Spotlight on Oklahoma: New Design Awards Elevate Local Community Work

February 11, 2020 IIDA HQ Leave a comment

Kristen Brumley, IIDA, discusses why championing Oklahoma’s local design community with the newly-established Oklahoma Interior Design Awards—created by the Oklahoma Interior Design Coalition (OIDC) and supported by the IIDA Oklahoma City and IIDA Tulsa City Centers—is beneficial to both practitioners and design advocates.

Why did OIDC and the city centers decide to have these design awards?

Kristen Brumley, IIDA: We were looking for an opportunity to host an event that would both help to fundraise and support our advocacy efforts in the state. What better way to bring the interior design community together than to highlight everyone’s hard work and give us all a reason to celebrate?

In addition to the revenue that the event generated, we also hosted a wine pull. Manufacturer representatives donated wine bottles that were then given away in exchange for donations to our coalition. Because we had designers from across the state under one roof, we used this unique opportunity to talk about OIDC and IIDA and how we are advocating for our communities.

Additionally, we created a new award—the Logan Award—honoring an advocate of the year. It was named after a long-time champion of our cause, Brett Logan. We hope to continue this honor in the future, and give our design community something to strive for.

What was the immediate response from the design community in Oklahoma?

KB: The Oklahoma Interior Design Awards were very well received! We had an amazing turnout of 125 people, which included designers from many firms and not just those that entered into the competition. Although OIDC and IIDA played a large role in the success of this event, it was important for us to showcase all of the designers across the state, regardless of their affiliation with any of our associations. We have even seen an increase in involvement and interest in OIDC and IIDA because of these awards. Designers are already talking about submitting next year. Both our associations and members of our industry are looking forward to seeing how this event will flourish in the future.

*Attendees of the first annual Oklahoma Design Awards in late January. Photo by: Taylor Whitehurst*

Why was it important to the designers in Oklahoma to award a Legislator of the Year award to HB3098’s sponsors?

KB: We chose to honor our bill sponsors to not only thank them for their support over the last couple of years but to also allow them the opportunity to address our community as a whole. Creating new legislation and authoring our bill takes a lot of time, and we wanted to show them our appreciation for being true champions to the local interior design industry. Having these legislators at the event also gave us a chance to showcase many projects throughout Oklahoma that have had a significant impact on their constituents.

How do you all hope that highlighting Oklahoma projects to Oklahoma-based designers and legislators will impact the design community?

KB: Our competition submissions were evaluated based on the project’s ability to impact the health, safety, and welfare of end-users and the project’s overall functional, contextual, social, sustainable, and aesthetic characteristics. Such criteria allow us to showcase what interior designers can and are doing across the state. It brings awareness to the general public, educates our legislators, and gives us an opportunity to celebrate our community by uniting our two city centers and markets with one event.

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Interior Design Advocacy Update: Spring 2019

April 16, 2019 IIDA HQ 2 Comments

2019 has already proved to be an eventful and inspiring year for commercial interior design advocates. The hard work, passion, and ongoing efforts of the people within our community have been palpable, as we work towards legislation, build and sustain relationships, and bring important attention and understanding to the profession.

Here are the bills, efforts, and measures that have affected interior design across the country this year, and everything interior design advocates have accomplished:

Iowa

In Iowa, a proposed bill that would have deregulated Iowa’s interior design law died in committee in March. IIDA and our lobbyists opposed the legislation and IIDA Great Plains president Leann Pederson, IIDA, had an editorial published in The Des Moines Register.

Utah

IIDA and ASID, on the national and local levels, teamed up to introduce legislation that adds state certified commercial interior designers as registered design professionals in Utah. This bill was passed by both houses in the state legislature and was signed by the governor.

North Carolina

In an ASID-led, IIDA-supported effort in North Carolina, advocates are continuing to push for permitting privileges in the state, based on previous years efforts. Currently, the proposed legislation would create a registration for interior designers that would allow them to stamp their documents for permits. In 2018, the bill received a house committee hearing.

