IIDA – Perspective Fall/Winter 2019 - 49

Design will always
remain intuitive and personal.
It's attached to emotion, it's
a sensory experience, and it's
something that you have to be
passionate about."
-Billy Quimby

"
"

The passion for problemsolving and unraveling new ideas
will always be a part of design."
-Moira Gannon Denson, IIDA

The focus on humanity,
our planet, and our people:
Those are the things that should
never change in my mind. The
focus must always come back
to that, no matter what we
do as designers, no matter
what happens in the world.
Design is not anything if those
considerations are not always
kept in mind."
-Adelia C. Schleusz, IIDA, RID

Much of that preparation comes down to adequately
educating clients and stakeholders. "The biggest
challenges are initially getting people to do something
differently than they've always done it in the past,"
Halter says.
On the St. Regis project, for example, he and his team
wanted to move the building's transformers-typically
buried adjacent to the building-to the second floor so
they wouldn't be damaged or put out of service in the face
of a massive storm or flooding.
"We proposed a new way of thinking about something
that hadn't really been done, but the utility company was
very cooperative," he says. "Very early in the process, we
went through a series of communications with the utility,
the city, and the state to talk about how we could change
the way we normally do things to improve not only our
design, but maybe to set a new standard for other projects
in the future."

Data Digs In
As with materials, designers are also exploring new ways
of using data. In a 2019 NewVantage Partners study, 92%

of technology and business executives reported the
pace of big data adoption is accelerating. By harnessing
the right information, designers can make faster
decisions, design better spaces, and better serve users.
WeWork, for example, uses data analytics to arrange
the offices it manages.
The payoff could be huge, says Aguanno. "Data science
or artificial intelligence might be able to help us provide
the true perspectives for how to answer certain problems
that aren't based on our own individual intuition or bias,
but actually that may have some real rational bearing."
But making data a central part of the design process
requires pressing the restart button.
"When you bring in big data, it means you have more
voices at the table," Denson says. "It means you have to
rely on those who generate the data, and then you have
to talk to them and understand how to ask the questions
about the data. And that's a new role for design."
It's a good thing there's a fresh batch of new designers
conversant on big data ready for action. Denson, for one,
thinks younger designers are up to the job.

Next-Gen Thinking
Millennials and Gen Z aren't just bringing new takes on
data and technology. They're also forcing a rethinking of
societal and workforce norms. For example, a John Zogby
Strategies survey found millennials and Gen Z ranked
diversity over merit in creating the ideal workplace.
"Our students are more diverse and more inclusive as a
body than the industry," says Denson. As these designers
enter the field, they're introducing new philosophies-
and forcing the companies they work for to do the
same. Many major firms, including Foster+Partners,
AECOM, HOK, and Boogertman + Partners, have
formally committed to closing the gender pay gap in their
organizations, for example.
The renewed attention to diversity and inclusion
is also influencing best practices. Quimby, who
often works in hotel and hospitality, points to the
mainstreaming of non-gender specific restrooms.
"In the past, projects seemed to address diversity or
inclusion as more of an afterthought," explains Quimby,
"a requirement that is tacked on or pushed somewhere
off in a corner." But that's no longer the case, and
he predicts the idea of male and female designated
bathrooms will gradually phase out.
David Bowie once said he didn't know where he was
going next, "but I promise it won't be boring." Forwardlooking designers know the same is true of their industry.
Change isn't something to be feared, but rather the fuel
they need to supercharge creativity and innovation across
the industry. n

fall/winter 2019

perspective

IIDA – Perspective Fall/Winter 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IIDA – Perspective Fall/Winter 2019