Who's Qualified to be an Interior Designer

A challenge over the use of the title "Interior Designer" ensues in Connecticut. In that state, a designer must have six years of interior design education and experience to qualify to take a two-day exam, and then pay a state fee. Many other states are developing their requirements. Read An Unfair Ban? by Lynn Doan on Housing Zone.

Congratulations to the Custom Builder Design Challenge Winners

The challenge was to design a home for a (fictional) empty-nester couple in their 60s anticipating retirement. The home is to be built on a wooded piece of property on a lake, and will eventually become the owner's primary residence. Winners were:

1st place: Taco Schmid, Project Manager at Carlson Homes in Scottsdale, AZ

2nd place: Rhett M. Osko, Architectural Design Supervisor at Classic Homes in Colorado Springs, CO

3rd place: Steve Perry, Owner of Steve Perry's Design Solutions in Springville, UT

Best Student Design: John Tomaz and David Pereira, students at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, MA

Susan Bady, Senior Editor for Design at HousingZone.com gives additional design criteria and the winning designs at Custom Builder Design Challenge Winners Offer Imaginative Plans for Lake House


Competition judges were John J. Kern, partner and director of Balsamo, Olson & Lewis in Oakbrook Terrace, IL and David A. Gravel, president of Enon Hill Design & Development in Wheaton, IL.

The Hotel Guest of 2020

What will hotel guests require 12 years from now? Developers and Designers take notes from the article by Jitendra Jain, an employee of Starwood Hotels and Resorts in Dubai. See: Meet the Hotel Guest of 2020

Can a 260-year-old facility be viable today?

Charity Hospital in New Orleans is a 260-year old facility that was ahead of its time when built. Watch the video by the architecture firm, RMJM Hillier, retained by The Foundation for Historical Louisiana (FHL) to see how preservationists believe it can be a model for contemporary healthcare facilities.