Interior Decorator vs. Registered Design Practitioner

What I find hard to believe is the opposition I see within the interior design community on what a practice act will do to those who do NOT work in code-regulated spaces.  Back in 2011 there was strong opposition from groups such as National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA), the Institute for Justice, Illinois Retail Merchants Association, Illinois Association of Realtors, the Home Builders Association of Illinois, and that completely crazy woman Patti Morrow with the Interior Design Protection Council.  All of these groups were crying that a practice act will essentially “put them out of business” and that the interior design “CARTEL” will eliminate competition.  Let’s look at all of this more closely.
First of all, I want to say that there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with interior decoration.  There are thousands of individuals in the state of Illinois that do work in the realm of interior decoration, and are good at it, and make a great living doing this.  I want them to continue doing the work they do without any interference, and a practice act will not affect them one bit!!!  The majority of designers who fall into this category are usually providing services to residential clients who are remodeling or building a new home and need the guidance and support of a designer to help them achieve their goal of having a well-designed home.  Other individuals who also fall into this category are those who work for retailers who are providing services to sell items in the retail arena for the residential market.  This includes furniture, cabinetry, kitchen and bathroom fixtures and retail accessories to make one’s home look better.  Yet others designers in this realm work with realtors to stage homes in order to make them look amazing so a realtor can effectively sell their client’s home.

All of these things mentioned above all examples of things that would have absolutely NO impact with a practice act.  These items are not part of a practice act as it does not fall into the realm of code-regulated spaces/commercial spaces.  

Therefore, competition is NOT being taken away from those individuals who do interior design that falls into the interior decoration realm.  If anyone says that they are providing services to projects in commercial spaces over 5000 square feet without the supervision of a licensed architect being involved or spaces that require an architectural stamp, then they are essentially breaking the current laws.  The existing laws are very clear, and I am not making this up.

The other aspect of this has to do with adding competition to the market place as it related to code-regulated spaces.  Right now only architects and engineers are allowed to provide services in code-regulated spaces and use their stamp to be able to permit drawing submissions to the municipality.  By allowing Registered Design Practitioners to have stamping/sealing privileges, you are essentially opening up the competition in this realm, which is really the fear for architects and nothing more.  For those people who are trying to brainwash the public and designers who do are in the decoration realm, we are ADDING competition not taking away competition.

A practice act will allow those who are willing to take on the responsibility for their own work in code-regulated spaces.  Those who meet the qualifications of getting their education from a college or university, gaining valuable experience from a working with a Registered Design Practitioner or Licensed Architect, and passing the NCIDQ exam will be regulated under the Illinois Design Practitioner Act. PERIOD!!!  Time to raise the bar for those who want this responsibility.

The next time you see some crazy woman in pink boxing gloves come to a city near you to tell you the “CARTEL” are planning to put your interior design practice out of business, simply laugh at her and tell her that she doesn’t know what she is talking about.  All designers in the state of Illinois will be safe to continue to practice as they wish.
Next month, I will discuss the topic of who a practice act actually helps and protects; Registered Design Practitioners that actually want to practice without interference from other professions.

Why a Practice Act for Interior Designers

One of the biggest questions I get from skeptical designers is “Why it is so important for interior designers to have a practice act?  This doesn’t affect me at all.”  Before I get into the main principles of why it is important, I want to make sure that designers understand what has been going on in Illinois prior to our new push for such legislation.

The Illinois Interior Design Coalition (IIDC) has had a roadblocks thrown at them for many years.  The main roadblocks have been agreements that were negotiated with the Illinois Chapter of AIA to not go after any legislation.  These agreements happened twice; the first one occurred in 2001 that prohibited the IIDC of going after any practice act legislation for 10 years.  The second one occurred in 2011, where the agreement was brokered for another 4 years.  So for almost 14 years, the IIDC was not able to do anything, thus it has been quiet for a long time. It is not that anyone didn’t care about moving our profession forward all these years, the fact is that IIDC’s hand were tied for so long.

IIDC has been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that such agreements do not happen again with AIA Illinois, as well as educating the design community and public about the differences between those who decorate and those who work in code-regulated spaces.  Both types of designers are valid professions, however, the way to get our profession to be recognized as a true emerging profession, we need to raise the bar and get the credit we all deserve with our educational background, our work experience, and our professional credential (NCIDQ). In order to move a practice act forward we need the help of the interior design community to mobilize when we are ready to move this forward in 2015.  It is also important to know that IIDA National, ASID National, IIDA Illinois Chapter and ASID Illinois Chapter are all behind moving legislation forward, so there is reason to not be behind this.

I want you to also understand that we are not light years away from passing a practice act.  In fact, part of the reasoning in getting support from the design community at this time is that we feel confident that getting legislation passed is within our grasp (within the next 1-2 years), thanks to all the efforts of the IIDC lobbyist and to the hard work of the IIDC these last couple of years.

As for reasons for having a practice act, I think I can give you some compelling ones.

1. By having stamping privileges, you will be more able to become a partner of your firm.  Design firms under this act would be structured similar to architectural firms, which requires those that have ownership of a firm to be able to operate the firm, as well as being able to stamp drawings.  A practice act will help elevate interior designers within architectural practices to be able to open up their own firms.
2. This legislation proposed essentially raises the profession to a distinction that it always needed to be.  This practice act will establish a level of expertise for our profession.  A Registered Design Practitioner will easily enable you and other designers who meet the qualifications of Education, Experience and Examination to distinguish yourself from those that cannot work in code-regulated spaces.  Your firm obviously hired you to be a part of their practice because you have the qualifications to do your job.  A practice act will only reaffirm your qualifications and your stature to both your leadership and to others in the industry.
3. Those of us who have taken the route of working on commercial/contract interiors have a strong knowledge of fire codes, building codes, accessibility codes, etc. Again, this legislation reaffirms those individuals that would be elevated to a Registered Design Practitioner to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public, just like architects do.  As long as there is no structural or load-bearing wall changes, you do not need an architect to do your work.
4. The law includes a requirement for continuing education for Registered Design Practitioners.  The rules and regulations of our law will follow closely with those rules and regulations of the architect’s statute, so we would be under the same stringent rules under our law.  It is important to have emerging and established designers to keep up with design trends, code changes, as well as changes to the built environment, so continuing education allows the state to monitor this from a compliance standpoint.
5. Even though this does not affect you working at a large architectural firm, but one of the important aspects of this legislation is that it allows qualified interior designer professionals to take the responsibility of the work they created without putting the liability of their work on an architect who must currently stamp that individual’s work.  In other words, this law puts the liability of the work on the people who SHOULD take on the liability; the interior designer, just as liability is placed upon the architect for the work that he/she does when stamping his/her own work.

As you can see, there is compelling reasons for the design community to get a practice act law on the books in Illinois.  Not only will it make people such as yourself elevated to the level you deserve, but also elevates those individuals that currently practice in code-regulated spaces.  This bill also leaves those interior designers alone who don’t work in these types of spaces, and does not create any friction with them.  Everyone gets to practice in the realms they currently practice in.  I am more than happy to take any of your questions, you may have about a practice act. 

Next month, I will discuss the sensitive topic of the differences between Interior Decorators and Registered Design Practitioners as it relates to our proposed legislation.