he comments. “It’s the way to stay updated on trends and talent. Plus, I find out whom I want to intern or freelance for me, and whom I can place at companies that are looking for new talent.” He has taught just about everything there is to teach at NYSID, including Color, Residential Design studios, Thesis, and Contract Design studios. Color is his favorite thing to teach, because his knowledge of the subject is deep and he has accumulated it over decades. He muses, “I graduated from NYSID with a 4.0 and I thought I was ready to apply what I’ve learned in the real world. Then, I was stumped by a simple little booth project for a design fair. I couldn’t get started on this first thing because there was no direction.

So I closed my eyes and I went back to color class at NYSID. I thought about what I had learned about tints and tones, balance and contrast. I was able to pick a color scheme, and I have been picking them ever since.” n

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Operating Within the System,

DEPARTMENT

AND OUTSIDE OF IT

Why the Online Course History of the Interior Design Profession in America Is So Popular

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I

n 2018, NYSID offered the course “The History of the Interior Design Profession in America” for the first time. This fall, it filled to capacity almost immediately.

NYSID faculty member Alexis Barr gives us a taste of what she’s teaching.

NYSID instructor Alexis Barr, a passionate expert in design history who also teaches the Historical Styles class at the College, might be a reason why NYSID’s new online course in the history of the interior design profession is so popular.

She holds an MA in decorative arts and design history from Bard College and a BA in art history and political science from Williams College, and has contributed research to projects for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Park Service, and the New-York Historical Society. Another reason might be that the history of interior design is populated by adaptive geniuses who operated within conventions of gender, sexuality, and social class while also exploding them.

Ellen Fisher, vice president for academic affairs and dean, created this course specifically for students enrolled in the online Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree program.

She says, “Our distance students need to understand they’re entering a profession with a distinct and meaningful history, particularly in the U.S. Modern interior design arose from a background of European decorative arts and decoration, industrial design, the study of ergonomics, and from a growing understanding that people deserve well-designed interior environments for health, well-being, and productivity.”

Can you tell me a bit about the founding of the profession in the Gilded Age? Sure! Our course starts in the late 19th century, with the rapid transformation of American society and industrialization. It was a time marked by the stratification of American society, and by the emergence of the robber baron class. For context, we look at the public commissions of civic institutions the new industrialists are funding: train stations, museums, libraries in the Beaux-Arts style. We also look at the domestic commissions that this generation’s “super-rich” are requesting, such as the Vanderbilt family city houses and country estates.

Then we ask the question: who is putting these together?

Sometimes it’s an architect, a craftsman, or an antiques dealer, but you don’t really have anyone whose sole, dedicated job it is to orchestrate all the aspects of these commissions. There’s no one to put it all together. There was a void, and it was mostly women who rose to fill it.

OPPOSITE PAGE: DOROTHY DRAPER ON A JOB SITE. PHOTO COURTESY OF DOROTHY DRAPER & COMPANY INC. ABOVE: ALEXIS BARR

Who were these early interior designers and why were they able to have a career in interior design in a time when so many professions excluded women?

The very first interior design book, “The Decoration of Houses,” was written in 1897 by Edith Wharton (the novelist and the first female Pulitzer Prize-winner for fiction). She enlisted her architect, Ogden Codman Jr., who worked on her Newport and New York houses, to be her coauthor, and it was an unexpected hit. This book probably inspires Elsie de Wolfe, generally considered the first professional interior decorator; Elsie de Wolfe’s early works are heavily influenced by Wharton.

De Wolfe forges her own career, uses her own house as a calling card for commissions, invites people over, calls The New York Times, and sends the paper before and after photos of her renovations. She invents and codifies the profession as something other than architecture; a job for someone whose sole function is to coordinate interiors.

Behind the veneer of the society pages, this is a profession born of a woman’s need to make a living. Elsie de Wolfe’s father died when she was only 18 and she had to find a way to support herself. She became an actress, and she began a romantic relationship with a woman, the theatrical agent Elisabeth Marbury, who becomes her partner. As the 1890s unfold, she moved from acting into becoming an interior decorator, banking on her own charisma and good taste

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rather than any formal training. This characterizes the first generation of decorators, who were often women putting themselves out there professionally on the idea that they had “good taste.” The gender norms of the time dictated that women had a better understanding of domestic spaces and how to create a comfortable and beautiful home. As the profession became more established, de Wolfe moved into commercial interiors when the architect Stanford White recommended her to do the interior of the Colony Club. There was much chatter in the industry about whether a woman could handle such a big job, but Stanford White pushed for her, and of course, the design was a triumph. This solidified the notion that women are better suited to interiors, a stereotype that has been both a gift and a curse to women in design and architecture.

Knowing the history helps you understand what it means to be a licensed interior designer now and how that is different from the experience of the people who came before you.

What I love about the pre-World War II period in design history is that a lot of the women designers seem to be part of the establishment, but they aren’t really. They are upper class by birth or marriage, but most of them are operating outside social norms in some way, and all of them need an income. The great Dorothy Draper gets divorced, something that was not done. She becomes a decorator out of necessity and finds her calling, graduating from domestic to major commercial commissions. She designs the Coty Beauty Salon and corporate headquarters, melding the women’s sphere and the world of big business, capitalizing on the idea that some projects need a “feminine touch.”

There’s Sister Parish, who grew up ultra-privileged and begins her design career when her husband loses their livelihood and she needs to support the children. After her husband recovers financially, she doesn’t have any hesitation about maintaining her business. She becomes a force with an enormous firm. It’s power she never anticipated, but it’s power nonetheless.

FEATURES

How does interior design change after World War II? The war and its immediate aftermath transformed American life, and this is reflected in interior design. People come from other disciplines and enter the world of interior design, notably the industrial designers. The term “decorator” is used less. In the 1950s, we see the term “interior designer” getting a foothold in the culture.

In the same way as industrial designers enter, you also have the major architecture firms decide to get into the business of interior design. For example, you have Gordon Bunshaft head up an interior design department at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. You have interior design becoming a department within large architecture firms. The interiors begin to be treated in a holistic way as part of the commission rather than an afterthought. It’s worth saying that these design firms become places receptive to female architects. Women are placed into the interior design department because of the notion that women are born decorators.

Do you have a favorite figure from design history?

In the post-World War II period, one of my all-time favorite designers comes to the forefront: Florence Knoll of Knoll Furniture. She has inspired me tremendously with her designs, her life story, and her accomplishments. She was orphaned as a child, and then widowed young and unexpectedly. These things that might have stopped someone else pushed her forward. She said, “I needed a piece of furniture. It was not there. So I designed it.” This is just the best of the American spirit.

As I teach, I am learning from my subjects from a professional and personal standpoint and so are my students.

