NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN WINTER/SPRING 2020 | II atelierNew York School of Interior Design Haven Makers Three Alumni Share Their Passion for Placemaking in Residential Design WELCOME I often speak of NYSID’s extraordinary job placement statistics: 100 percent of NYSID’s graduate and undergraduate students are employed or pursuing further study within six months of graduation. One of our features in this issue, “5 Transformative Internships,” provides a glimpse into what’s behind those statistics. Our students are getting the internships that lead to great jobs because they’re well prepared, technologically versatile, and have strong portfolios, but also because of you, our community. Our students and recent graduates often get a foot in the door because NYSID alumni, at firms throughout the industry, crack the door open for them. One of the benefits of a NYSID education is a tightly knit community that extends through generations and is passionate about design in all its forms. Since our inception, we have developed alongside the field of interior design, working to establish standards that raise the bar of the profession. Ours is a profession invented by creative risk-takers who saw opportunity where others saw obstacles, which you can read about in “Operating Within the System, and Outside of It.” This interview with faculty member Alexis Barr offers a taste of our popular online course that looks back at the fascinating history of the profession. It’s fitting that this atelier course is offered online, because NYSID started as a mail correspondence course in 1916. We were empowering distance learners then, and we’re doing it now. NYSID’s WINTER/SPRING 2020 VOL. 2 / NO. 1 online programs are a growth area for the College, and one reason we’re having a PRESIDENT strong year in terms of enrollment. David Sprouls The Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) just reaccredited NYSID’s BFA CHIEF OF STAFF and MFA-1 programs, a testament to the fact that our curriculum is always evolving, David Owens-Hill both driving and responding to ongoing changes in design. We’re in the beginning EDITORIAL AND ART DIRECTOR stages of a self-study and a strategic planning process leading up to our Middle States Christopher Spinelli Commission on Higher Education accreditation review. We will use this process CONTRIBUTING WRITERS to propel us toward our goals, one of which is strengthening our ties to you, our Laura Catlan extended community. Jennifer Dorr For our cover story, “Haven Makers,” we’ve profiled three alumni, all NYSID PHOTOGRAPHY faculty members, who are residential design entrepreneurs and dynamic teachers. Matthew Carasella Residential design is in our DNA as a college, and half of our studios in the BFA Jason Gardner Mark La Rosa program are devoted to it. We require our students to study residential design because Matthew Septimus we have always understood that designing the home is a strong foundation for every PRINTING form of interior design. It teaches students to pay attention to the intimacy of detail JMT Communications and decoration, and the potential for a space to comfort and restore. The overlap Jeff Tucker, President between different types of design is growing. Hospitals, for example, are applying ADDITIONAL NYSID STRATEGIC principles of residential design to create groundbreaking spaces that contribute to COMMUNICATIONS SUPPORT healing. NYSID graduates are benefiting from their exposure to every type of interior Hannah Batren design, and from their adaptability. Phyllis Greer This magazine is for and about the NYSID community, and we want to hear from New York School of Interior Design you. Tell us about your exciting projects. Share your opinions about what’s going on 170 East 70 Street in the industry. Send your ideas to [email protected]. You help us shape the next New York, NY 10021 generation of interior designers, and we thank you for it. Atelier is published twice a year by the Office of External Relations for the alumni and friends of the New York School of Interior Design. It is printed on recycled paper with vegetable inks. For more information or to submit story ideas or comments, email [email protected]. David T. Sprouls, President CONTENTS FEATURES 10 16 Haven Makers Working Within the System, Three Alumni Design Homes That and Outside of It Comfort and Restore Our Intriguing Course on the History of the Interior Design Profession 24 26 Designing Independence 5 Transformative5 Internships Nate Berkus and “My Home in Sight” Inside Scoop on Coveted Internships DEPARTMENTS 2 VISUAL THINKER 34 PORTFOLIO 4 LAYOUT 38 GIVING 20 CELEBRATIONS 39 LEADERSHIP ON THE COVER Lawrence Levy ’05 (BFA), Stefan Steil ’08 (BFA) / 32 SENIOR STORY 40 NEXT AT NYSID ’10 (MFA-2), and Alejandra Munizaga ’11 (BFA) standing on the spiral staircase leading to the mezzanine level of the Mario Buatta Materials Atelier in the East 70th Street building. VISUAL THINKER / Design Deconstructed Michelle Jacobson ’18 (MPS-S), NCIDQ, WELL AP, LEED