8.18.08 | Succeeding at succession: Earlier this year, Young + Wright Architects, a 125-person Toronto-based firm, joined forces in a merger/acquisition with cross-town giant IBI Group. Their combined firm has a new handle, Young + Wright/IBI Group Architects.

The author recently took a tour of the Prairies, from Dallas to Minneapolis, stopping along the way to enjoy exceptional art and design – some new, some old, some renovated. The following is a report on three outstanding interiors. More are to follow in a later issue.

8.18.08 | Every cheesy teenage “slasher” movie includes the same scene: the victim opens the attic door and peers into the blackness. What lurks within is evil and she knows it – but she ventures up the stairs nonetheless. Fool.

8.18.08 | The Emerging Green Builders of NY held the USGBC-NY Natural Talent Competition Award Ceremony on July 30th at the Mohawk Showroom. This year the Emerging Green Builders of NY focused its Natural Talent Competition on a green school project in DUMBO, Brooklyn (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass): The Empire Fulton Ferry Art Center & Middle School conceptual design project.

8.18.08 | Karen Brown of Perkins+Will is more than an interior designer. The Social Responsibility Leader for the New York Perkins+Will office has an uplifting outlook on life that in 2004, took her for a year sabbatical to Egypt, where she volunteered her time and worked for an NGO and various non-profit organizations, and will take her to three countries – Republic of Georgia, Ghana, and Guatemala – in three months starting on August 21.

8.18.08 | “No problem.” That’'s what the young woman behind the counter countered with when I thanked her as she handed me a cup of Rhode Island clam chowder*. An odd rejoinder, don't you think? And not the first time I’'ve heard it in this young century. “No problem.” The response used to be, “You'’re welcome.” or “My pleasure.”

8.11.08 | Colebrook, Bosson, Saunders is a U.K. architecture firms that found a need for ergonomics in the workplace and decided to provide products that filled the bill, or at least some of it. This niche has worked out well for the firm and its partners, Martyn Colebrook, Peter Bosson and Brenda Saunders, and the firm by now has a global presence with offices in the UK, USA, Australia and Japan. From these offices, the firm works through a worldwide network of manufacturers, dealers and distributors, and has installed its products in some of the most high profile international design projects.

When she was a California girl, she was Debbie, but when she came to the faster paced East Coast, she became Deb. But no matter where she is, she is still Deborah Hopewell, a supercharged dealer salesperson and respected manager.

8.11.08 | Without water, life as we know it would be impossible- –especially in the desert. Scarcely a day goes by in Arizona without some mention of water-rights issues.

8.11.08 | John L. (Johnny) Helm died at his home in Dallas, TX, on July 1. He was a retired employee of Knoll and known to many in the industry. After serving in WWII and graduating from the University of Arkansas, Mr. Helm joined Knoll, where he spent the next 28 years.

8.11.08 | On Thursday, July 24^th, the W Tuscany on 39^th Street in New York City was the venue for IIDA New York Hospitality Forum, which focused on “The New Age of Hospitality & Retail Design. A Hospitality Forum record 175 guests were in attendance. The event was co-chaired by Nancy Jackson, President of Architectural Systems, Inc. and Christine McGinnis, IIDA, Director, Visual Communications of aloft and element hotels while the W Tuscany provided attendees with an intimate lounge-like setting.

8.11.08 | Kathleen Vick has me thinking. About solar energy. In her Eco-Issues article in last week’s officeinsight, Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is, she offers great research. And great spirit. I applaud such thinking …and planning and calculating and determining and measuring and consulting and specifying and marking and installing and inspiring.

8.4.08 | On a visit to Steelcase this year, I was a guest at the new JW Marriott hotel in Grand Rapids, and felt quite the prince, and not the less for having a Steelcase Leap chair in my room. Unexpectedly, my day of meetings began the next morning on the 21^st floor of the JW, where I met with Kathy Farquharson, Director, Corporate Sales, Paul Siebert, Director, Corporate Strategy + Brand Development, Frank Graziano, Manager, Advanced Applications, and George Aquino, Manager of the Grand Rapids JW Marriott.

8.4.08 | A cool breeze on a hot day in Manhattan is enough to generate a passing moment of gratitude in even the most jaded New Yorker. That was the refreshing welcome that greeted me as I passed through the elegant doors of the A&D Building on East 58^th Street.

8.4.08 | As soon as my husband declared we would cram our most treasured worldly goods into the modern day Conestoga wagon (aka “POD”), say goodbye to everything in Massachusetts – our home, businesses, friends, etc. – and ride off into the sunset, I swear, the next words out of his mouth were “photovoltaic cells”. He became a man obsessed with solar energy.

8.4.08 | How are you feeling? Are you comfortable? If you are reading this while you’'re on vacation, you’re likely bobbing in a boat or lounging on a nice deck chair on a wooden dock watching a duck or thinking about taking a dunk . . . off the dock (Sorry). Then again, if you’'re reading this on vacation, you might seriously reconsider how you spend your vacations.