Author Archives: Claire Smith

A Year to Thrive

Summer Salutations –

Thank you to each of you who attended VIBRANT: The IIDA Oregon Chapter’s Annual Celebration and Fundraiser. What a breath-taking evening of celebrating in bright attire; imbibing in zesty cuisine and sparkling spirits, enjoying live music, impressive raffle prizes, and best of all, your vivacious company!IIDA Party 2016 (80 of 163)


The IIDA Oregon Chapter is honored to encompass such an inspiring and elevated community. I personally thank you for your many kind words of encouragement and thanks, enthusiastic volunteer efforts, event attendance, paramount sponsorship, support, and dedication to the profession. The theme VIBRANT could not have been a more appropriate descriptor of each of you; the tight-knit, unique, pioneering community that is so colorfully alive and brimming with growth and potential.IIDA Party 2016 (100 of 163)

 

To those of you who missed VIBRANT, my name is Elsa Long and I am the 2016-2017 IIDA Oregon Chapter President.

Here are the initiatives that I shared during the event, which the IIDA Oregon Chapter will pursue together over the next year as we seek to further our mission; “to be the face of professional Interior Design in Oregon.”

  • Legal recognition for the Profession of Interior Design will be a continued priority in the upcoming year. Public outreach and education are critical to demonstrating the value of Professional Interior Design. The impact that the talented, educated, and highly qualified individuals who are practicing in the code-impacted environment have on shaping places will be felt by Oregonians over the next several decades. Our Advocacy, Forums, and Communications teams will work hard to educate and inform the public through IIDA Oregon Chapter blog posts, forums and events. We will seek support from our Members and community supporters to meet in person with Oregon legislators to champion a bill that will create a Voluntary Registration of Professional Qualified Interior Designers in the State of Oregon. Especially in a season of rapid growth throughout the state, now is the time to influence the policy process that allows Professional Interior Designers to advance the quality of life for their clients and the public.
  • Our Advocacy team will send representatives from the Board of Directors to participate in the Second Annual IIDA Advocacy Symposium held in Denver in September 2016. We will join with leaders from across the nation to discuss recent success cases where  bills have passed, as well as strategies for other states who are actively pursuing legislation, including ours.  
  • Our Communications team will diligently seek out greater media and public exposure of examples of excellent professional interior design through inclusion in industry publications and increased online voting for the IIDA Oregon Chapter Design Excellence Awards. We will seek inclusion of the IIDA Oregon Chapter Design Crawl event, (during which three award-winning projects are toured) in the greater Design Week Portland festival to increase public awareness of excellent commercial interior design.
  • Our Executive Leadership and Student Affairs teams will continue to collaborate as an active participating chapter in the IIDA Western Region*, growing local leadership skills, sharing resources, and developing long-term programming for implementation over the next 3 to 5 years. Our Student Members will benefit from the opportunity to advance to the the third Annual multi-chapter collaborative event; the IIDA Western Regional Student Design Charette. (*The IIDA Western Region includes the Northern Pacific, Oregon, Northern California, Southern California, Rocky Mountain, Southwest, Innermountain and Hawaii Chapters).  
  • Our Membership and Sponsorship teams will seek out opportunities for Philanthropic contribution on behalf of IIDA Oregon Chapter Members, be it in education and solidarity, monetary donation, donating surplus food after events, or volunteering pro-bono professional interior design services to organizations in our community.
  • Our Forums and Educations teams will continue provide excellent educational content that will enhance the skills and knowledge of Members at all levels. Topical focuses will include accessibility in design, health and wellness, healthy material specifications, technology integration, small business skills, and the environmental impact of interior design.

IIDA Party 2016 (120 of 163)

We are proud to kick-off this year for the third year running with a full Board of Directors and look forward to seeing you as an event attendee, volunteer, engaged participant, and valued Sponsor over the upcoming year. We work tirelessly to provide content and opportunities to uphold our profession to the highest standards and support legal recognition for the interior design profession in Oregon. We hope you will join us in our vision for Oregon to “enhance the quality of life through excellence in interior design and to advance interior design through knowledge, value and community.”IIDA Party 2016 (126 of 163)

 

Thank you to each Member of the IIDA Oregon Chapter, we are so proud of your contribution to this community and look forward to thriving together over the next year.