There’s a pattern of interior designers operating within the system and outside of it, simultaneously and skillfully. It’s wonderful, through the lens of history, to see them triumph and carve out a public role for themselves.

What role did educational institutions play in the professionalization of interior design?

Early in the 20th century, we see the rise of the first professional education programs. Frank Alvah Parsons founded the first program in 1906. Ten years later, architect Sherrill Whiton founds NYSID as the New York School of Interior Decoration. This program is operating for enthusiasts, but also providing professional training via mail correspondence. It’s wonderful historical circularity that NYSID began as a mail correspondence course, because that’s an amazing precursor to online education. Both give people living at a distance the opportunity to learn a trade. You can see some of the same structure of what we teach today in course documents from 100 years ago.

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What kinds of materials do you use to teach in this class?

We use podcasts, videos, and primary sources. One of the great things about teaching online is having all this technology at your fingertips. The materials are so much fun.

There are primary sources you’ll see in this class that you won’t find anywhere else because NYSID’s library staff helped me dig into the school archives and bring little-known primary sources into the course.

How are norms around gender, sexuality, class, and race changing in interior design?

From the beginning we have Elsie de Wolfe, who is a Victorian lesbian living openly with a woman at the dawn of the 20th century! We have women and men who are outside the social norms: single, childless, gay. Many of the men from that early 20th century were gay, including major figures like Billy Baldwin and William Haines. Haines had been a successful film actor, a leading man in the 1920s, until he was forced out of the Hollywood studio system because he refused to hide his sexuality. He went into decorating and was a huge success in this sphere, living on his own terms as a gay man in the 1930s and beyond! It’s always been a relatively open and progressive field in that regard, a welcoming space.

At the same time, interior design has been seen as an upperclass, white, and Waspy field. It has taken a long time for the field to shake off the association of decorating as a hobby for upper-class women. There are many more men in interior design in recent years. The field has a ways to go in terms of diversity, especially racially and economically, but that is changing rapidly. Design history is happening right now with the emergence of groups like the Black Artists + Designers Guild and the Black Interior Designers Network. I have seen, in teaching at NYSID, how inspired students are by the growing diversity of the field today. Students today see more people who look like them in interior design, from industry leaders like Sheila Bridges and Darryl Carter to emerging young designers like Young Huh and Alberto Villalobos. There is still a lot of progress to be made in this area, but the industry is moving toward greater inclusion and diversity, and that is really exciting to see.

How do you like teaching online?

When I started teaching NYSID’s Historical Styles class online, I was skeptical. But then I fell in love with the online educational process because it works incredibly well for many students. Online discussion formats can create an amazing sense of community and allow students to participate more fully than they would in person. Some people feel braver expressing themselves online.

Each week students watch a lecture from me and do the readings assigned, listen to a podcast, or watch a video.

They are required to post to an online discussion. This is not a live discussion; there is a nine-day window in which to comment and post. The discussion is threaded so people can react to responses. It feels like a conversation laid out on the screen. Right now there is a raging debate about Sister Parish’s privilege and whether that should affect how we see her interiors. The students research and go indepth with their answers. This isn’t Instagram or Snapchat. Students have the time to be thoughtful in their discourse.

Why should aspiring and practicing interior designers learn the history of their profession?

A knowledge of design history gives you so much more to draw from in your own work because you can see how the best designers of the past have solved similar problems in their designs and the business strategies they employed. This is still a very young field, and there are certain issues that haven’t been worked out yet regarding the interplay between architecture and interior design, decorating and interior design, and modernism and historicism. Knowing the history helps you understand what it means to be a licensed interior designer now and how that is different from the experience of the people who came before you. It helps you answer the biggest question: What do we need to go forward? n

This is still a very young field, and there are certain issues that haven’t been worked out yet regarding the interplay between architecture and interior design, decorating and interior design, and modernism and historicism.

CELEBRATIONS / Parties, Openings, Launches NYSID’s parties teach, inspire, and connect designers.

TEXTILES HISTORY UP CLOSE AT THE KRAVET ARCHIVE EXHIBITION OPENING On September 5, alumni, students, and trustees came to the opening of Pattern and Process, Selections from the Kravet Archive in the NYSID gallery at 70th Street. The exhibit, open through November 27, was curated by Darling Green and designed to resemble the Kravet Archives in Bethpage, NY, complete with flat file drawers that hold selections of important textiles, objects, and documents and visitors can pull out to study. Said Darling Green’s Jeremy Johnston, one of the curators of the exhibit, “Working with the Kravet family, we understood that they don’t intend the archive to be a museum, where samples are locked away, never to be touched. This is a living archive, intended to be a tool that designers interact with and take inspiration from.”

Johnston estimates that they pulled a fraction— much less than 1 percent—of the archives for the show, as the Kravet Archive is a vast repository of textile design history. The oldest object in the show was an Egyptian textile fragment from 500 BCE, but the show also included many contemporary textiles, selected because they educate about a design process, motif, or production method. Among the breathtaking pieces in the exhibit were a contemporary “tree of life” block print, made the traditional way in Thailand using 365 blocks for a single repeat, and Japanese katagami stencils (1850-1912) made from thinly pressed mulberry, a glue made of persimmons, and threads of silk or human hair.

“One of our goals with this exhibition was to share our collection with anyone currently studying design or textiles from a historical perspective,” said Ellen Kravet, chairman of the board of the New York School of Interior Design and executive vice president of Kravet Inc. “We hoped to provide perspective on how designs from the past can readily be interpreted and produced for the future of design.”

NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

THE EDUCATED EYE LUNCHEON On September 23, NYSID trustees, alumni, and supporters came out to kick off this year’s Dialogues on Design series at The Educated Eye Luncheon in the lovely interior of a private club in New York City.

An exploration of the interplay between fashion and interior design, this year’s event featured fashion illustrator, designer, and artist Cathy Graham, author of “Second Bloom: Cathy Graham’s Art of the Table,” and Billy Norwich, former Vogue editor and New York Post society columnist. The event was moderated by Dennis Scully, host of the Business of Home podcast.

CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT: CLUB DINING ROOM, CATHY GRAHAM AND BILLY NORWICH, DENNIS SCULLY AND NANCY SCULLY, ELLEN KRAVET GREETING GUESTS.

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DEPARTMENT

“There is no essential difference between the artist and the artisan.”

