Opportunity knocks - but for whom?

Elegant and outspoken, New York architect Jack Travis boasts a client roster for the interior design aspect of his business that includes fashion designer Giorgio Armani, filmmaker Spike Lee, actor Wesley Snipes and the Sbarro family. Yet the 41-year-old entrepreneur knows only too well that for man other talented African-Americans, the road to success in this field has not been so clearly marked or so smoothly paved. In fact, few topics get Travis as animated as the glaring lack of ethnic diversity in the interior design industry.

A man who lives by his convictions, he resigned from the American Institute of Architecture last year after the group cut funding for its Minority Resources Committee Task Force. "The people in power just don't understand that African-American children need to see faces that look like their own in the positions they aspire to," says Travis. "We have to make ourselves more visible." The fact is, African-Americans are all but invisible in both interior design and architecture. Two years ago, BLACK ENTERPRISE reported that less than 1% of all of the licensed members of the American Institute of Architects are black. (See "Blueprints for Success," February 1991.)

Though this is starting to change, slowly, the number of African-American interior designers is also outrageously low. According to David Rice, founder of the Washington, D.C.-based Organization of Black Designers (OBD), at best, about 1,500--roughly 2%--of all interior designers are black. Despite the efforts of Rice, Travis and others to draw young talent into the field, the number is only creeping upward.

The interior design industry, generating about $31 billion a year, is one of the few creative fields projected to expand in the coming decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By the year 2005, the ranks could swell by 12.2%. This would mark a jump from the current 66,289 to 74,380 interior designers.

Why is less than one in 100 designers black? Harley Jones, an interior design professor for 2 5 years at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., speculates that some avoid the field because they mistakenly view it as "a game of the wealthy servicing the wealthy." Though the money can be dazzling, the work itself is "not fluff," says Shauna Stallworth, executive director of the Organization of Black Designers. "Interior design deals with the safety and welfare of people."

Not surprisingly then, it can be a lonely place for those African-Americans who do enter the field. Stallworth recalls walking through the cavernous halls of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, a massive wholesale design center with 1,200 showrooms, wondering where the other black designers were hiding. "I felt so isolated."

Without exception, leaders of the industry's trade organizations acknowledge the dearth, yet they seem totally baffled as to why it exists or how it can be changed. Joseph Pryweller, a spokesman for the American Society of Interior Designers, the largest such professional organization in the world, says he knows of only a handful of African-Americans among the group's 30,500 members. "We want more minority members," he says. "We don't know why their numbers are so low."

"I don't think people understand the depth of the problem or they don't see how they can help," says Travis.

While the industry at large is lagging in its efforts to attract minority members, African-Americans are making their own opportunities. In addition to OBD, the Society of African-American Interior Designers was founded last summer by Los Angeles designers Lisa Comfort, owner of Interior Obsession, and Beverly Miller of Beverly Miller & Associates. Such groups seek to attract young designers to the field and to increase public awareness of the black talent already out there. According to Comfort, 70% of the designers in her group have their own businesses. Many African-Americans start their own firms because salaries are low in-house and because it's still difficult for minorities to get hired at all.

"There is so much talent in the black community," says Comfort, "and the doors are opening, but, whereas others knock on 10 doors, we need to knock on 100." She encourages those with talent to go to design school and get the credentials employers want to see before they hire. "We also need to educate our own people that interior designers are not necessarily expensive--in fact they can save you money," she emphasizes. Retail markup is usually double, whereas designers, who purchase at a discount, typically charge a client just 30% above the wholesale price--"and save you from making mistakes," adds Comfort.

Whatever the reasons for the dearth of African-Americans in the profession, there is plenty of room for their contributions. The growing importance of workplace issues, health care and senior housing markets--coupled with the current crossover trend of Afrocentrism--render this field ripe with opportunity for blacks offering specialized services.

JACK TRAVIS: DIVERSITY ADVOCATE

A 1,500-square-foot loft on Manhattan's West Side is home to Jack Travis Architect (JTA), which grossed more than $250,000 last year. The space might be small for a five-person company, but, designed in muted tones influenced by African iconography, it is large in concept.

In a design culture dominated by Eurocentric sameness, what Travis envisions would reflect far more diversity in the future. The socially minded designer, who authored the book African-American Architects in Current Practice (Princeton Architecture Press, 1 99 1), is the first to acknowledge that his career has been studded with extraordinary opportunities, rare for anybody, but especially so for a black designer.

"African-Americans will not make true advances until their designs reflect their ethnicity," he says. His own success supports this view.