Sincerely,
Elsa Long, Associate IIDA
IIDA Oregon Chapter President

Member Spotlight: Elsa Long, Associate IIDA

Elsa Long BWName: Elsa Long
Company / Position: IA Interior Architects / Designer
Years of Experience: 11 years
IIDA member since: 2005

Favorite IIDA event: Choosing a favorite is always hard! The events The IIDA Oregon Chapter offers are one of my favorite things about being a Member. I always leave more educated and inspired after attending Forums, invigorated from meeting new people at Membership Happy Hours, and excited for the Future of Design at Student Fall Kick-Off and Design Charettes. The Design Excellence Awards and Design Crawl make me proud of the incredible work coming out of our State, and the opportunity to celebrate and thank our Sponsors and Members at Appreciation Events makes me grateful for each Member of our community that are so supportive and dedicated to the Chapter.

If I have to choose, The Annual Celebration and Fundraiser is my favorite of the year, since it is a culmination of all those things rolled into one amazing evening. We have the opportunity to celebrate as a Professional Interior Design and Builder Community, thank our Board of Directors, Members, Sponsors, and Supporters for their valuable contributions throughout the year, AND outline aspirations and goals for the upcoming year. I hope you will join us for VIBRANT, the upcoming Annual Celebration and Fundraiser for an incredible time together!

Tell us a bit about your Creative Process: There’s a famous Steve Jobs quote that talks about how Creativity is just connecting things; having the ability to connect experiences to synthesize new things. I constantly strive to find these connections via conversations and listening to others describe their own experiences and earned wisdom. Travel, reading, and browsing inspiring imagery from visual social platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are also vital to my personal creative process. I enjoy collaboration as a team, I’m most creatively inspired by others and when noticing the world around me.

When designing, I am in a constant cycle of curious pursuit; gathering input by listening to clients, seeking out imagery and knowledge to try to make those connections and distill them down to implement into a customized design. To do that, I source from a diverse array of people, events, publications and media, with a blend of local and global coverage. (I am that person that always has about 85 tabs open in my web browser at a time).

As mentioned above, it’s difficult for me to choose a favorite, so here’s my current Top 10 inputs:

  1. Conversations with people: Friends, Family, IIDA members, Industry peers, Lyft drivers, fellow travelers on a plane – you name it. People have really interesting experiences to share!
  2. Travel! Find out how other cultures are diverse and similar.
  3. dIAmeter: IA Interior Architects’ Blog I enjoy reading about all of the aspects of designs and strategies being implemented by my co-workers in the IA offices around the world.
  4. TED talks, (especially TEDxPortland and TEDxMtHood).
  5. FastCoDesign
  6. Creative Mornings (I attend in Portland, look for one in your city!)
  7. Portland Monthly Magazine (Great coverage of professionally designed spaces throughout the state of Oregon making “Best of” lists).
  8. GRAY Magazine (I especially enjoy reading about many of the makers and builders in our Pacific Northwest Design Community that are creating interesting new products and places).
  9. AZURE Magazine
  10. Wired Magazine

Interesting Fact: I’m an Oregon native that spent half of my childhood in Bolivia, South America. My life-long love of art of all kinds merged with an interest in design and architecture during a family Spring Break trip to the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru. Even at the age of twelve, I was deeply impressed that the buildings, structures and urban planning are a tangible legacy of how an entire culture lived day-to-day. Upon moving back to the States, I wrote in a “future plans” essay for school that I wanted to work on the “inside of buildings” to influence people’s experiences with space. In early high school, I began searching for college programs and discovered that University of Oregon fortuitously offered a nationally accredited Interior Architecture degree, which I ended up graduating from. (Go Ducks!) Now that I design for IA Interior Architects, I like to joke that Interior Design and Architecture found me at an early age.

