I owe my status as a LEED AP to Sholem Prasow, even though I had never met him until recently. During the economic freefall that was happening during the early months of 2009, I joined hundreds of other people across the US, Canada and other parts of the world, in each of our respective Teknion showro...

Now more than ever before in history, good design is global design. The plurality of cultures, generations and stylistic influences in modern workplaces has escalated and evolved in leaps and bounds since the office cubicle was first institutionalized across the corporate landscape. Responsible for ...

What is design but a series of interrelated networks? For a people-focused industry like ours, one’s network is literally one’s lifeline. Like any other system of connections, a social network needs to be maintained and cultivated in order to continue to be relevant and vital ...

In every built environment, collaboration among various trades and philosophies is required not only to build the space, but also for the space to function as intended after construction. At its heart, collaboration is recursive, meaning one or more actions in the process invokes or refers to the colla...

Some design firms have had a global reach and international clientele for decades. Other firms are exploring available international markets and the challenges of working on the worldwide stage for these past few difficult financial years. Whether firms have chosen to design projec...

A mark of good design, sustainable or otherwise, is that it benefits all people across society. Social responsibility is becoming a growing issue within the sustainable movement; it seeks to cultivate a more holistic view of the environment that weighs people’s needs equally with t...

It’s no secret that one of the fundamental rules of real estate is: location, location, location. When it comes to furniture, a slight variation of the same concept is used: context is everything. The showrooms at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago during NeoCon do an outstanding job of illustr...

In this multifaceted age of design, nothing is off limits. Both clients and designers now have the technology and the capability to either source or create objects and spaces previously out of reach or simply unfeasible. Operating in this wide-open creative playing field is Brian Graham, a San Franc...

The themes, ideas and products that were introduced during this year’s NeoCon are important early indicators of how, where and why the workplace is moving in its current direction; some of the many delights of this year’s NeoCon were: a state of relaxed collaboration and engagement with t...

Thirty years ago, the world’s consciousness was just starting to get acquainted with terms like “Global Village” but we had not begun to live in one yet; technology was just beginning to show clues of its world-shrinking potential, and many global corporations were not yet aware of how to l...

Certain events make the local New York design community prove its dedication to design more than others, and the annual IIDA Leaders Breakfast is certainly one of them. This is not intended to be a disparaging remark; creating a path through our current economic climate is not an eas...

For many of us, the multi-faceted world of design has a tendency to meld one’s career with a certain lifestyle. The framework of professionals that is the design community attracts a host people with a range of skills that more often than not blurs the line between solving problems and c...

Within the contract furniture market, a company’s design legacy is their creative currency as well as their operational foundation. Using a stable of iconic designs, benchmarks can be set for future company actions as well as new product...

By late January, every New Year has usually revealed some of its business personality traits, or at least clues that indicate a likely speed and direction for all industries and the built environment as we move forward. The Contract ...

The New York design community comes together in many creative ways throughout the year; a relatively new tradition within the industry is the IIDA Sustainable Design Forum Quilt Auction. Now in its third year, the idea originated with indu...

Each community is defined by its shared thoughts, actions and intentions. Holiday events, especially at the end of the year, have a tendency to galvanize communities and enable them to share their core values with surrounding neighborhoods. The N...

It’s ironic that instead of being a permanent physical location, the only Hall of Fame for the interior design profession is a black tie event that happens only once a year. (We don’t even have to discuss that event is a marketing and a reve...

For many interior designers, as soon as the hard work of creating a new space to fit their client’s needs and business objectives is finished and orders for furniture are placed, the critical task of fine-tuning the atmosphere for the de...

When an exciting business opportunity presents itself and experienced design professionals choose to merge their talents and start a firm together, no matter how exciting the idea may sound, the process generally doesn’t happen unless the gr...

A critical component of any built environment includes a sincere engagement with local site conditions. Just what form that engagement takes depends on the individual participation of the many different stakeholders that parti...

A recent officeinsight article reporting on a lecture by John Peterson of Public Architecture (see OI 11.22.10 The Power of pro bono: Teknion Sponsors Public Architecture in Atlanta) outlined the process and incentives a design firm may...

The continuous discovery and implementation of innovation is a powerful motivator that keeps most of us regularly engaged with the design industry. Not only is it what keeps our clients coming back to us, innovations that deal with how we think about design and architecture move our entire ind...

In the ever-changing world of corporate interior design, gauging an accurate history of such a temporal working practice is difficult; a ten-year lease is a lifetime; going back 30 or 40 years is so many design generations that few survivors exist to tell an accurate story; further than t...

As the world becomes increasingly more connected, and, by default, more social, the inherent problem-solving systems that design-based concepts bring to the global table become more meaningful to an ever-increasing group of people. In order to get a clearer picture of what globa...

Today’s interior designer has a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips that can inform and inspire them. Within the context of contemporary design and culture, many of us look to approach our clients’ problems with unique solutions custom fit to their specific needs. Many of the solutions we f...

When design firms begin to consider a more virtual approach to their way of working, an often overlooked advantage of establishing a virtual environment is the inherently sustainable practice of reducing their use of ...

In this day and age, if you are a well-known designer, setting the standard for your vision and the execution of interior design projects is one thing, but when sights are set for success in adjacent markets like furniture...

It’s always a good sign for the industry when new manufacturers enter our marketplace. Late last month, Italian lighting manufacturer iGuzzini opened its very first showroom in the United States. Located at 60 Madison...

It's no secret that businesses that cater to interior design have a reputation for high employee turnover. Whether it is a design firm, manufacturer or furniture dealer, employee turnover is normal and expected. A compreh...

When the business of design intersects with the concept of design as a cultural imperative, it is usually not an accident. To get the synergy to work properly and last longer than a single project, the studio practicing this approa...

Where is design headed? Just what exactly is good design today, and how can anyone qualify it? In recent years, design has become more integrated and elevated in the public’s collective psyche. During a panel discussion at the...

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