THE BAUHAUS MANIFESTO

CRAFTSMANSHIP & CREATIVITY ABOUND AT THE BAUHAUS BALL On October 23, the New York School of Interior Design hosted a costume ball that engaged the entire community in a fun, immersive lesson in the principles of the Bauhaus movement. At a faculty meeting months before, instructors Stefanie Werner and Francisco De Leon raised the idea of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus with a party in the tradition of the movement’s famous costume balls. Barbara Weinreich, director of undergraduate programs, took the helm of the project, envisioning a collaborative effort between faculty, students, and staff. Says Weinreich, “We challenged participants to make a wearable creation of repurposed materials that expressed Bauhaus design principles. Francisco had the idea that students could also redesign the NYSID logo in the Bauhaus style, so we planned to award prizes for best costume and best logo to students.” The faculty created a course in Canvas, the College’s web-based learning management program, where students could find images and inspiration guides for the costumes and the logo design. A team of faculty and staff that included MPS in Interior Lighting Design director Shaun Fillion, archivist and librarian Julie Sandy, MPS in Sustainable Interior Environments director David Bergman, and instructor Brian Lee met weekly to plan and create the lighting, banners, installations, and projections that would utterly transform the auditorium. Craig Young ’19 (MPS-L) provided a lighting installation of silhouettes.

Students Shane Curnutt and Julissa Altmonte decorated the tables, making them look like Bauhaus paintings and Albers textiles.

Ultimately, the students’ costumes stole the show.

Says Weinreich, “When the parade of costumes began, we were blown away by the creativity!” BFA student Shane Curnutt won the costume contest and MFA-1 student Praveena Aleti won the logo design contest.

Says Weinreich, “Most of all, I loved the collegial collaboration between people of different ages and disciplines that resulted in a memorable design event.”

SHANE CURNUTT

FREYA VAN SAUN & MEG DONABEDIAN

JULIE SANDY

BARBARA LOWENTHAL & TERRY KLEINBERG

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FRANCISCO DE LEON & STEFANIE WERNER

BRIAN LEE

DAVID BURDETT

ANN BARTON

JULISSA ALMONTE

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DEPARTMENT LAYOUT

Designing Independence NYSID Honorary Doctorate Recipient Nate Berkus Launches “My Home in Sight” for People with Declining Vision

A free kit Nate Berkus collaborated on with Novartis uses interior design to help people with macular degeneration to stay in their homes.

The New York School of Interior Design awarded Nate Berkus an honorary doctorate at last Spring’s Commencement because he has expanded the public’s notion of what interior design can be. Says Berkus, “Designers have a social, moral, and professional responsibility to help people live better. It’s not always about designing beautiful spaces for wealthy people.

Throughout my 25-year career—doing segments for Oprah as well as my own shows—I’ve spent time on homeless shelters for youth, charities, makeovers for people who might not have had the opportunity to experience interior design. Our profession opens the door for people to live more beautifully.”

Whether it’s a project for his eponymous firm or an episode of “Nate & Jeremiah by Design,” everything Berkus touches is infused with his sense of design’s purpose.

That’s one reason Berkus teamed up with Novartis for the My Home in Sight campaign, a program created to empower those living with wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD) to make simple, functional changes to their living spaces

to maintain safety and independence. AMD is the leading cause of blindness in the world and is a progressive disease.

Its most severe form, wet AMD, effects 1.5 to 1.75 million Americans over the age of 65. Berkus’ motivations for working on My Home in Sight are personal. He recalls, “I remember being in high school and watching my grandmother’s vision get worse, as well as her fears about being able to remain independent. I remember her saying, ‘What can I do to make this easier? I can’t ever find my bag; I’m late to doctors’ appointments; I’m constantly misplacing things, and I think things have been stolen when they haven’t.’ My family didn’t have a kit to help her, which is what Novartis has created, and I have been very involved in.” Berkus and Novartis collaborated with six leading patient advocacy groups, including the Macular Degeneration Association, to base their design advice on research. Berkus’ role in the project was, “to show that you can apply these tips without sacrificing style.”

NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

Here are Nate’s five key principles for adapting a home to suit those living with declining vision.

01 | Color and Contrast Pattern is not helpful to those with vision loss, but color and contrast are. For example, having two colors in high contrast and using, for instance, bold colored contrast pillows on a sofa, helps someone with low vision understand where a piece of furniture begins and ends.

A contrast throw allows someone to see from a distance where a corner is. The same principle applies to adding decorative tape to the top and bottom of a lampshade. Bold colored tape can help guide someone’s hand to that place where the button is to turn on the lamp.

02 | Organization I’m a triple Virgo. The idea of a messy junk drawer or linen closet is unacceptable to me, but for a person with declining vision, it’s particularly important to keep everything in the home organized. You need to keep like items with like; you need to organize the interior of drawers. In a linen closet, things need to be in baskets or pulled together and tied with a ribbon. The whole point is to be able to pull out that basket or bundle and take it to a kitchen island, where perhaps there is more light, and look inside and find what you need. If you open up a drawer and it’s a big jumble of stuff, something that could be a five-minute endeavor becomes a five-hour ordeal. It’s really important for family and caregivers to help people with declining vision keep their homes really organized. This is the time for a huge edit.

03 | Lighting One of the old design principles, back in the day, was that every seat in a room should have its own source of lighting, whether it be a small floor lamp, a table lamp, or a desk lamp on a side table. This idea is really important for someone with declining vision, for whom lighting is paramount so that they can see better for the tasks they are seeking to accomplish. For example, instead of one lamp beside a sofa, we’re suggesting that someone flank the sofa with a pair of floor lamps. Instead of just having decorative accessories on a side table, a task lamp is something that people should add.

04 | Low Vision Tools These are simply tools that help people see better. A magnifying glass left at a strategic place on a coffee table can be a great help. Colored tape is too, and you can use it to edge the border of a rug or a stair for safety.

Even ordinary, bright sticky notes can be used. These are all little tools we suggest that people with declining vision have at hand.

05 | Safety One thing that resonates with me about safety is having stable, solid furniture. You don’t want a vintage rickety table that can be easily knocked over, or things that are topheavy in the space.

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As the Baby-boomers age, it’s becoming increasingly important for residential designers to be educated about issues of aging-in-place. Berkus says, “AMD is incredibly common, and so the kit that’s available is not just for people with declining vision, it’s also for people who know or love someone with declining vision.” Whether you’re interested in helping a family member, a friend, or a client apply these tips throughout the home, you can sign up for the kit at MyHomeInsightKit.com. n

“Move through the world as a designer with your eyes and ears open and take whatever opportunities come your way to use your creativity to do good.”

New Scholarship Honors Nate Berkus & Rewards Socially Conscious Design NYSID announced a new scholarship that was established in honor of Nate Berkus and created to celebrate Berkus’ commitment to socially conscious design and charitable work. “Berkus Scholars” will be deserving NYSID students who are studying interior design with a demonstrated emphasis on improving the human condition. NYSID Trustee Kelly M. Williams endowed the scholarship through The Williams Legacy Foundation.