What does being a Designer mean to your life?: I believe at my very core that good design can change lives; that many aspects of quality of life are intrinsic to our human experience and interaction with place. It’s our great privilege and duty as professional interior designers to create places that not only allow people to live, learn, work, heal, eat, worship, and have fun safely, but to shape places that are equally accessible to all; that support the opportunity to thrive, and evoke wonder and joy. Particularly in a season of rapid growth in the State of Oregon, we have the challenge and honor of influencing the creation of places that will serve Oregonians for the next several decades through excellence in design.

2017 Call for Sponsorship

sponsorship-blog-banner-2017

Dear Sponsors, Members, and Supporters,

It is amazing to think that another productive board year has come and gone – and what a successful year it has been! The variety of events that the IIDA Oregon Chapter has hosted continue to bring our design community together in such an inspiring way! It is exciting to see the enthusiasm of our ever-growing membership as we gather to learn, be inspired, and celebrate our industry. It is because of our invaluable Sponsors that these events are possible, and we could not do it without you! Our hope each year is to provide bigger, better, and more exciting events and opportunities with the intent of elevating the level of professionalism for Interior Designers in Oregon.

Your generous contributions have allowed us to support:

  • Student-focused Events
  • Legislative efforts pursued by IDC-Oregon
  • Annual Chapter operations and overhead
  • Host special speakers at forums and events
  • Furnish resources for events

With your support, we can continue to maintain this high level of excellence and strive to make being a Supporter of our chapter a positive experience each year that gets better every year.

The following packet specifically highlights the IIDA Oregon Chapter’s Annual Sponsorship opportunities at the Firm Level. Out of great appreciation for your Sponsorship we have updated the list of benefits to help better match your contribution to a direct value for you and your company. For instance, two of our Annual Sponsorship levels include one complimentary IIDA Membership as a benefit – this is up to a $515.00 value. The value is an added bonus when considering that many employers already pay 100% of employee IIDA Membership dues! Click here for a calendar of upcoming events that is intended to help you to plan for unique Sponsorship opportunities in advance. Event Sponsorship opportunities are available prior to each individual event, with customized levels and associated benefits. For more information on Event Sponsorship, please visit our Event Sponsor page.

As we start this new board year, I’m excited to introduce you to our Sponsorship team!  We’re here to help in any way we can! Together we ensure that all of the IIDA Oregon Chapter’s Annual, and Event sponsors, are recognized by our A&D community.

Sponsorship and Fundraising
As the VP of Sponsorship and Fundraising, I (Jenna McPherson) am available for any questions, concerns, feedback, and assistance in making the Sponsorship process run as smoothly as possible.

Annual Sponsorship
Emily Wright, the Annual Sponsorship Chair will continue to take care of all of our Annual sponsors. She will ensure that Annual Sponsors receive their Sponsorship benefits and will keep in touch throughout the year.

Event Sponsorship
Melisa Gruber, the Event Sponsorship Chair, will be managing all of your Event Sponsorship needs, and will be involved and connected with each Event Sponsor to ensure that your experience is streamlined and enjoyable.

Please feel free to contact anyone of us – we are a team, and are here to make this year the best one we can, for you!

All the best for the year,

Jenna

become-a-firm-sponsor-banner

become-an-industry-sponsor-banner

Member Spotlight: Akasha Lawrence-Spence, Student IIDA

Akasha Lawrence-Spence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Akasha Lawrence-Spence
Company: SERA Architects
Position: Interior Design Intern
Years of Experience: 11 Months
School / Year: The Art Institute of Portland / Senior
IIDA Member Since: 2014

What is your favorite space designed in Portland? The Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Building is one of my favorite structures in Portland. Growing up in New York City I developed an affinity for watching ivy crawl up brownstones. I secretly rooted for the ivy to take over the entire structure, overwhelming it with lush green leaves. When I saw the Edith Green building for the first time all those childhood memories flooded back, it made sense to me, the way the architects planned for greenery to crawl up the new façade. It gave me a feeling of home, and spoke to the covenant that man and nature share, to live in harmony—each one strengthening the other.

What does being a designer mean to your life? I believe that everyone is a designer at heart, but some of us get the honor and responsibility of practicing the art of design for a living. Being a designer means that you see the world prescriptively. You see needs, understand desires, and use your skills to design spaces, objects, and experiences that meet, exceed, and anticipate the needs of present and future users. This definition is why sustainability is such a large part of who I am as a designer. Understanding that the design decisions I make now not only impact this moment, but the destiny of our cities, our country, and our planet is something I keep at the forefront of every design decision I make.

