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FeedReturn To Grandeur: A Profile of the 2009 ASID/Joslyn Castle Trust Designer Showhouse
Much can change in thirty years. Children are born, raised and set loose upon the world. Washington’s power base can go from Democrat to Republican and back multiple times. The rockers of yesteryear are now crooning oldies. Change can be dizzying.
But change, balanced with consistency, is also to be embraced. The ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) Showhouse is a shining example of the harmony between change and continuity. The Showhouse is an institution in Omaha that has spanned three decades. This year’s Showhouse is the former Brandeis home, currently owned by the Maser family, on south 38th Street. It is a grand dame of the old Gold Coast neighborhood, and a fitting venue for the 32nd anniversary of the ASID Designer Showhouse.
When the first Designer Showhouse opened to the public in 1977, the Omaha Symphony sponsored it as a symphony fundraiser. Thus, it was duly dubbed the Symphony Showhouse. Recent years have seen a change in sponsorship. In 2008, Metro Magazine sponsored the event. This year the Joslyn Castle Trust is serving as fiscal agent of the project, allowing the ASID members to concentrate their efforts on the creative aspect of the fundraiser.
While sponsorship has altered over the Showhouse’s thirty-two year history, the premise of the fundraiser remains the same. Local ASID chapter members transform a metro area home. Participants are allotted a room in the house to design. Once completed, the Showhouse is opened to the public for touring and the money raised benefits the Joslyn Castle Trust. ASID receives a fee that provides for scholarships, community service projects and educational opportunities.
Over the years, both contemporary and historical dwellings have been designated as Designer Showhouse homes. Lisa McCoid, AIA, ASID is an interior designer with D3 Interiors and President Elect of the Nebraska/Iowa ASID chapter. This is McCoid’s fourth Showhouse, and she has found that the more historic the home, the greater success the fundraiser. Historic homes tell Omaha’s history and thus have a greater appeal, she and her colleagues have found. Passing through the butler’s pantry from the dining room and into the kitchen in an historic home is like walking back in time to another, more gentile era where dinner was the culmination of the day, not to be gobbled on the run or taken in front of the television but eaten leisurely and peppered liberally with conversion. Who doesn’t like to time travel?
Perhaps the popularity of historic venues is because new construction homes are so closely (and rightly) associated with Street of Dreams. Joe Harwood is President of Harwood Services, a residential and commercial painting company. He is an Industry Partner of ASID, sits on the ASID Board of Directors and has served as the Showhouse’s financial director for the past two years. Harwood believes the mass appeal of older homes stems from their inherent craftsmanship. The intricacy and high quality of the work, so often a part of home construction one hundred years ago, would be cost prohibitive today.
This year, 63 interior designers are pooling their talents to create a stunning Showhouse. The designers have excellent bones with which to work in the Maser house. Yet their job to flesh it out is nonetheless a challenge. The design firms are only given a color palette from which to launch their creations. “We work our concepts off these colors,” says McCoid. What window treatments, furniture styles, accessories and art a designer uses is flexible. Items that would remain with the home, like wall coverings or flooring, must meet with the home owners’ approval. Otherwise, designers have creative license with their space.
There are numerous challenges with an undertaking of this scale. Money is one factor. Each designer is given an allowance. If exceeded, the designer then absorbs that cost. Another is “coordinating the construction with the design,” acknowledges Becky Jackson, ASID, an interior designer with The Interior Design Firm and participant of this year’s Showhouse project. “It’s not just walking in and making it pretty,” she asserts. Industry Partner’s, or IP, workers have had to repair walls and fit new plumbing fixtures in the home. New flooring had to be constructed on existing joints in two bathrooms.
