In what is one of the most memorable moments of my career (so far!), I was invited by the Boston Architectural College to present at the BAC’s Student Lecture Series “Just Futures”! This was such an incredible honor, as not only was I proud to be asked to share my experiences and work, it was also an opportunity to reflect on our work, and what’s really important about being a designer.
My lecture was titled “The Power of Interior Design to Impact Positive Futures for People and Communities”. My message was that Interior Design has the power and responsibility to positively impact people, communities and their futures, that this can only be achieved through an equitable and inclusive design process, and that positive outcomes for people and communities are the measure of a successful design.
It was such an honor to be “BACK” at the BAC, where I spent so much time and learned so much, to share my passion and stories about interior design and the impact we have as designers. When I was first asked to participate in the BAC Futures series, I thought carefully about what this means to me – how do we as designers impact futures with design? Especially now in this moment, when the world is in such a volatile state, with wars, unprecedented weather, poverty, disease, homelessness… issues that are so large that they may seem out of reach, unattainable to solve, and daunting to think about how we can really have an impact.
My take on future impact is that designers have not only the power, but the responsibility to impact people, communities and their futures, by impacting one person at a time. And that this leads to a ripple effect to impact communities and beyond.
While every design discipline has the ability and responsibility to impact people, I focused through the lens of interior design, since that’s my world. I shared by telling stories – stories of people we’ve connected with through projects, some stories of lessons learned, and our process to ensure that everyone is included.
I started by telling my story – growing up in Cambridge with incredible parents who gave me endless creativity, passion, and love for people. Every day I feel their positive impact on me. That’s story #1 of one on one (well, two on one) impact! Although I was creative and loved all things art and making, I was not one of those kids who knew they wanted to be a designer since they were little. Music was more my thing. I went to Harvard and studied things that I was interested in – Psychology (people’s behavior), and art history, which led to architectural history and some design classes. By the time I graduated, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up – an architect? I landed at the BAC and enrolled in the Architecture program. But while I was in the program, there was another program just starting that I had my eye on – Interior Design. What intrigued me about this program was that it seemed they were focusing on the experience of people, at a very intimate level, on a one on one scale. And I liked that – I felt that that’s where I could bring the most impact. I transferred to Interior Design, and graduated in 1992, the same year that I married the guy that I met in the architecture program – David Silverman! (Lesson #1, don’t plan your wedding while you are in the middle of your thesis!) The other exciting thing that happened in 1992 is that I met my business partner, Tom Trykowski, who was my thesis faculty representative. Let’s just say we hit it off, and after thesis, after working in a firm together for a few years, we decided to go out on our own and form Silverman Trykowski Associates.
And that leads me to the STA story. Tom and I wanted to try to do things differently – we formed a firm intentionally small – (people call us boutique). We never wanted to grow to a big firm – we wanted to always stay involved with our clients, day to day, and design every day. Twelve years ago David joined STA bringing a whole breadth of new experience and impact opportunities to our practice. After 25 years together Tom very deservedly retired, and we are now STA Design. There is no STA without an amazing team, and social impact is what drives us. We believe in an equitable and inclusive design process, and positive outcomes for people and communities as the measure of a successful design. For us, design success is not defined by awards and publications – these things are nice, but not in the end what matters. What matters is true impact.
Over the next 10 weeks, I will share the stories of impact that I shared with the students, examples of what I see as design success, from our smallest to one of our largest projects, and some of my favorite career moments along the way.
Please enjoy, and we’d love to hear your stories too!
– Felice
The lecture in full can be viewed on YouTube here!