What is your personal mantra? Everything happens for a reason.

What gets you excited about design? I am in love with the idea of outside-inside. Integrating daylight, sunlight, greenery, and natural materials into the interior is so important to the health of the people who occupy those spaces. It also helps to align our thoughts with our dependency on the natural world.

On a typical Saturday where can we find you? Drinking a green juice, enjoying a walk before I buckle down to do schoolwork.

 

Western Regional Student Design Charette Summary


The 2nd Annual  Western Regional Student Design Charette was held at IA Interior Architects in Seattle, WA over the weekend of April 16th, 2016. Teams of student members from across the Western Region who placed in the Chapter Finals, competed for the opportunity to advance to the next round of competition – the IIDA International Student Design Charette in Chicago during NeoCon 2016!

FINAL_Day Of Posters_400Each team was comprised of students from the IIDA Northern Pacific, Northern California, Oregon, Southern California and Southwest Chapters. The winning team was selected by jurors Joey Shimoda, FIIDA, FAIA (Shimoda Design Group), Mindi Weichman, ASC. IIDA (Studio O+A) and Jane Hallinan, IIDA (Perkins Eastman).

This two-day event kicked off with an evening of networking, where local firms and event sponsors presented to students in a Pecha Kucha (short story) format. The event served as an opportunity for students and professionals to connect and share experiences that would help them to be successful in the competition and tips for transitioning into professional practice.

The IIDA Western Region is very appreciative of the support of our sponsors for providing this unique opportunity to our Student Members.

Charette Design Problem

Each team at the Western Region Charette was assigned the same project; an advertisement agency in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle, WA – Proof | Creative Strategies. The agency offers a wide range of production elements for their clients including audio-visual productions such as podcasts and videos.

Proof | Creative Strategies occupies one floor of a is a multi-floor building. The participants were asked to design the full floor without adjusting any core elements, while incorporating design elements that will allow for open collaboration, communication, and involvement of different specialties within the company. Students were asked to consider how areas connect, crossover and influence each other through various levels of privacy and interaction.

The IIDA Student Member teams were judged on the function, design, creativity/originality, aesthetics, oral and graphic presentation of their projects.

The program was produced by the IIDA Northern Pacific Chapter’s Problem Committee: Jennifer Baarley ASC IIDA (JPC Architects), Crystal Daily ASC IIDA (Dark|Light Design)  and Jeff Miller IIDA (IA Interior Architects).

 

Winning Team:

IMG_2504

Note that team members are listed from left to right: Nicole (Chia Chi) Chang – AAU (Junior), Fabiola Martinez – ASU (Junior), Zoey Garland – University of Oregon (Senior), Julie Yuye Tian – Bellevue College (Senior),  Christine Oiwake – CSULB

1st Place_Team 5_Design Board_Screen Print

 

 

News Release – IIDA Chapters Announce Western Regional Student Design Charette

IIDA-WesternRegion_news-release-header-2016


Contact: Ken Morgan, IIDA – IIDA Oregon Chapter PR Chair,
503-952-1535, kenm@ankrommoisan.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 6, 2016

IIDA CHAPTERS ANNOUNCE
WESTERN REGIONAL STUDENT DESIGN CHARETTE

Seattle, WA – The International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Northern Pacific, Oregon, Northern California, Southern California and Southwest Chapters will hold the 2016 Western Region Student Design Charette in Seattle, WA on April 16th, 2016. Collectively, the five IIDA Western Region Chapters represent over 2,900 members in Alaska, Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington and 112 Interior Design programs.

CREATION OF THE STUDENT DESIGN CHARETTE EVENTS
In June of 2015, the four West Coast IIDA Chapters each hosted a local Student Design Charette and advanced the winning student teams on to Los Angeles, CA for the Inaugural West Coast competition. The winning West Coast Student team members were awarded a trip to Chicago to compete in the International IIDA Student Design Charette during NeoCon 2015. (Read about the 2015 winning student teams.)