Ohio

In an IIDA led, ASID-supported effort in Ohio, advocates are planning to introduce a bill for voluntary certification of commercial interior designers with the ability to sign their drawings. In 2018, despite some political obstacles, HB504 was passed out of the Ohio House and received a Senate committee hearing.

Massachusetts

In Massachusetts, advocates are continuing to push for voluntary certification with permitting privileges that would also allow designers to be majority owners of design firms, in an IIDA-led, ASID-supported effort. In the previous legislative session, the bill gained dozens of cosponsors.

Pennsylvania

In a Pennsylvania-state coalition led effort, advocates are continuing to push for a state registration with permitting privileges.

Rhode Island

The Rhode Island governor introduced a budget that included taxing services such as interior design. IIDA and ASID, on the national and local levels, have teamed up to fight this effort. We have presented testimony about the detrimental effect the tax would have on our industry.

Connecticut

The Connecticut governor introduced a budget that included taxing services such as interior design. IIDA, ASID, and NKBA are working together to fight the tax.

Texas

In Texas, the state coalition filed two bills—one that would allow RIDs to file a lien on intellectual property and one that would add interior designers as registered design professionals in the government procurement bill. Both have been passed out of committee.

To learn more about the current state laws that regulate interior design, visit advocacy.iida.org.

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IIDA Response to White House Occupational Licensing Report

July 29, 2015 IIDA HQ Leave a comment

Today, the White House released a report, “Occupational Licensing: A Framework for Policymakers,” on occupational licensing. It provides a cost-benefit analysis of occupational licensing based on current data and suggests a number of best practices for state legislatures in regards to occupational licensing.

In the report, best practices for occupational licensing include:

Limiting requirements to those that address legitimate public health and safety concerns.
Applying the results of comprehensive cost-benefit assessments of licensing laws to reduce the number of unnecessary or overly-restrictive licenses.
Harmonizing regulatory requirements as much as possible, and where appropriate entering into inter-state compacts that recognize licenses from other states, to increase the mobility of skilled workers.
Allowing practitioners to offer services to the full extent of their current competency to ensure that all qualified workers are able to offer services.

The International Interior Design Association (IIDA) believes and supports the best practice of allowing practitioners to offer services to the full extent of their competency underscores the reason the Commercial Interior Design industry is striving to pass meaningful legislation. In most states current architecture licensing laws prevent qualified interior designers from providing services to the “full extent of their current competency.” IIDA is working to expand the number of practitioners providing interior design services to consumers in the code-impacted interior environment. We also believe lawmakers should apply cost-benefit analysis to ensure laws serve the best interest of their state.

The report also states that one of the reasons licensing laws exist is to protect the public’s health and safety, and is especially important in situations where it is costly or difficult for consumers to obtain information on service quality. Licensure of interior design would alleviate the consumer’s burden of design service quality verification.

Additionally, IIDA agrees with the White House report that licensing should not impede a designer’s ability to move or provide services in more than one state. Laws should reflect the mobility of workers and provide for reciprocity between states.

IIDA is continuing to monitor the situation and will provide updates as needed. IIDA does not believe that the White House report is damaging to our efforts to pass meaningful interior design legislation, and we will continue to advocate on behalf of the Interior Design profession.

Edwards, Julia. (2015, July 28). House Report Calls for Eased Job Licensing Requirements. Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/28/us-usa-employment-licensing-idUSKCN0Q220C20150728

Occupational Licensing: A Framework for Policymakers. (2015). Washington, DC: The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/licensing_report_final_nonembargo.pdf

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Tag Archives: IIDA Advocacy

Spotlight on Oklahoma: New Design Awards Elevate Local Community Work

Interior Design Advocacy Update: Spring 2019

IIDA Response to White House Occupational Licensing Report