Corporate creativity.

When one thinks of an architecture firm that, like Interior Architects Inc., specializes in corporate design, the images that come to mind are those of blend colors and identical rows of cubicles. But according to the people who work at IA the uniqueness and liveliness of their work depends entirely on their enthusiasm for the project. "I believe there is design in every project," insists one of IA's principles Eric Regh. "And if you are honest with yourself and look for opportunities, there are always going to be those clients who make it all worthwhile."

And that seems to be the attitude of everyone at IA's New York office. According to Jennifer Marko, who has recently been promoted to principal, she wanted to work for Interior Architects precisely because of its creative approach to corporate design. After putting a great deal of her time into research on how corporate environments function, she came across an article in the Interiors magazine which mentioned IA. "In my research I came across an article that quoted Robby Cook, IA's senior vice president, on the topic that I was interested in," she explained. "So I tried to apply for a job at the firm."

It took Marko six months of meetings and weekly phone calls to finally get her foot in the door, but her enthusiasm for the firm was great. "I was very fascinated with Robby's view on corporate interiors," she said. "And since I had been working for a firm that had virtually no work for more than a year, it was nice to come to a company which was always doing something."

What Marko refers to is Interiors Architects' reputation as one of those firms that have enjoyed a fairy tale existence. The firm was founded in the mid-1980's in San Francisco and in less than twenty years has grown into a 16office, global, full-service giant. It has done work for such companies as Merrill Lynch, Pain Webber, Fidelity Investments, the Bank of America, and the Metropolitan Insurance Company. And Marko is by far not the only designer who actually dreamt of working at IA.

Regh abandoned his own architecture practice in Princeton, N.J., when IA's principals offered him a position at the firm. "Interior Architects offered me a chance to do larger than life work and the opportunity to work with professionals of the highest caliber," he explained. "This was just a larger arena in which to work in as an architect." That sounds like quite a compliment coming from a man who used to work for Michael Graves.

Marko, for her part, wasted no time in applying her creativity once she got her position. Within a few months, she got involved in developing a program called Workplace Strategies. What she had. done is incorporate her research on corporations and new corporate officing techniques into IA's design process. She and other designers would sit down with the clients' representatives and their real estate brokers and try to figure out what kind of a working environment would serve them the best, and how it related to the company's budget and real estate needs.

According to her, the program proved to be very successful. "What has changed over the last few years is that clients now realize that pre-design consulting can make their project successful or unsuccessful," she explained. "That's what it all boils down to -- providing an effective, efficient work environment that affects the clients' bottom line. The pre-design process needs to be done correctly in order for it to have a positive effect and that's what Workplace Strategies accomplish."

Part of IA's strategy in insuring that clients get full service has been its unusual structure. According to Marko and Regh, IA is unique in that it hires specialists in all fields from graphic designers to finance specialists so the firm can make the design process smoother and more efficient.

"The kind of work that we are able to do usually comes from the people we have and the talent they bear," explains Regh. "Since this is a big firm, we try to make it one of the more entrepreneurial places in the industry. We are not afraid of doing new things. So we hire people who have the social skills to work in a firm that is getting rid of its borders, where the work is project-centric and uses individuals in all of its 16 offices to make things happen."

After establishing the firm's reputation in the corporate world, however, Regh, who in his own words "has designed everything under the sun," would like to broaden his horizons. "Basically, we want to become a more design-oriented, higher-end firm," he says. "We earned a lot of respect in the corporate arena, and we want to take that into other industries, like retail, and institutional work, and restaurants."

Another IA principal, Anthony Saviano, seconds that opinion. "For the eight years I've been her, 95% of our work has been commercial office interiors, he explains. "And what we are trying to do now is architecture as it relates to commercial interiors, retail, and even residential and government work."

But does this mean that Marko will have to abandon Workplace Strategies? "Our new focus does not in any way mean that we will stop doing corporate interiors," Saviano says. "This has been our specialty since the firm's beginning." And Marko herself hopes to actually expand the program. "For the next two or three years I plan to enhance Workplace Strategies so they are even further advanced technology-wise," she says. "And eventually I would also like to offer some, kind of change management."