Interior designer-architect collaboration aids projects

Geoffrey Butler, president of Butler, Rosenbury & Partners, said that more than 20 years ago, it was rare to involve interior designers on projects at the beginning, but interior designers now work with architects regularly, and many are on staff at the same firms.

“Professionally, we as architects are starting to embrace more what they can do and what they can offer to a project, and are taking advantage of that to provide more for our clients,” Butler said. “You’re seeing better architecture, better interiors and better quality all around as a result of that.”

Jana Funk, one of four architects at Hood-Rich, is also an interior designer. Including interior designers in the entire process, she said, “makes for a better, more complete project.”

For interior designers, working on a project is about more than choosing paint colors and throw pillows.

“There are so many health and safety issues that designers affect,” said Tami McCune, president of the 50-member Springfield Design Association.

As director of design for Hagerman New Urbanism, McCune works with four architects.

“We’re affecting things like fire ratings of fabrics and carpeting, finishes, slip resistance of flooring, air quality, HVAC, movement and access when you’re planning furnishings, lighting levels and quality ergonomics, which is a very large issue in the industry.”

An architect and an interior designer augment each other, enhancing the work of both, McCune said.

“The more opportunities that you can see for stressing certain design elements can be achieved the sooner a designer gets involved in a project.”

Early bird

McCune recommends partnering early on.

“Typically you would want to bring members of your team who would be involved in a project in on the interview process to establish who will be working on a job, and it’s nice for clients to get to meet everyone and have a dialogue with them so they don’t feel like they’re working with a stranger when it comes time for that individual to get involved,” she said.

Taking advantage of an interior designer’s knowledge can be a money-saver, according to Funk.

“As you get into more of the detailed work, finishes, that sort of thing, where they can make material selections for certain applications that would be more beneficial for the owner over a long period of time, looking at different material costs and looking at the life cycle of those costs can save the owner money over time,” Funk said.

A designer’s input also has the potential to save time for both the architect and the client.

“They can continue doing the business that they do,” McCune said. “(A client) is much better at continuing to do his job and consulting with me in meetings and we cover it and I make sure he’s happy, and then he can continue to do his job.”

Without the input of a designer, McCune said, a client would receive boxes of samples to choose from.

“They would be given a timeline to select everything from the carpeting and paint colors to their laminate. That’s rather daunting for someone who’s not familiar with all of those things, and getting them all to meld together and look the way you want it to look is incredibly difficult,” she said.

In-house or outsource?

When an architect is ready to find an interior designer for a project, sometimes, they need look no further than the building they’re in.

Interior designers have been on the staff at Butler, Rosenbury & Partners for 20 years, and there are now four on staff with the company. Butler said that he doesn’t see how the firm would get by without them.

“The benefit that we have by having the interior designers in our office is their knowledge of the finishes, the durability of them, the cost.

The availability of specialized types of finishes is far, far above what a typical architect would know and have access to,” he said.

Flexible planning

But having on-staff interior designers doesn’t necessarily limit clients’ options. Many firms are flexible when a client wants to involve an interior designer they have used in the past rather than the designer on staff.

“We don’t have a problem with that,” Funk said. “All of our engineering – mechanical and electrical – is done on a consultant basis as well. It’s really no different from that.”

In such arrangements, clients contract with interior designers independently.

“Our preference would be to use our people because we know their skills, we know their talents, we know where they are – they’re right over there – and we know what they can do and when they can do it. It’s easier for us to coordinate that work,” Butler said.

Communication

Communication via e-mail is helpful, he said, but working with a consulting interior designer rather than in-house help adds extra steps to the process. “It’s a challenge schedule-wise in that they don’t have access to the drawings that we’re working on, so we have to continually send them updated drawings and we have to continually request information from them,” Butler said.

“Even our smaller projects – because we do provide interior design to a certain level on all projects as part of our basic services – they get benefit of the interior designer and the resources that those interior designers have,” he added.

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