This year, the IIDA Southwest Chapter was introduced into the IIDA Western Region chapters, representing over 320 members and 11 Interior Design programs. 2016 will be the first year for IIDA Southwest Chapter Student Members to participate in a Local Student Design Charette, with the opportunity to advance to the Western Region Student Design Charette. (Read about the 2016 winning student teams.)

ABOUT THE EVENTS
The Student Design Charette events are modeled much like the IIDA International Student Design Charette. At each level of competition, teams will be comprised of student members from different schools and grade levels, and of varying IIDA Chapters at the Western Region level.

Teams of student members will be solving a design challenge within 6 hours, using only hand drafting and rendering. The teams will present their design solutions to a panel of judges comprised of Western Region Interior Design Professionals. Following critiques of the solutions, the judges will select a winning team to advance to the next level of Interior Design Charette competition.

Over the weekend of April 16th, 2016 the Western Regional Student Design Charette, hosted in Seattle will consist of a dinner Pecha Kucha (short story), where 6 firms will present in 7 minutes or less. The charette day will occur on Saturday, when students will participate in solving a unique design problem before a jury, and an opportunity to take in the sights on Sunday.

ONGOING INFORMATION
Further coverage and event info will be posted on the Western Region host’s IIDA Northern Pacific Chapter Blog, at iida-northernpacific.org/blog.

NEW THIS YEAR

  • The IIDA Southwest Chapter was added to the IIDA Western Region.
  • The number of collective IIDA Chapter Members increased from 2,350 to over 2,900.
  • The number of Interior Design programs represented increased from 65 to 112

KEY DATES & LOCATIONS

  • Nov. 14th, 2015 – The  IIDA Southern California Chapter Local Student Design Charette occurred at LPA in Irvine, CA. (Read about the winning student teams).
  • Feb. 20th, 2016 – The IIDA Northern Pacific, Oregon, Northern California and Southwest Chapters will hold their Local Student Design Charettes
  • April 16th, 2016 – The IIDA Western Region Student Design Charette will be hosted at in Seattle, WA. Winning Students will be advanced to the International IIDA Student Design Charette in Chicago, IL.
  • June 14th, 2016 – International IIDA Student Design Charette occurs during NeoCon 2016 at the IIDA Headquarters in Chicago, IL.

# # #

About International Interior Design Association
IIDA is the Commercial Interior Design Association with a global reach. We support design professionals, industry affiliates, educators, students, firms, and their clients through our network of 13,000+ Members across 50 countries. IIDA advocates for advancements in education, design excellence, legislation, leadership, accreditation, and community outreach to increase the value and understanding of Interior Design as a profession that enhances business value and positively impacts the health and well-being of people’s lives every day. www.iida.org

HOST SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT: SOCAL CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

FINAL_Sponsor Spotlight Images - So Cal

“I see the Western Region Student Design Charette as part of the student’s educational development in preparation for their future professional life experiences. They have the opportunity, in front of highly respected industry leaders, to practice following the client’s instructions; meeting the client’s needs and design criteria; working with others; think on their feet; and they get to practicing their presentation skills.” – Aram Arakelian, Founder of Environmental Contracting Corporation

As the founding Chapter of Student Design Charette competitions, Southern California’s Firms, Industry Partners and Design firms have been gracious supporters of student programs within their Chapter and in the Western Region.  This year, they collaborated to raise the funding needed to become a Host Sponsor of the Western Region Student Design Charette. The IIDA Western Region is grateful to have the support of the following sponsors in providing this opportunity for IIDA Student Members:

GENERAL CONTRACTORS
Environmental Contracting Corporation

FURNITURE DEALERS/MANUFACTURERS
Pivot
Haworth
Western Office

DESIGNERS/FIRMS
Beckson Design Associates
Studio V Architecture
Klawiter
Neiman Studios
Wolcott Architecture and Interiors

SUBCONTRACTORS
Marcowall
IRS
Door Tec
Rountree Glass
Town & Country
O’Bryant
DFS
Rodin
AMC
Seeley Bro
Muir Chase
Kimble
Premier Acoustics