Interior Design Practice

Cindy Coleman

• Publisher: Allworth
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781581156751
• eBook ISBN: 9781581157406
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Interior Design

Interior Design magazine has assembled some of the most notable voices in the interior design world today under editor-in-chief Cindy Coleman to define contemporary interior design and its practice. Interior Design Practice provides aspiring and practicing professionals a perspective that is as broad as it is deep, encompassing design theory and education, global professional practice, and the experiences of design firms large and small. An overview is provided of the development and growth of the profession, along with an in-depth assessment of the legal and regulatory environment. An extensive section is offered on the work process, ranging from pre-design, programming, and design development to contract administration. Finally, a section on management provides a thorough exploration of issues in marketing, financial management, project management, and managing client relationships. Both comprehensive and timely, Interior Design Practice describes the changes currently occurring in the design profession and industry and suggests new, unique ways of thinking and working that will serve as a catalyst for designers who seek excellence in their profession. List of Contributors, their company, and their location: — Edward Friedrichs, (former President, Gensler) San Francisco — Derrel Parker, Parker Scaggiari, Las Vegas — Cindy Coleman, Chicago — Beth Harmon Vaughan, Gensler, Phoenix — Barry LePatner, LePatner & Associates, LLP, New York — Eva Maddox, Perkins + Will, Chicago — Sharon Turner, Swanke Hayden Connell Architects, London — Pamela Anderson Brule, Pamela Anderson Brule Architects, San Jose — Orlando Diaz-Azcuy, San Francisco — Stuart Cohen, Cohen/Hacker Architects, Chicago — David Boeman, Powell + Kleinshmidt, Chicago — Greg Switzer, Robert Sutter, Switzer Architects, New York — Lisabeth Quebe, (Former VP, Perkins + Will) Soldiers Grove, WI — Gary Wheeler, Wheeler Kanik, Richmond, UK — Kathy Rogers, Jacobs Facilities, Arlington, VAAllworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.

S E C T I O N

II

The Work Process

6

Scope of Service Matrix

BY EVA MADDOX

Design firms each have a unique way of approaching the design of a project. The following chapters in this section of the book focus on the designer’s scope of services. These chapters are presented as narratives from a varied group of designers each describing their individual methods of approaching the process of design. While these approaches vary due to the size of a project, project type and the design firm’s philosophy and resources, the basic scope of services is generally consistent from project to project and firm to firm.

Eva Maddox, principal of Perkins & Will Branded Environments, designs a broad range of project types: from residential, healthcare, and education to commercial and corporate projects. The firm has combined the best-practice knowledge they derive from their diverse practice to construct the following Scope of Service Matrix. The matrix is a “snapshot” in time, describing the current key activities generally performed during the course of a project from marketing to project closeout.

Perkins & Will Eva Maddox Branded Environments Design Process Project Phases

7

Pre-Design Services

BY SHARON TURNER

Purpose

The value of pre-design services should not be underestimated—this is where a project can begin its life and a good start sets the standard for the quality of service and delivery for the project as a whole. Put simply, whatever the extent of the commission, this is where the goals of the project are clearly identified and understood by the project team.

Primarily, pre-design involves establishing the necessary information to design and administer the project and determining how the design firm will professionally relate to the client and the wider project team. The opportunity for developing trust and strong, collaborative working relationships in this phase will go a long way toward the successful outcome of the overall commission.

Methodology: Types of Commission

Broadly speaking, interior design firms are involved in pre-design services in three ways.The first is the project initiation phase of a standard interior design commission, where the space to be designed has already been identified and the scope of work is already predetermined by the client.

The second is strategic facilities planning, also known as a pre-lease service, where the interior design firm is a part of a wider project team tasked with identifying future space requirements in a strategic way and assisting in the identification of suitable buildings or evaluating the extent of work required in an existing building or property portfolio.

The third is consulting, where a client organization is undergoing some form of major change, e.g., a corporate relocation, merger, acquisition, or a radical rethink of the workplace, and so employs an interior design firm in a pre-design consulting role to undertake research, propose scenarios, and inform business decisions.

