Contract - January/February 2016 - 18

PHOTO: MEG WALTON

EDITORIAL

Honoring Designers That Transform Lives

With this year's presentation of the 37th Annual Interiors Awards, we
focus on Design with a capital D. From the Designer of the Year to the
Legend Award winners to the projects that have won Interiors Awards,
the people and the projects are all about transformational design.
The 37th Designer of the Year, Todd Heiser, IIDA (page 42),
has a remarkable breadth of work, and his ability to design interiors
resonates with the confluence of technology, information, and
of-the-moment zeitgeist. Heiser, a design principal in the Chicago
office of Gensler and a firmwide consumer products practice area
leader, is the first Designer of the Year from that firm. He has been with
Gensler for a decade, and his notable projects include coworking
startup incubators 1871, Matter, and The Garage at Northwestern
University-projects with purpose for clients that we could not even
conceive of a decade ago. With those clients, he is establishing new
precedents, which are aspirational examples for what workplace
interiors can be.
Heiser's corporate clients while at Gensler have included Procter
& Gamble, Motorola Mobility, and dunnhumby. This year, he will be
designing new headquarters for the International Interior Design
Association (IIDA). And his Gensler work has range, with hospitality
interiors, and the beautiful Gratz Center at Fourth Presbyterian Church
in Chicago, which beckons worshippers to an emotional, spiritual,
transformational realm.
His previous experience includes years at The Environments Group
in Chicago (since acquired by Perkins+Will) and as a designer at his
alma mater, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), where
he was on the design team that renovated multiple buildings to create
SCAD's wonderful urban campus. He has also taught design at schools
in Chicago. Beth Weaver, Contract magazine's associate art director who
designed this very issue you are reading, was once a student of Heiser.
Going way back, Heiser started his career as a designer of
themed hospitality interiors for brands such as Rainforest Cafe and
Sega Gameworks in the early 1990s. Designing with animatronic animals,
faux forests, and giant aquariums may seem funny, and maybe tacky,
but doing that as a young designer gave Heiser the chance to think
differently and to essentially have fun with design. In that way, those
early years really were vital in launching his career. Whether it is a
workplace or hotel, his interiors are all imbued with an element of surprise.
18

As I select the Designer of the Year, I honor a recipient "on the
cusp" of more greatness. Heiser is all that. While he has been a design
leader within Gensler and within the profession, I am certain that Heiser
will be doing much more on a broader scale that will be impactful
for his clients, specifically, and for design practice, generally.
Heiser's savvy approach to design is quite similar to that of
our Legend Award recipients, Stanley Felderman and Nancy Keatinge
(page 54). This husband-and-wife team has built a rich portfolio of
workplace and hospitality interiors, as well as products and other design
concepts. Felderman made his mark 45 years ago with the fantastical
Fabergé interior (page 136). Together, Felderman and Keatinge have
established a practice that has been a true partnership for three
decades. Their Los Angeles-based firm Felderman Keatinge & Associates
has completed projects for clients including MTV Networks, Disney,
Legendary Pictures, iCrete, and numerous other entertainment
companies and law firms. And they have designed product for major
companies including Steelcase, Haworth, Herman Miller, and Interface,
among others.
The first partners in practice to be recipients of the Legend
Award, Felderman and Keatinge design humane, future-forward
interiors that fully consider client needs. As we prepared for this issue
and the awards event, I was struck by the number of practitioners
and industry leaders that expressed great respect for Felderman and
Keatinge as designers, as people, and as leaders.
I was pleased to honor Felderman and Keatinge, Heiser, and
each of the winning projects at the Interiors Awards Breakfast in front
of more than 600 people in New York on January 29. Each of the
14 exemplary projects that have won Interiors Awards (page 70)
is an outstanding example of the ability of designers to transform lives
and livelihoods through design. Enjoy this issue!
Sincerely,
John Czarnecki, Assoc. AIA, Hon. IIDA
Editor in Chief
Visit contractdesign.com/editorial to read all of Editor in Chief
John Czarnecki's editorials
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Contract - January/February 2016

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