4.27.09 | Matthew R. Haworth scion of the Haworth, Inc. founder andleadership has always seemed assured of employment. But now he has beennamed to what must be one of the toughest jobs in the contract furnitureindustry: filling the shoes of his father, Richard G. Haworth. Mr.Haworth(M) will become Chairman of the Board succeeding Dick Haworth, whowill become Chairman Emeritus.
Manufacturing >>, People >>
4.27.09 | In Milan, amongst the stylish Italians, the gelato, the pasta, bread, salted meats and cheese, there was a furniture fair last week. Well, the furniture fair The Salone Internazionale del Mobile. And amongst that fair is a city full of innovative design, beautiful design, far-out design and some impractical design.
4.27.09 | Last week we covered Hilda Longinotti's retirement event at the Herman Miller NYC National Design Center. (officeinsight 4.20.09, Hilda, Hilda: Wherefore are thou Hilda?) The gracious Ms. Longinotti phoned us last week to let us know that she had taken notice of our modest efforts. Unfortunately, as we were preparing the article, our universal memory card reader corrupted our files, making it impossible to open them. We solved the problem mid-week, and recovered some of the images.
4.27.09 | Kimball Office and Teknion joined forces to carry the message of Sustaining Interior Design Education to over a thousand interior design firms and studios in architectural firms across North America. (The support of all vendors of interior products are invited and encouraged to participate.) These companies and others were prompt to act to create awareness within the interior design profession of the realistic concern about where the next generation professional interior design educators will come from. This concern is becoming critical as many educators in this field near retirement.
Prof. Associations >>, Research >>
4.27.09 | As a professional interior designer, and a nascent design scholar interested in human-environment interactions, I've wondered if I will forever be skirting around the outside of the architectural establishment while examining architecture from the inside-out. At it turns out, my interest in inside-ness has created a form of outsider-ness that is as important as it is perplexing.
Research >>
4.27.09 | We must not allow April to pack its bags and return to wherever it spends the other eleven months without noting its venerable place in the calendar. April is National Poetry Month. Because it was in April that Shakespeare was born. On the 23rd. Back in 1564. Back in Stratford, England. So it's fitting to honor poems by honoring the gentleman who lifted our lumpy, mongrel language into exquisite verse.
Ira Joe >>
4.20.09 | It would be both correct and misleading to characterize Global Industries, Inc., Marlton, NJ, as a sales and distribution arm of Global. It is that, but it is also a separate company conceived and organized almost 40 years ago by Joel Appel, who remains the chairman of the company and has been its primary business director during its successful rise.
Interviews >>, Manufacturing >>
04.20.09 | The choice of Peter Zumthor for this year's Pritzker Prize often called the Nobel of architecture is in synch with the current mood. We've moved into a period of scaled-down consumption, concern for sustainability, and fatigue with the exploits of star architects. And Zumthor represents those designers and manufacturers who deliberately limit the scale of their production to assure personal inspiration and attention to every detail.
Competitions and Awards >>, People >>
4.20.09 | About 250 industry veterans and pioneers turned up at the 6th Avenue Herman Miller National Design Center to see if the legend, Hilda Longenotti, the grande dame of A&D, the doyenne of design sales, was actually going to retire after 54 years in the industry and almost 35 years with Herman Miller.
4.20.09 | We know that many A&D firms have had layoffs in recent months, some with cuts sufficiently substantial to push the vocabulary beyond even down-sizing, although perhaps falling short of restructuring. Others are still swamped with work, while still others are completing strategic additions. As Diane Barnes, HBF/HBF Textiles, North East Regional Manager, hosts the company's sixth annual Career Night in cooperation with Pratt Institute and numerous A&D firms (see this issue), we worry about job prospects for industry professionals.
04.20.09 | Every spring, HBF and HBF Textiles hosts Pratt Institute Department of Interior Design Career Night in its Michael Vanderbyl designed, New York Design Center showroom. Though this year was no different Pratt students and faculty again gathered with top firms in the industry, with the lovely Diane Barnes, Northeast Regional Manager for HBF, in the role of hostess there was an extra, larger-than-life guest in attendance.
Events >>
04.20.09| Here's an idea. Lauren Rottet should raise a couple of million dollars and immediately grow her new firm, Rottet Studio, to one of the top ten Giants; in the process, she could pick up a lot of the free-floating talent that is now looking for work. Why, she could probably save a whole generation of experienced interior designers.
04.13.09 | Downturns affecting a particular industry tend to substantially affect the surviving members. Certainly that was the case for wood-products manufacturer TUOHY Furniture Corporation after the devastating events earlier this decade. Actually, TUOHY may have listened to the this-can't-last harbingers near the end of the dot.com era.
04.13.09 | On my recent trip to Calgary, I met Michelle Anderson of DIRTT Environmental Solutions. Ms. Anderson has the interesting task of trying to show in visibly demonstable terms the relative costs in dollars and in environmental impact of dry wall construction versus modular wall construction.
Product >>, Technology >>
04.13.09 | Teaching interior design students to write and integrating writing into the design curriculum has been the preoccupation of many a design educator. This concern was no less apparent this year at the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) Annual Conference, where the conversations were abuzz with ideas about the role of writing in the design process.
Prof. Associations >>, Research >>
04.13.09 | Private offices are getting smaller in size and budget, leadingspecifiers to seek fresh alternatives in wood furniture for attractive,user-friendly executive environments. With the introduction of Paoli'sIgnite casegoods series, specifiers have a new choice that combinesversatile dimensions, two-week shipping and genuine value, according toKent Robbins, vice president, marketing for Paoli.
Manufacturing >>, Product >>
04.13.09 | A getaway weekend. To a New England bed and breakfast. I love the clarity of bed and breakfast. Some people truncate it to B and B. Not I. I am anti-abbreviation. Ultimately abbreviating things doesn't shorten communication. It lengthens it. Quick: what does MO represent? Missouri? Montana? The chief Stooge? Right. You dont know. I dont know. And so MO becomes an obfuscation, not an abbreviation.
Ira Joe >>
4.6.09 | Vitra, the chair company – and much more – is on to a new phase in its extended venture in the Americas. We have seen the company evolve as Vitra went from achair company, to a chair and systems company, and on to even greater refinements as it continues to explore in an effort to discover its optimum position in North America.
Manufacturing >>, Product >>
4.6.09 | The coalescing of Steelcase’s Brayton, Metro, and Vecta companies into Coalesse continues apace and appears to be gathering momentum. We recently visited the company’s home base in San Francisco to get a first-hand look at the company’s new headquarters and to attend one of its traveling satellite events.
Manufacturing >>, Product >>
4.6.09 | Chief Newaygo surely realized that his name was onomatopoetic,but probably not the extent. The small lumber town located about anhour north of Grand Rapids and named for the Chief has become a sleepyrecreational area noted for trout fishing and second homes.
Manufacturing >>, Project >>
4.6.09 | Today’s workplace is in constant flux and evolution. Allsteelis addressing it with the development of Stride, a new furnituresolution designed to satisfy every possible need of a facility’sinterior landscape – keeping pace with the changes of business today,meeting the hierarchal and generational demands, fulfilling varyingbusiness model criteria, while assuring the creation of a highlysustainable environment.
Manufacturing >>, Product >>
4.6.09 | Interior Designers are an odd lot; we find excitement in the strangestthings. Case in point: my heart is all aflutter over the channel drainin my shower. I consider it to be the most exciting product in my houseand it is the crowing achievement in my quest to create the perfectsolution to the confluence of sustainability, universal design,function and aesthetics.
Environment >>, Money/Mouth >>
