Ranking of interior designers changes its pattern.

But the field shifts beneath Gensler & Associates' feet

Dressing up some of Los Angeles' mega-corporations means top dollars for commercial interior design firms, the top 25 largest of which dot the fabric of this week's List.

Gensler & Associates and Cole Martinez Curtis & Associates pulled down the No. 1 and 2 spots again on a List which reveals much movement from the previous year (see The List on page 42).

The total interior design billings, which for most firms changed significantly since the last List, may not represent the total revenues since some firms provide other services as well. However, these top 25 firms cumulatively posted billings of about $95 million, up slightly from the previous year's $93.7 million.

Gensler & Associates in Los Angeles posted a figure of $12 million in billings for 1990, unchanged from the previous year. Total revenues for 1990 were approximately $20 million.

Columbia Pictures, now Sony Pictures, has been moving from its Burbank location to the Culver City lot "over the past couple of years and will continue for a couple more," said Edward Friedrichs, vice president and managing principal at the firm. "We're providing a variety of services for them," including masterplanning for the site, infrastructure services, landscape improvement and space planning.

Although Gensler remained steady at $12 million for the last two years, the projection for the recession-ravaged 1991 fiscal year is uncertain. "I suspect they'll be about the same," said Friedrichs. "The change for us has been in our business mix." He noted that the firm has seen an increase in hospitality and airport business, pointing out the remodeling of the Beverly Hills Hotel and some interior work at the expanding Palm Springs Airport as two current projects. And most new clients are requesting architectural as well as interior design services, he said.

Close behind on The List at $10.5 million was Cole Martinez Curtis of Marina del Rey. One of the firm's top projects was the 500,000-square-foot Mattel Inc. headquarters in Culver City, which was completed in January. According to Joel Curtis, it was a "low-budget job of under $50 per square foot."

More recently, the firm provided planning and design services for Candle Corp.'s 140,000-square-foot abode at the Water Garden in Santa Monica.

The firm's 1990 billings, which dropped from the previous year's $10.7 million, represent the company's entire annual revenue.

Ranked a distant third, Hirsch/Bedner Associates in Santa Monica nevertheless posted one of the largest profits in the ranking -- $2.2 million. According to David Weisberg, director of the L.A. office, the firm "has a lot of offshore clients in Asia and Japan," areas which were not adversely affected by the recession.

The firm's $6.7 million in billings represents "roughly 50 percent" of the company's business, he said. Hirsch/Bedner, which wasn't ranked on last year's List, specializes in the hospitality industry and is currently working on a project for ANA Hotels in downtown Los Angeles. The 500-room hotel, which to date has no formal name, is slated to break ground in December, said Weisberg.

Ranked No. 4 on The List, Design 1 Interiors of Los Angeles posted $6 million in design billings, out of $20 million in total revenues. Spokesperson Robyn Parr said the firm is working on its fifth project for Walt Disney Co., including EuroDisney in Paris and a renovation of the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. They are also working on projects for Disney in Orlando.

The merger between ISD Inc. and Interior Design Inc. in August placed the new ISD + IDI at No. 5, up four places from the last List. The billings from both firms were combined to show the $5 million figure.

Some big movers on The List include Widom Wein Cohen Interiors which jumped to the No. 7 slot from the nineteenth position the previous year. The firm posted a $1.4 million increase in billings from 1989. Pope & Associates, whose revenues dropped in 1990 to $2.1 million from $4 million in 1989, slid down to the bottom of The List to No. 21 position after being ranked at No. 6 the year before.