She commented, “The Williams Legacy Foundation is committed to supporting programs that foster fellowship and we believe that the type of inspired design evidenced in the work of Nate Berkus demonstrates the impact that design can have in providing comfort and solace to those who dwell within. Just think of the design of a soup kitchen or a healthcare facility: Good design has the ability to change the experience of those who come to these spaces in a state of crisis.”

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TRANSFORMATIVE

Internships

Summers of Experience Teach Students About the Field & Themselves

N

YSID students are landing lifechanging internships at prestigious firms. This is particularly true of second-year MFA-1 students, who have mature portfolios to present during the interview process. Five MFA-1 students talk about what they learned during their summers at work, how they got their internships, and NYSID’s support of learning through experience.

NYSID’s MFA-1 program used to go straight through the summer. It was an intense, immersive program, and the leaders of the College soon figured out that students needed a change of scenery in the summer and some time to experience design out in the world. Ellen Fisher, vice president for academic affairs and dean, and Barbara Lowenthal, associate dean, decided to create a dedicated space for real-world experience in the MFA-1 curriculum. So the concept of the “experiential summer” was born.

MFA-1 students get to design their own summer learning experience, which can be independent study, a deep dive into graphic communications, service learning (see more about this on page 6), or an internship. Says Barbara Lowenthal, “Students are especially interested in internships where there are lessons about design parameters, client relations, collaboration, and more —things that students can only learn from real work experience. But it’s not enough to just have the experience, we also expect the students to reflect on it.”

For this reason, Fisher and Lowenthal developed an online course to support these summer experiences. MFA-1 students in their first summer share their experiences online with their classmates, describing what’s involved in an internship or other learning experience. In their second summer, students in Experiential Learning II get a head start researching their final capstone project and are encouraged to integrate their summer experiences into their research.

The students profiled on these pages are making their own luck, mining the resources the College has to offer to find opportunities. NYSID’s alumni often have a role in helping our students get a foot in the door as interns. It will come as no surprise that personal connections are the key to getting these outstanding internships.

NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

When René Johnsen sat down with Nansi Barrie, NYSID’s career services and internship coordinator, to figure out what she wanted in an internship during her final experiential summer with NYSID, she decided she wanted exposure to both residential design and commercial design, and, more specifically, a firm with an extreme focus on the craft and detail of how things are made. She had done her first summer internship at a residential firm, Jan Showers in Texas. Barrie suggested Deborah Berke Partners, and Johnsen realized she already had two friends who interned at the firm, MFA-1 students Jonathan Ting and Sarah Stevens. Her classmates connected her to individuals within the firm. She interviewed and got the summer internship.

Among the qualities she loves about the firm are its identifiable aesthetic—what she calls “modernism that incorporates history”—and the emphasis it places on working with master artisans. She also has tremendous respect for Deborah Berke, the principal of the firm, who is the first woman to lead the Yale School of Architecture. The firm is small enough that Johnsen interacted with Berke. She says, “She forged a new standard for the female voice in the industry, yet she’s so humble. We have ‘Bar Cart Fridays,’ and one Friday she actually served the staff and interns a drink. That tells you something about the firm.”

For the first half of her internship, she worked in the institutional department of the firm, on projects for Ivy League schools. She worked on installation drawings and on budgets for these institutions. Johnsen says, “It’s a good experience to have to modify sourcing based on the budget.”

Later in the internship, she worked in the residential design department, and one of the many designers she worked for was alumna Kiki Dennis ’01 (AAS), a partner at the firm. In this department, Johnsen became the self-described “jack of all trades,” jumping into help on CAD work, InDesign presentations, Revit installation drawings, Photoshop presentations, and more. She says, “It’s awesome that we are learning Revit at NYSID. I knew as much Revit as some of the professionals and could actually share some helpful tricks of the trade. I felt prepared and useful.”

Johnsen has always been interested in residential design, and she thinks the most important thing you can take out of an internship is a virtual Rolodex of sources. She says, “Product sourcing and vendor connections are what help you succeed, beyond talent and technology.” She’s applying much of what she learned about sources to her thesis now, as she feels a clear vision of the vendors you will use influences the overarching concept. She says, “Having experiences in commercial and residential design showed me there is much overlap between the two. I want to create spaces that feel warm and personal. This internship opened my eyes up to all of the possibilities.”

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1 René Johnsen ’20 INTERNSHIP

Deborah Berke Partners

“Having experiences in commercial and residential design showed me there is much overlap between the two.

I want to create spaces that feel warm and personal. This internship opened my eyes up to all of the possibilities.”

28 | ATELIER MAGAZINE

Sometimes in life, you don’t get exactly what you want, and that can be good for you. At least that’s Michelle Simms’ philosophy. Going into her second experiential learning summer at NYSID, Michelle Simms was focused on securing an internship with a health care studio at a large firm. She consulted with Nansi Barrie, NYSID’s career services and internship coordinator, and Barrie put her in touch with Christina Peters ’08 (BFA), an alumna who is a senior associate on the Senior Living Team at Perkins Eastman.

Simms interviewed for the job in the health care studio with Peters, the principal of senior living and the principal of health care, and didn’t get it, but she left a strong impression.

“I think she could tell I was hungry,” says Simms. Peters reached out to Simms and offered to informally mentor her.

She gave Simms tips on her portfolio. A month later, a paid internship opened up in the workplace studio at Perkins Eastman, and Peters told Simms about it. Simms got the job!

It was not exactly what she had envisioned for herself, but she liked the diversity of experience the firm had to offer, and she jumped on it. She says, “I thought of that saying, ‘Man plans, God laughs.’”

The internship in the workplace studio at Perkins Eastman turned out to be an incredible learning experience. Says Simms, “The workplace team is fastpaced: projects are turned around in a year to two years, so you get to see a project from schematic design to contract administration. I got to jump into many stages of the design process. The jobs take you along with them.” She worked on schematic design development, specifically rendering in Revit, for the New York offices of a major bank, as well as a chain of private schools in China. One of the most challenging things she worked on was furniture scheduling. She actually tackled this task with the guidance of Amy Everard, a senior associate at the firm who, coincidentally, has just joined the NYSID faculty this year as a Contract II professor. Simms says. “The labeling for a whole building was difficult. It took a few iterations to get it right. The whole point is learning how to do things on a scale I’ve never done before.”

Simms’ tenacity served her well: the firm invited her to keep working for them after the summer.

Simms feels the biggest lesson of her internship is collaboration. “I gained better organizational skills for project collaboration,” she says. “We don’t use shared Revit files at school, so I had to learn the proper etiquette for doing that from the team. It was great to produce designs based on established design concepts. We had deadlines we had to meet in order to be able to communicate our progress to the client.