Of course, last minute glitches are not all that surprising. Interior designer Marilyn Hansen, FASID, a 32 year veteran and owner of The Designers, has seen her share of mishaps. Hansen said one year they had to conduct candlelight tours of the Showhouse due to faulty wiring. Dusk had set in, making it difficult to see indoors. So, designers turned on all the lights, unaware that the circuit breaker could not handle such a surge of power. Instantly, the house was cloaked in darkness. “Upstairs guests were feeling their way downstairs while we lit candles and found fuses,” recalls a laughing Hansen.
One wonders how it all comes together in the end with so many different designers and IP workers toiling away in tight quarters. Though Harwood concedes that the last three weeks are a little harried, they manage to create a beautiful end product. “It’s gratifying to see the before and after,” Jackson adds. She enjoys seeing other designers’ work, gaining inspiration from their creativity.
Education is a large component of the ASID Showhouse. “The Showhouse project is more than a fundraising project; it is a way for our members to work collectively to present to the community the importance of education, experience and professionalism in the design profession,” states Leo Daly’s Kim Ferguson, ASID, LEED AP and the Nebraska/Iowa ASID President. Given the large number of interior designers participating, the public benefits from live exposure to multiple design styles.
Guests learn what designers work with old homes and “old home dwellers get ideas from another old home,” Hansen adds. She says that over the Showhouse’s evolution, designers became much more concerned with “doing it right” instead of just having fun. She cites how one designer placed a mannequin in a bathtub full of balloons as an example of this. Today, the work guests see at the Showhouse “sets the bar higher than HGTV,” says Hansen.
Ferguson concurs: “Showhouse projects provide an outlet for our designers to demonstrate their talents and share the value of thoughtful, personally tailored design. It is rewarding for all to see the transformation that occurs with a Showhouse project.”
The designer’s themselves staff the rooms during the public tours, fielding questions and hearing comments. This is one aspect McCoid especially enjoys. “It’s very rewarding to hear positive feedback,” she comments. She also welcomes its educational opportunity: “The Showhouse allows the public to have a better understanding of what we do as designers.”
Monies raised from the fundraiser support other ASID projects, like student enrichment programs. Becky Rea, ASID, a designer with Lincoln’s Swanson Interiors, is the Professional Development Director of the Nebraska/Iowa Chapter of ASID. Cultivating a strong student population is a focus of ASID. “After all, they are the future of our organization and our profession,” Rea asserts. The chapter hosts a yearly Student Career Day at which design students hear guest speakers, interact with seasoned professionals, and hone their interview skills at mock interviews. ASID also offers a Third Year Scholarship, offered to ASID student members in their third year of Interior Design. “Applicants submit a project, explaining the project scope, needs and how they met the needs. They are judged and selected by a panel of professional interior designers, industry partners and educators,” Rea explains.
Continuing education for current design professionals is another area of emphasis with ASID. The national level of ASID provides the STEP Workshop to help prepare practitioner members for the NCIDQ exam. The Nebraska/Iowa Chapter hosts two workshops a year. Scholarships for those sitting for the exam are available as well.
Giving back to the community is important to ASID. In recent years, the local chapter’s focus has been The Friendship Program. The Friendship Program is an adult day care for elderly and special needs adults. It first came to ASID’s attention in 2005. Located in the former Baker’s supermarket on 73rd and Maple Street, it badly needed a facelift. ASID oversaw the remodeling of its main lobby that first year and shifted its attention to the bathrooms the second year. For the past two years, it has concentrated on the common rooms. ASID and IP members joined forces, first to fund the improvements through wine tasting parties and golf outings and then to paint the common rooms on weekends off. New chairs for The Friendship Program participants were also donated.
From shag carpeting and flocked wall paper to Persian rugs and faux finishes, the ASID Designer Showhouse has illustrated the latest in interior design for the past thirty-two years. It is a project that fits ASID’s mission of educating and giving back to the community well. An old house is given new life. The public is educated, entertained and inspired. Future ASID professionals are encouraged. And local charities are supported. Yes, Becky Jackson was right when she said the Showhouse was “more than just making it pretty.”