A Las Vegas native who received his bachelor's degree from Arizona State University's School of Architecture and a master's from the University of Illinois at Champaign, Travis was hired by Giorgio Armani to help renovate a boutique in 1985. He ended up doing the bulk of Armani's commercial design work in New York over the next five and a half years. He also helped formalize the design standards (set by Armani himself) for all Armani couture and Emporio stores throughout the country.

Immediately after his association with Armani ended in 1990, Travis met Spike Lee and was called in as a consultant on Jungl Fever. "It was the first time I met a client with a black face like mine, Travis recalls. He has since designed the interiors of Lee's five-story brownstone in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. Travis started renovation on Lee's retail fashion store, Spike's Joint, and designed a showroom. Both projects, however, were put on hold. Despite such highprofile contacts, Travis has not escaped the effects of the recession. So, for the moment, he has turned his attention to teaching at the Fashion Institute of Technology, writing two more books (including one targeted to children of color) and lecturing at numerous schools. In all these venues, he talks about the importance of African-American designers expressing their culture in their work.

VINCENT CARTER: AN INSIDER'S VIEW

Although most designers agree that running your own business can be lucrative, the risks involved may outweigh the financial gains. Starting salaries for designers right out of college generally fall in the low $20,000 range. However, in-house corporate positions pay experienced designers about $50,000 a year--and give designers more security. Even when corporations downsize, they need interior designers to convert space for another purpose or to help them use smaller spaces more efficiently.

Vincent Carter, 37, found safety from the buffets of the economy as an in-house facilities designer for the World Bank in Washington, D.C. While some in the design and banking industries might be stagnating, Carter is at work on 40 projects.

Carter also teaches interior design at Howard University and heads the Washington Metro chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers. He joined the World Bank straight out of the University of Wisconsin, where he received his master's degree in interior design. He landed the job in this large international corporation after excelling in a 1983 summer internship.

A decade later, Carter is an integral part of a team of 30 designers, engineers and architects who plan every office, library and specialty area used by the bank's staff of 10,000. The job is a formidable one, since the bank encompasses 21 buildings which are modified often. One of his most challenging projects involved converting a 30,000-square-foot, semi-outdoor parking garage into office space. "I see the projects through from their conception to their execution," he says. "It's a satisfying process." At a time when many businesses are downsizing, the World Bank is expanding, says Carter, who earns about $45,000 a year. The staff is continually being relocated because the bank must respond to the changing needs of the overseas areas it services--Africa, Russia and the Middle East. "A country may fall today, another one may be created tomorrow," says Carter. "We have to respond to these changes." Given global happenings of late, Carter is not likely to see a lull in his work load anytime soon.

CHANTAL VILMAR-MATTHEWS: KITCHENS, BATHS & BEYOND

Like the rest of us, independent interior designers have been hit by the recession, and many report their business has waned. Yet in some ways, the work has not diminished--but simply shifted. While tightening the building industry, the recession has actually opened up renovations. People who can't afford to build or buy new structures opt to fix up the old ones, and hire interior designers to help.

Chantal Vilmar-Matthews, 29, launched her interior design business out of a spare room in her two-bedroom apartment in New York in September 1992, with an eye toward filling a void on the design scene. "I offer a total kitchen and bathroom renovation," she says. "A lot of designers find the kitchen the toughest room in the house because it involves a lot of electrical work, plumbing and cabinetry. I think it's the most challenging room in the house."

Kitchen and bath renovations can also be the most expensive interior design work in a house, says Vilmar-Matthews, who holds a bachelor's degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Kitchens typically cost $35,000 to $50,000 to renovate, while baths run about $17,000 to $20,000, she says. Her firm, C. Matthews Architectural Design, has gotten off to a steady start in spite of the recession--or perhaps partly because of it. It's still less costly to renovate than to build anew and, as it happens, well-appointed kitchens and bathrooms raise the resale value of a home more than any other single factor.

Vilmar-Matthews handled about $70,000 worth of projects last year, netting about 30% of that. She expects her gross to double this year.

She learned about tricky construction jobs during six years working for Florence Perchuk & Associates, a top kitchen-and-bath design firm in New York. Not one to hide behind her drawing board, Vilmar-Matthews dove into the trenches when the construction phase of each project began. "I would go to the sites and deal with the electricians and the plumbers, she says. "I learned about construction firsthand."

Such experience has served her well. Last spring, she was tapped, along with some of the country's most formidable designers to work on the Heritage Designer Show House project in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. While the more experienced designers worked on splashier rooms, Vilmar-Matthews faced what was one of the most challenging assignments in the house: creating a bath out of attic storage space.