Sharing this responsibility with a group was an invaluable experience. I gained more confidence as a designer.”

FEATURES

2 Michelle Simms ’20 INTERNSHIP

Perkins Eastman

“The workplace team is fastpaced: projects are turned around in a year to two years, so you get to see a project from schematic design to contract administration. I got to jump into many stages of the design process.”

NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

WINTER/SPRING 2020 | 29

Early last spring, a friend who worked at Gensler invited Ryan Pearsall to a photo shoot of the Campari headquarters she had worked on. Realizing he’d be able to see a one-of-akind workspace, Pearsall jumped at the opportunity. At this event, Pearsall met design directors and design leads, as well as some other people in Work 9 group, a studio at Gensler that specializes in designing and building workplaces for fast-growth tech companies. As he was introduced around and spoke about his experience in the industry, the designers from Work 9 encouraged him to apply for an internship.

Pearsall says, “Gensler got something like 700 applicants for summer internships with only room for 40 interns, so you have a better chance of making it to the interview round if there is a personal recommendation from someone inside the firm.” Pearsall had the portfolio and interview skills to shine through the interview process, and he was hired for the paid internship.

As to why he selected Gensler, Pearsall says, “Big firms like Gensler expect a lot from you, but the real-life experience and on-site opportunities you’re given are unlike anything a different firm would offer, and these helped to drive my career forward like no other internship could.” Spending most of his time on two projects, Pearsall was able to become fully immersed in the day-to-day of these two sites. His work required a variety of skills, including construction administration: providing shop drawings, updates to floor and furniture plans, managing RFIs for custom millwork, and communicating with various vendors on a daily basis. The variety of work was great for growing his understanding of every stage in a project, Pearsall reports. His work for the design development stage included sending floor plans, finishes, and other drawings out to bid to contractors. “One thing that I really got exposure to was collaboration,” says Pearsall. “You end up learning a lot about communicating technical and architectural detail within a team. Your designs need to be clear and your callouts need to be concise.”

On top of the daily project work, the summer interns were given a special project in which teams of six were tasked with reimagining the headquarters of 826 Park Slope. The interns were given a real-life scenario to practice the various skills learned throughout the summer. Pearsall and his team presented their concept at both the midpoint of the internship and for a final concept design presentation (to which the client and the entire Gensler office were invited).

Perhaps the most salient thing Pearsall took from his most recent internship is direction. “The resources that are available at Gensler are unparalleled,” he says. “The materials library is vast. There are learning opportunities between different disciplines and vendor offerings that can really help you develop professionally.”

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3 Ryan Pearsall ’20 INTERNSHIP

Gensler

“Big firms like Gensler expect a lot from you, but the real-life experience and on-site opportunities you’re given are unlike anything a different firm would offer, and these helped to drive my career forward like no other internship could.”

30 | ATELIER MAGAZINE

Last year, when his MFA-1 classmate Mona Nahm mentioned that her husband had worked at Kengo Kuma in Tokyo and had connections there, Jonathan Ting grew excited, because he’s a huge fan of Japanese design and, more specifically, the respect for nature inherent in legendary architect Kengo Kuma’s buildings and interiors. Nahm put him in touch with the human resources department at Kengo Kuma, and he eventually landed an internship. Says Ting, “There is this real culture of helping each other with school and career in NYSID’s MFA-1 program.”

More than 20 percent of NYSID students are international students, so the summers of experience give them a chance to go home to see their families as well as make career connections in their home countries. Jonathan Ting is an American of Taiwanese descent, but family was one reason he wound up in Japan last summer. His grandmother had moved to Japan, and he valued the rare opportunity to spend time with her.

The firm had hired an interior designer eight months earlier, and Ting was hired to work with her. He and his colleague were two interior designers working in a studio primarily made up of architects. He was the only interior design intern, and perhaps the first at the company. He says, “It was interesting to see how the architects respected the interior designer. She consulted with the interior architects. Architects think differently, and her perspective was valued and different.

Interior designers perhaps focus more on livability.”

He helped with the interior design of a hotel project, assisting in the design document phase, doing sections for hotel rooms, dimensions for presentations, the architecture of interiors, banquet seating, and more. For a large hospitality project that will be built in Saudi Arabia, he did conceptual spatial planning, concept boards, floor plans, and 3D modeling, and the selection of furniture and materials.

Ting says, “The importance of nature to the firm helped me see how elements of nature can be incorporated into design.

It’s an aesthetic influence. It’s not always the logical part of your brain that takes in information.” He did case studies in Japan for Experiential Learning, and they have influenced the direction of his thesis.

He explains that the specific parameters from the client really helped him develop as a designer. “It was similar to what we are doing at school, but it’s more specific,” Ting says.

“You have to have an exact number of seats in a room. The restrictions helped me grow.”

FEATURES

4 Jonathan Ting ’20 INTERNSHIP

Kengo Kuma & Associates

“The importance of nature to the firm helped me see how elements of nature can be incorporated into design. It’s an aesthetic influence. It’s not always the logical part of your brain that takes in information.”

NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

Mona Nahm heard about the Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA) summer internship from Nansi Barrie, and decided she really wanted it. The internship is coveted because it’s a robust 10-week program that emphasizes the education of interns. Barrie alerted Nahm as soon as RAMSA posted its summer internship opportunity, and Nahm applied that same day. Then for weeks, there was no word. Nahm began to worry.

She reached out to Barrie, who sent an email to Lawrence Chabra ’09 (BFA), a NYSID alumnus who is a studio director at RAMSA. Nahm got a call from human resources at RAMSA a few days later. Nahm went in to interview, and her interviewer was Chabra. Perhaps it was a stroke of luck that Chabra was going in to critique student work at Willam Engel’s NYSID class that very evening, right after Nahm’s interview. She says, “I don’t know if it was my portfolio or the fact that my teacher Bill Engel put in a good word for me, but I got the job. It wasn’t planned, but it all came together.”

Nahm landed in the Interiors Studio at RAMSA. She was one of only two interior design interns in the whole company, which employs around 280 people. The other interior design intern, Miloni Dinani ’20 (MFA-2), was also a NYSID student.

According to Nahm, at RAMSA, the Interiors Studio deals very much “in materiality” and collaborates with different kinds of architecture studios. She worked mostly on residential projects, especially on FF&Es (furniture, fixtures, and equipment).

Nahm says the RAMSA internship is extraordinary because “they have such a commitment to education. They know you might leave, but it’s their investment back into the educational system behind design and architecture.” For her twice-a-week lunch-and-learns, studio heads came in to present to the interns on a particular area of expertise. There is a landscape architecture studio at RAMSA, and Nahm was struck by a presentation by this group, which examined a case in which they took nine years to execute a design in order to protect the habitat of an endangered species. There is also a travel scholarship for employees, and as a result one of the partners gave a presentation on the Scottish designer and architect Robert Adam, which blew Nahm away.

