Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Interior Designers (ok and architects) ROCK!

So, today after having experienced Virginia's second largest earthquake in recorded history I am reminded how much WE ROCK!
Well, do I really have to explain myself?  I guess I need to tell you the story of how I experienced the historic event today.  Amanda, my associate designer, and I were heading down to the Washington Design Center today and we were at a stop-light one block away from it when the earthquake hit.  Since the Washington Design Center is surrounded by a hot bed of construction we assumed that a crane was in demolition mode.  However, we realized there was a problem when we turned the corner to go down into the parking garage and a security guard blocked our way, yelling at us to leave, they were evacuating the building.  Then we noticed that there were hundreds, no thousands, of people pouring out of the buildings around us.
Now, you may or may not know that there is a lot more to being an interior designer than decorating.  We study and implement egress, ADA and fire codes (among others) in our interiors.  These skills don't get talked about often because they are not the glamorous part of our job.  But the importance of these talents were exemplified today when I saw all those people swelling into the streets in just seconds after the quake hit.  Clearly the egress plans worked.  It was an amazing site.  And all due to us designers (ok and architects)!  We have incredibly important jobs that affect the way that people experience their surroundings.  Hooray for us!

These are some of my well loved and post-it laden resources.

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