Although the space was fairly large, it was complicated by low, angled ceilings that rendered portions of the room unusable. She reduced some of the dead space by thickening a wall to create a large windowsill. She also designed a shower unit and a recessed area for the toilet. Using ceramic tiles, she fashioned a classic, diagonal checkerboard pattern on the walls. She chose tiles in black, white and beige, and visitors declared that these colors gave the room a classic, understated elegance. In short, Vilmar-Matthews achieved the "clean, crisp" look she was striving for. Says the up-and-comer: "I always aim to create a design that will look fresh in 10 years. "

IRIS GRANT: PROBLEM-SOLVER FOR SENIORS

With problems comes the need for solutions and, increasingly, designers are being looked to as problem-solvers. Industry insiders foresee increasing involvement in projects that stem from the pressing concerns of our changing world. New laws, for example, are mandating that corporate headquarters, personal residences and public spaces make certain structural alterations, and interior designers are expected to be at the forefront of these changes.

In particular, the passage in July 1990 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), requiring employers to provide work space free of physical barriers to disabled employees, is expected to spawn a bonanza of opportunities for designers in a niche known as "universal design." With the advent of ergonomics, designers are expected to play a vital role in addressing the need to create environments that enable all employees to work more comfortably and efficiently.

In July 1992, Iris Grant launched Logan Grant Inc. within a renovated Baltimore mill. She, along with her partner, Elaine Logan, wanted to develop a design business specializing in the projected boom area of the decade: health care, life care (senior housing) and institutional design. With just 19 months under her belt, Grant projects second-year gross revenues of $300,000. Future business is practically assured.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, hospital services will increase 29.7% by the year 2005, while home health care will increase by 127.8%. The design of so-called assisted living centers for senior citizens is expected to soar as baby boomers age. By the year 2,000, more than half the population will be 55 or older. "The health care market is on the verge of exploding for seniors and the handicapped, " predicts the 47-year-old Grant. So far her firm has completed projects for the American Red Cross, Mercy Medical Center and the University of Maryland Medical Systems.

Grant's road to financial success took a zigzag course. Her resume includes stints as a design assistant, bookkeeper and as vice president and director of design services for Innerspace, a title that carried with it a $40,000 salary.

Grant virtually stumbled into interior design work. Growing up, she was prodded to pursue such solid "womanly" professions as nursing, secretarial work or teaching. So she did, becoming a secretary with the Baltimore public schools. Years later, while taking an interior design course at Harford Community College, she felt she'd discovered her calling. She went on to receive an associate's degree in design and hasn't looked back since.

THE NEED FOR EXPOSURE

Again and again, designers and educators say that African-Americans need greater exposure to interior design. "The field is simply not promoted enough in the minority community," says Patrica Young, a professor of interior design at Howard University. In fact, some strides are being made. The Organization of Black Designers is establishing a national mentor program and a scholarship fund for highschool students. Such advances enable Jacqueline Tillery, a 22-year-old interior design major at Howard, to look to the future with determination and hope.

A senior who completed an internship in facilities design at the Environmental Protection Agency, Tillery plans to specialize in commercial design: "I tell my friends that interior design is a lot more than matching wallpaper and carpet samples and putting up curtains. I want to be considered a professional on the level of an architect or a doctor." If the field keeps progressing at its current pace, she will be.

DESIGNERS OF TOMORROW

Although interior designers are increasingly in demand, few people know exactly what they do. The television comedy Designing Women did little to portray the breadth and complexity of their work--or the fact that 48% of these professionals are men. Real-life interior designers are quick to distinguish themselves from interior decorators, who rarely have formal training and are more or less confined to accessorizing spaces. Designers manipulate the space itself, which requires at least a nodding acquaintance with architecture and engineering.

Designers study light, sound and heat to see how these elements affect people and their environment. They incorporate computers, facsimile machines and complex audiovisual equipment into their space plans. They must be able to communicate ideas visually and keep abreast of yearly developments in products, construction methods and new regulations.

While they usually focus on one of three specialties--residential, contract or commercial design--the variety under each umbrella appears virtually endless. Connecticut interior designer Theodora "Kim" Graham says she has designed everything from restaurants to beauty parlors to car dealerships. And categories do overlap, Cheryal Kearney of Los Angeles schedules her residential design projects around her work as a set decorator on such films as Coming to America and The Addams Family, plum assignments where union scale starts at $1,300 a week.

While in some states you can just hang out a shingle, other require licensing; and there is no question that the complexity of the work requires preparation and training. About two-thirds of the interior designers employed by firms are college graduates, with over a fourth earning some graduate school credits. Over a third earned their degree in interior design, while others majored in fine arts or liberal arts.

More and more states are requiring designers to take an intensive two-day test called the National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ). To date, more than 10,000 interior designers have been certified by the NCIDQ. To gain recognition as professionals, they are pushing for title acts, national certification, rigorous testing and stringent education requirements. Eighteen states have boards or agencies that regulate the design industry.