Nahm could not have loved this RAMSA internship more, but when she got a formal offer to stay on throughout the year, she turned it down. She says, “As a student, you should try hard to expose yourself to different kinds of design internships over the course of your time at NYSID.” She felt that she had a hole in her professional exposure when it came to hospitality design, so when she got an opportunity to do a fall internship at the cutting-edge hospitality firm AvroKO, she took it. She says, “I asked myself: What do I have no experience in?

Internships are the one time in our work lives when we get to experiment and discover what brings us joy.” n

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5 Mona Nahm ’20 INTERNSHIPS

Robert A.M. Stern Architects AvroKO

“Internships are the one time in our work lives when we get to experiment and discover what brings us joy.”

SENIOR STORY / Countdown to Graduation Bailey McGrath ’20 and Victoria Bartholomew ’20 When Victoria Bartholomew and Bailey McGrath met as assigned roommates for NYSID’s Summer Precollege program (nysid.edu/precollege), they had no idea that five years later, they’d share an apartment and be just months away from earning their NYSID BFAs in Interior Design. What they did know was that their passion for interior design went deeper than a casual interest. According to Victoria, “Bailey and I were probably the only two rising high school seniors attending the program who knew without a doubt that we were going to pursue a BFA in Interior Design, it was just a question of where.”

NYSID IN

3

WORDS

Making the NYSID choice For Victoria (Instagram: @Vic.Bartholomew), choosing NYSID meant answering the question of whether a smaller, focused college was the right place for her. Upon completion of the precollege program, she knew NYSID was the place, and the two things she questioned early on have turned into her two favorite things about the school. “I love that the school is focused with faculty that are actively working in the interior design industry, and yet accessible. There’s no “professor hierarchy” here where you can’t talk to the main professor.

The difference of NYSID’s faculty approach also became apparent to Victoria when sharing her portfolio with a group of fellow interns from other design schools. “When two students from the same school showed me their portfolios, all the projects looked somewhat similar, so I asked if it had been an ongoing group project. I was genuinely surprised when they said “No.” The professor must have directed so much in terms of what they wanted to see that the students simply executed on that, without much self-expression encouraged. That doesn’t happen at NYSID. The faculty truly know the students and they push us to tap into our instincts, backgrounds and preferences for our design work. Their aim is for our work to be near professional level. As a result, our portfolios are distinct and have tremendous life to them.”

For Bailey (Instagram: @BaileyMcGrath317), pursuing her interior design dreams at NYSID was understanding that it’s not the typical undergraduate experience many high school students seek. “The campus is New York City and my classes are a mix of recent grads as well as students with a range of career experiences. But I go visit my high school friends at other schools, have a good time and then can’t wait to get back to New York City and my classes. I’m exactly where I want to be, doing exactly what I want to be doing.”

Do you know a high school student interested in interior design? Tell them about NYSID’s precollege summer program!

NYSID.EDU/PRECOLLEGE

BAILEY

VICTORIA

Informed Professional Community

Passion Friendly Creative

“Faculty” and “strength of curriculum” are also what Bailey points to as key differentiators of the NYSID experience. “Right from the start, you appreciate that the faculty are real people with incredible experience who speak to you like colleagues. They care about the students and their interests. The curriculum is designed to really balance interior design and architectural knowledge including things like codes, billing and, CAD, in a way that exposes you to key things you’ll need to be a successful designer.”

New Year, New Decisions Now embarking on their senior year, the talk is about deciding on a senior thesis topic, and excitement about life after NYSID. Victoria came to NYSID with a focus on residential design, but her first internship at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in commercial design radically shifted that focus. “The need for a simple, straightforward approach to take on the complexities of hospitality (hotels and restaurants) design is exiting and highly appealing to me.” Her five-year goal?

To be invited back to speak at NYSID. “I have loved all the speakers I listened to as a student and it would be rewarding to give back to the school. I know I’ve got the education and experience to do something amazing after graduation!”

Bailey starts her senior year with extreme confidence gathered from her summer internship with Daniel Romualdez as well as having had her design selected and installed at the prestigious Nantucket by Design. “My first installation was an incredible moment in my life. I’ll never forget the first time I saw all that conceptualizing, planning, and reworking of my designs finally realized in a tangible way within a space. I’m very grateful for the honor and experience.”

PORTFOLIO / MPS Student Projects Iliana Filotheidi Master of Professional Studies in Lighting Design

When Iliana Filotheidi set out to design the lighting for a dormitory located in Washington state, she looked to a real building and the natural surroundings of that structure for inspiration. Filotheidi, the Chairman’s Award winner for NYSID’s MPS-L this year, says, “The concept is based on the western hemlock tree that thrives where the dormitory is located. I was inspired by the geometry of the leaves (linear, flat, unequalin-length needles) and the patterns they develop, forming an umbrella shape to capture as much light as possible even at the lower parts of the tree.” She was also inspired by a hill near the dormitory that had different paths—a dirt path, a bike trail, etc. In her designs, she created different paths to the building the students could take based on their mood or need. This included a meditative path, with wooden structures that integrate blue LED tape, and plants for tranquility and relaxation, as well as a paved path with a cafe area and a plaza for a more active approach to the building. Lower ambient light levels were provided at the meditative path, while higher light levels were provided at the pavement and bicycle path.

Her layout, starting from the interior and the linear corridor and expanding to the façade and exterior, was inspired by the patterns and geometry of leaves. She intended the lighting to change form and shape based on the use of the space. Thus, in the public areas the light is dominant and spaces are bright to enhance interaction between students. As a person moves to the dorm rooms, the spaces get darker, with blue lights for a smooth transition to rest. The façade of each building is treated differently to hint at the purpose of the interior.

Of her thesis instructor, Melanie Taylor, Filotheidi says, “She helped me with details, such as the mounting of LED tape around the perimeter of a green area. However, the most important thing Melanie did is that she let me think out of the box. She trusted my ‘crazy’ ideas.”

Project: Dormitory Instructor: Melanie Taylor

NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

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About the MPS in Lighting Design NYSID’s Master of Professional Studies in Lighting Design is known in the industry for producing versatile lighting designers who have deep knowledge of the way lighting can contribute to sustainability and wellbeing and a mastery of the tools and technologies necessary to execute their vision. Shaun Fillion, LC Educator IALD, an award-winning lighting designer and director of NYSID’s MPS-L, says, “One hundred percent of my graduates find employment at lighting design firms or in the lighting design industry.” Graduates from NYSID’s MPS-L program are working at some of the top lighting design firms in the U.S., including L’Observatoire International, Cooley Monato Studio, One Lux Studio, Office of Visual Interaction, and ICRAVE. Fillion shares his thoughts about the program.