Typically, these three types of commission take the following approaches.

PROJECT INITIATION

In this scenario, the project typically is in an existing space already under the control of the client or the space has been bought or leased prior to the appointment of the interior design firm. Pre-design services in this scenario usually involve no more than initial meetings with the client team to establish the project reporting and administration structure and to set the work plan and schedule for the future phases. These meetings are attended typically by the principal in charge of the project or a senior project designer, the client or client representative, a client IT representative or consultant, and the MEP engineer where applicable.

Project Initiation Checklist

• Project and team organization structure

• Reporting and approval procedures

• Budget and cost control procedures

• Confirm the project size and review design scope and building constraints

• Review client corporate guidelines, space standards, and business plan documentation

• Review headcount, organization structure, and adjacency requirements

• Review a summary of existing client programming data

• Receive “as built” drawings, computer disks, and technical specifications

• Identify field survey requirements

• Identify requests for information (RFIs) and assign responsibilities and timescales

• Develop the work plan and schedule

• Review fee invoicing and payment procedures

A word of caution, however: where the interior designer has come late to the table, there have been many instances of clients having underestimated their space program. I recall a case in which a client and his broker had been searching for and negotiating on 75,000 square feet of commercial office space for four months. Three buildings had been short-listed prior to the appointment of the interior design firm, who subsequently proved the real space program was 10,000 square feet. This is a sobering example—one that had serious consequences for the client organization.

This project initiation phase is then followed by the detailed programming phase, and the project proceeds in a traditional phased way. Fees for project initiation are included in the overall interior design fee for the project, which is commonly quoted as a dollar-per-square-foot rate.

THE STRATEGIC FACILITIES PLANNING APPROACH

Successive economic recessions have resulted in clients taking a very cautious approach to acquiring real estate, and they are looking for increased value from the buildings they occupy. Both end user clients and the brokerage community are now retaining the services of interior design firms earlier in the real estate acquisition process. The pre-lease team often consists of the client representative, the real estate broker, legal representation, an architect/designer, and an MEP engineer.

The objective is for the architect/designer to contribute to the decision on which building or space the client buys or leases. This is done by identifying the client’s strategic space requirements program, undertaking a technical evaluation of short-listed real estate and testing how well the program works within each building.

In large corporate sector projects, the interior designer, with the assistance of an MEP engineer, establishes the clients’ “big picture” space requirements and develops an ideal building footprint (this is also known as a strategic program). Once signed off by the clients’ senior management, this plan is used to begin the real estate search. In the case of a build-to-suit project, the information will be used to solicit responses for developer’s proposals.

The outcome is an assessment of how well individual buildings perform in terms of space efficiency and operational effectiveness for a particular client.

Typical Building Appraisal Checklist

• Building footprint and loss factor efficiency

• Architectural arrangement and core provision

• Building services review with engineer

• Planning authority/local code compliance issues

• Construction challenges

• Stacking diagrams and space planning test fits

• Rating how well the building meets the client’s program

The designer adds value to the client in this type of pre-design service by developing a clear space strategy, criteria for a space search, the analysis of short-listed sites or buildings, and professional advice in supporting negotiations and decision making. The value to the interior design firm is that this type of commission, when properly executed, often leads to a full service interior design commission following the leasing or building acquisition.

Because the time spans for this type of commission can often be a year from the start of the strategic programming process to making a final decision on a building, this pre-design service is offered as a stand alone commission based upon either a fixed or not-to-exceed fee.

THE CONSULTING ROLE

This third type of pre-design service involves understanding how design and environment can contribute to the alignment of business goals, corporate culture, and real estate. This rarely takes the form of a traditional design project. These projects are more likely to be feasibility studies for large accommodation strategies or feasibility studies exploring new ways of working with a view toward implementing major space occupancy changes in a client organization.

Accommodations strategies consist of reviewing and analyzing buildings to establish existing conditions, space efficiency, and effectiveness.The analysis would attempt to answer t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Section I. Background
• Section II. The Work Process
• Section III. Management Issues
• Contributor Bios
• Index
• Books