AP ID+C, ASID, was working on this project while she was still in school. An interior designer with 20 years experience, her studies in sustainability at NYSID have changed her perspective on what’s possible in design. Minimalist Kitchen Michelle Jacobson, principal of ML Jacobson Design, was called in for a gut renovation of this kitchen after it flooded. She normally reuses as much as possible, but the space had to be opened to the studs. Her clients were recent empty nesters in their 60s who expressed that they love “clean lines, stainless steel, and modern furniture, but also the warmth of wood and antiques.” Jacobson often uses arresting artwork, but this couple wanted views to the outdoors—the forest, sky, and wildlife—to dominate. They requested clutterless countertops and a space in which everything is tucked away. The clients wanted the kitchen to convert into a party space when the kids came home for the holidays. The key to the clean, balanced look of this kitchen is the custom walnut cabinetry set against white walls and marble counters. Jacobson lets us in on her thinking, sourcing, and sustainable choices here. JENNYFER PARRA The windows and skylights have a low-E glazing, 1 which is spectrally selective and helps to make the space energy efficient all year by blocking heat and radiation in the summer and insulating in 1 the winter. The walls are painted with low-VOC Benjamin 2 Moore Aura Paint in Pure White. 2 Jacobson salvaged these pears from a forgotten 3 3 corner of another room because “they added organic shape to the horizontal and vertical lines of the cabinetry and counter.” 4 The cabinetry was made by Millennium Cabinetry 4 in Michigan. Jacobson says, “I chose walnut so the flat panels would have movement. An entire wood kitchen seemed too dark so we broke it up with high-gloss white panels.” 5 The dark brown oak floors are stained with a water- 5 based product. “The darkness of the flooring helps ground the soaring space and white walls,” says Jacobson. BETH SINGER LAYOUT / New and Notable at NYSID NYSID’s curricula and offerings are evolving to push the standards of interior design education further. BOARD UPDATES Cheryl Durst and Eric Gering Join Board of Trustees NYSID is thrilled to announce the appointment of Cheryl Durst, FIIDA, LEED, executive vice president and chief executive officer of IIDA (The Commercial Interior Design Association), and architect Eric Gering to the New York School of Interior Design’s Board of Trustees. Durst brings a plethora of skills, perspectives, and contacts to the College. She’s known for her fiscal acumen and organizational leadership skills, having taken the IIDA from the brink of bankruptcy in 1998 to the thriving organization it is today. She also curates and publishes Perspective, the association’s thought leadership journal. She holds dual bachelor degrees in journalism and economics from Boston University. She has been referred to by Interior Design magazine as “an ambassador for innovation and expansion, and a visionary strategist.” Eric Gering has been appointed to the role of faculty trustee on NYSID’s Board of Trustees. Gering is well suited to represent the faculty, as he has been a respected faculty member of NYSID since 2000. He has been an architect in private practice for two decades, and before that worked for Gensler, Fox and Fowle, Alfredo de Vido, and Sidney Phillip Gilbert. He has also served as a board member on the Manhattan Landmarks Committee. CHERYL DURST FACULTY & CURRICULUM MFA-1 & BFA Attain CIDA Accreditation Again The Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) reaccredited NYSID’s two professional-level programs, the MFA-1 and the BFA, in 2019. CIDA, an independent, nonprofit accreditation organization, exists to ensure that there are reliable standards in professional-level interior design education programs in the United States and internationally. The accreditation is an important accomplishment, and now that the process is over, Ellen Fisher, NYSID’s vice president for academic affairs and dean, wants to keep pushing forward. “We’re collecting information about trends and directions in practice so we can fold this into our thinking about revisions to the curriculum,” she says. “We research the world of practice so our students will be prepared for the next three to five years.” LEFT: UNDERGRADUATE WORK ON DISPLAY IN THE WHITON GALLERY DURING THE CIDA SITE VISIT. NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN WINTER/SPRING 2020 | 5 Barbara Weinreich Becomes New ICPS Director Ashley Rose Director of Undergraduate Brings Her Business Lens Programs Alumna Ashley Rose ’10 (BFA) has After teaching at NYSID since 2008, worked on the business, sales, and Barbara Weinreich, an architect marketing end of the luxury design and with deep experience in the antiques field since her graduation nine retail and residential sectors, has years ago, and this makes her a great fit ascended to the position of director to lead NYSID’s Institute for Continuing of undergraduate programs.