What makes the MPS-L extraordinary? What do you love about your program?

The MPS-L program is incredibly diverse. The students share a passion for lighting but bring their experience in interior design, architecture, engineering, and theatrical lighting. The diversity is also cultural, with many countries and cultures represented. Similarly, we’ve recruited working professionals to the faculty who share their differing points of view on lighting as a medium. I love that each year, a new class of students shares its perspectives and the class develops a universal vocabulary to critique and celebrate architectural lighting.

What’s the advantage of going back to school to specialize in lighting design?

The field of architectural lighting is growing rapidly. The growth is driven by worldwide efforts toward creating sustainable spaces, combined with the advancement of LED technology and advanced controls. Students in the MPS-L develop skills to render and study the impact of lighting on physical spaces with full-scale mockups and photometric simulation software like AGi32. They present to both faculty and guest judges, many of whom are principals of their firms. Our students learn the fundamental physics of light. A graduate from the MPS-L program will enter the field prepared with knowledge of current lighting methods, hands-on experience, and an impressive portfolio.

“The field of architectural lighting is growing rapidly.

The growth is driven by worldwide efforts toward creating sustainable spaces, combined with the advancement of LED technology and advanced controls.”

SHAUN FILLION DIRECTOR, MPS IN LIGHTING DESIGN

36 | ATELIER MAGAZINE

Deeksha Banerjee, Charmaine Mendoza, Miao Xia Master of Professional Studies in Sustainable Interior Environments

Deeksha Banerjee, Charmaine Mendoza, and Miao Xia worked as a team to develop a sustainable interior design for the headquarters of Mio Culture, a theoretical project for a real business. Mio Culture produces stylish, sustainably sourced products made of recycled and/or biodegradable materials—including Microperf acoustic wall tiles, room dividers, modular furniture, and even a Mohawk Lichen carpet—and is also a consultancy that provides sustainable product branding solutions for companies such as Target, FedEx, and Neiman Marcus. Says Mendoza, one of the designers on the team and the winner of this year’s Chairman’s Award for academic excellence in NYSID’s MPS-S, “We chose to translate the meaning of their company name, ‘Mio,’ which translates to ‘My Own’ in English, by utilizing the company’s products in their own office and also highlighting their Culture Lab (consultancy) concept by creating a fun take on elements found in a laboratory such as the test tubeinspired display in the gallery and custom lighting fixtures in the furniture showroom.”

Of their instructors, Luca Baraldo and Bethany Borel, Mendoza says, “Their fresh and current knowledge of the industry, and their practical advice on actual problems such as ceiling height limitations versus mechanical layout, and LEED and WELL requirements versus aesthetics, trained us to plan according to actual industry standards.” The team produced an effective LEED- and WELL Gold- certified project through careful analysis of the room and furniture orientations in relation to the sun’s position and biophilia features, as well as a healthy workplace designed with nontoxic materials.

PORTFOLIO

Project: Office Headquarters Instructor: Luca Baraldo & Bethany Borel

NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

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About the MPS in Sustainable Interior Environments Sustainability is no longer an afterthought in the industry; it’s an integral aspect of design that clients seek when they hire interior designers. This is why interior design and architecture firms are now hiring sustainability specialists. NYSID’s MPS in Sustainable Interior Environments (MPS-S) is a post-professional program structured to prepare design professionals to assume leadership roles in developing sustainable interior spaces. The two guiding principles of the program are designing resilience to climate change disruption and designing well-being—that is, creating spaces that help people fare better in terms of health and happiness. Director David Bergman, founder of the architecture firm DavidBergmanEco, and author of “Sustainable Design: A Critical Guide,” shares his view on the program.

What sets NYSID’s program apart and what do you love about directing the program?

NYSID started this program a decade ago, before sustainability was mainstream, so it’s a unique and developed program—perhaps the only one of its kind. The fact that the students come here specifically to study sustainable interior design means they already know the significance of this growing field and want the opportunity to broaden their knowledge of it in order to apply it in their work post-graduation. Many are also working toward their LEED or WELL accreditation, and the program helps them prepare for the exams. Another aspect that makes the program successful is its relatively small enrollment. This allows the students to have close working relationships with our faculty, all of whom are leaders in sustainable design. One of the (many!) things I enjoy as the program director is getting to select and work with this incredible faculty. Along with that is the opportunity to tune the program to the evolving needs of sustainable interior design and the firms that are looking to hire our graduates. It’s an exciting time for this field and having this program at NYSID means we get to participate in—and sometimes lead—the evolution of sustainable design.

Will you comment on how this program is working online?

This year, we have an almost equal number of on-campus and distancelearning students. Though the program has always had students come here from all over the world, now it’s easier for students who cannot physically be here to enroll, and that has further increased both the diversity of the students and the variety of interests they bring. The challenge is in making distance learners feel as integral to the program as the local students. Web conferencing software has been an essential part of that, allowing the students to fully participate in classes in real time—synchronous learning as opposed to asynchronous. We recently procured some new video conferencing equipment that better allows distance students to see and hear everyone in the classroom. The equipment is able to detect who is speaking, even if it is several people at the same time, so the camera can simultaneously show those people rather than just a view of the classroom or the instructor. Another way we’re integrating distance students with the local students is by pairing them up so that team projects include both online and in-person partners.

This has the added benefit of preparing students for situations they might encounter in the expanding world of the virtual office.

“It’s an exciting time for this field and having this program at NYSID means we get to participate in, and sometimes lead, the evolution of sustainable design.”

DAVID BERGMAN DIRECTOR, MPS IN SUSTAINABLE INTERIOR ENVIRONMENTS

GIVING / Supporting Our Community Why I Give: Jose Veliz of Benjamin Moore Inc. “The interior design community is a large part of our business, and education is crucial to the continued advancement of interior design.”

Jose Veliz is senior manager of the Architect and Designer Segment at Benjamin Moore Inc. He’s responsible for leading the company’s architectural and design team; overseeing programs specific to the design and architect professional; and providing implementation strategies, guidance, direction, and expertise to Benjamin Moore’s architectural and design representatives. He loves his job. He says, “I truly enjoy working with the A&D community and experiencing the incredible transformation of spaces by some of the most talented professionals in the industry as they work diligently to improve their customer’s lives.” Veliz, who was behind the decision to fund the Dialogues on Design series this year, talks about his work and why Benjamin Moore Inc. supports public education and the New York School of Interior Design.

What do you want interior designers to know about how Benjamin Moore Inc. is innovating?

The interior design community is a large part of our business, and education is crucial to the continued advancement of interior design. Supporting NYSID’s program allows us to interact with established interior designers and future interior designers, who are really the people who will be driving innovations in the industry. It is designers who determine what materials become stylish, what technologies become standard, and we need to stay connected to a diverse and eclectic talent pool in order to adapt as the industry evolves.

Why has Benjamin Moore Inc. become a corporate sponsor of the New York School of Interior Design?

NYSID offers a variety of design avenues and prepares students for professional success. Our involvement and sponsorship allows the young professional to understand and learn to trust Benjamin Moore’s products, service, and the long-lasting beauty that comes with every project.

Why have you decided to sponsor the 2019 Dialogues on Design series?

The world and the demand changes day to day for designers and their clients. Companies and manufacturers like Benjamin Moore are embracing socially responsible design and construction and the development of sustainable products. This is an integral part of listening, learning, and adjusting to our designer and industry professional customer needs. Sponsoring Dialogues on Design allows us the opportunity to have exciting discussions that expand and cover industry demands, especially environmental changes and trends that are helping to inspire professionals.

What have you learned from interior designers?

Listening and adapting to our customers’ needs is our number one priority. We are constantly learning from interior designers and other industry professionals as they provide us with valuable insights on how we can better adjust our business to meet their everyday needs.

It’s Never Too Early to Plan What You’re Wearing to the Gala The 2020 gala will be held on March 3. We will honor Brian McCarthy with the Albert Hadley Lifetime Achievement Award, Gale and Andy Singer with the Larry Kravet Design Industry Innovation Award, and Elizabeth Lawrence with the Rising Star Award, a prize made possible by the generous support of The Shade Store. Last year’s gala was the most successful in NYSID’s history, and this year we aim to raise even more money for the NYSID scholarship fund.

VISIT NYSID.EDU/ANNUAL-GALA-2020.

LEADERSHIP / Moving the College Forward Board of Trustees

Advisory Board

Alumni Council

Ellen Kravet, Chairman

Stanley Abercrombie

*Marie Aiello ’04 (AAS)

David Sprouls, NYSID President Jill H. Dienst James P. Druckman Cheryl S. Durst Susan Zises Green Alexa Hampton David Kleinberg Anne Korman Dennis Miller Susan B. Nagle Betsey Ruprecht Brad Schneller David Scott Maria Spears Newell Turner Kelly M. Williams Eric Gering, Faculty Trustee Joanna L. Silver, Esq., General Counsel Elaine Wingate Conway, Trustee Emerita Alexander C. Cortesi, Trustee Emeritus Inge Heckel, Trustee Emerita Patricia M. Sovern, Chairman Emeritus

Christian P. Árkay-Leliever

Ruth Burt ’88 (AAS)

Amory Armstrong

Lawrence Chabra ’09 (BFA)

Robin Klehr Avia

Allison Davis ’05 (BFA)

Geoffrey Bradfield

*Krista Gurevich ’16 (MFA-1)

Michael Bruno

*Michael Harold ’10 (BFA)

Clodagh

Faith Hoops ’18 (BFA)

Birch Coffey

Don Kossar ’95 (BFA)

Kathleen M. Doyle

Maisie Lee ’00 (BFA)

David Anthony Easton

*Lawrence Levy ’05 (BFA), President

Anne Eisenhower

*Drew McGukin ’10 (AAS)

Mica Ertegun

Valerie Mead ’00 (BFA)

Ross J. Francis

Charles Pavarini ’81 (BFA)

Mariette Himes Gomez

George Peters ’08 (BFA)

Gerald A. Holbrook

Ethel Rompilla ’84 (BFA)

Thomas Jayne Wolfram Koeppe

*Linda Sclafani ’90 (BFA) Susan Thorn ’96 (AAS)

Jack Lenor Larsen

*Erin Wells ’04 (BFA)

Michael Manes

*Court Whisman ’05 (AAS)

Charlotte Moss Michele Oka Doner

*Member of Alumni Council Working Group

Barbara Ostrom Sylvia Owen Charles Pavarini, III Robyn Pocker James Stewart Polshek Ann Pyne John Saladino Peter Sallick Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill Alexandra Stoddard Calvin Tsao Bunny Williams Vicente Wolf

The 1916 Society NYSID alumni, faculty members, and friends find planned giving a fulfilling way to be part of the future of the College.

Bequests allow for the creation of scholarships and awards that will help students for generations to come, or to recognize NYSID instructors. Others are inspired to provide resources for study in the library or studio, or for study abroad. Legacy donors like this make up the 1916 Society, named for the year NYSID was founded.

CONTACT JOY COOPER, DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT, AT 212-452-4197 OR GIVING@NYSID.EDU.

NEXT AT NYSID / Mark Your Calendars JANUARY 21

FEBRUARY 6

MARCH 3

SPRING SEMESTER BEGINS

DIALOGUES ON DESIGN

2020 GALA

Students return to the studios ready to work hard and learn what it takes to become the best interior designers in the industry.

Dennis Scully chats with Juan Montoya, principal of Juan Montoya Design. Get an insider’s view of the design industry at the first Dialogue of the new year.

Our annual gala is a chance to mingle with some of interior design’s luminaries, while supporting the scholarship fund that makes design education possible for so many talented students.

APRIL 24

MAY 18 & 19

MAY 21

DIALOGUES ON DESIGN

STUDENT EXHIBITIONS

COMMENCEMENT

For the third converstation of the series, Michelle Nussbaumer, principal of Michelle Nussbaumer Design, discusses the art of interiors with Dennis Scully.

In the run-up to Commencement, these exhibitions are an opportunity to scope out the work of talented emerging designers entering the workforce.

This is THE event of the year! Our entire community will come together to celebrate the achievements of the Class of 2020.

SPRING SESSION STARTS JAN 21 NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

nysid.edu/icps INSTITUTE FOR CONTINUING & PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

re-skill up-skill new skill

NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

CHALLENGING. CREATIVE. PIONEERING. “NYSID in Three Words” According to Klayre Angela M. Tan ’20 (MPS-S) Licensed interior designer Klayre Tan’s desire to be a responsible designer led her from the Philippines to NYSID’s pioneering Master of Professional Studies in Sustainable Interior Environments program.

NYSID’s “Give Green for Green” MPS-S scholarship appeal recognizes the importance of sustainability and the School’s opportunity to lead in the education of sustainable interior experts.

Thanks to the generosity of a NYSID supporter, every dollar donated will be matched, up to $5,000. Help NYSID graduates design the future by making your gift today.

nysid.edu/make-a-gift

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170 East 70 Street New York, NY 10021

REVELERS AT THE BAUHAUS BALL.

DEPARTMENT