The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) is pleased to announce Steven Clem, ASID, FAIA, principal, tvsdesign, as the 2017 ASID Designer of Distinction; Susan Szenasy, publisher and editor-in-chief of METROPOLIS magazine, as the 2017 Design for Humanity Award winner; The Design Museum Foundation as the 2017 ASID Design Innovation Award winner; and Paula Wallace, founder and president of Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), as the 2017 Nancy Vincent McClelland Merit Award winner.
2017 ASID Designer of Distinction
Presented annually, this award honors an ASID professional member who has established a body of superior work demonstrating creativity, excellence, and innovation. This is the premier award for personal achievement and social consciousness in the interior design profession.
“ASID is proud to support and recognize leading professionals who continually push boundaries to demonstrate the impact of design,” says ASID CEO Randy Fiser. “Steven Clem is a true visionary who designs without ego and whose accomplishments inspire and teach us how design can make a significant, positive difference in the world.”
Steven Clem has the remarkable ability to help people imagine more, delivering bold ideas and masterfully designing them to the smallest detail. His vision, creativity, and leadership have produced beautifully crafted environments that create exceptional experiences, including the Kimball HQ and two showrooms, the Georgia Aquarium, the Woodruff Arts Center, the College Football Hall of Fame, and the United Parcel Service (UPS) Headquarters. Clem’s designs are modern, elegant, and comfortable, reflecting his innate ability to employ imaginative and innovative solutions in the simplest and most elegant forms. He has mentored many young interior designers and architects to achieve their own success and is recognized as a thought leader in the design industry. Clem’s 39-year career has been with only one firm—tvsdesign—where his work has garnered over 100 design awards.
2017 Design for Humanity Award
This award honors an individual or institution for contributions made to improve the human experience through environmentally friendly and health-focused interior design projects or activities that demonstrate a far-reaching impact.
“Susan Szenasy is the epitome of what this award embodies,” Fiser says. “Through her work at METROPOLIS and her extended work in the design community as lecturer, author and advocate on the power of design, she is indeed a humanitarian. She has dedicated her career to sharing the power of design with millions through METROPOLIS magazine’s rich editorial and superior coverage of the best in interior design.”
Szenasy began her career with Interiors magazine, rising from an editorial assistant to senior editor and became chief editor of Residential Interiors, the short-lived offspring of Interiors. Since 1986, she has served as publisher and editor-in-chief of METROPOLIS, the award-winning New York City-based magazine of architecture and design at all scales. Szenasy is the author of several books on design, including The Home: Exciting New Designs for Today’s Lifestyles, and Light: The Complete Handbook of Lighting Design. She has taught design history and ethics at Parsons School of Design and is a frequent lecturer and panel moderator on a broad-range of design topics. She is a pioneer in connecting environmental stewardship with design, and a tireless advocate for human centered design. A book of her writings and talks, Szenasy, Design Advocate, was published in 2015. Szenasy is the co-founder of R.Dot (Rebuild Downtown Our Town), a coalition of New Yorkers who came together after the 9/11 tragedies to provide solid research and information for those charged with the difficult task of rebuilding New York City.
2017 ASID Design Innovation Award
Presented annually, this award honors an individual, institution, manufacturer, or research team for producing an innovative project, product or body of work that makes a significant contribution to the advancement of the profession of interior design.
“ASID is proud to support and recognize innovation in the interior design industry,” Fiser says. “The Design Museum Foundation is a visionary organization that is expanding the reach and impact of design to communities and audiences who may not otherwise have been exposed to it. Each initiative they launch is more innovative than the last.”
The Design Museum Foundation is on a mission to exhibit the transformative power of design and to inspire creative problem solving by producing inspiring exhibitions and events. The organization seeks to educate the world about design thinking and to transform communities through innovative public demonstration projects. As a nomadic, online, multi-site museum based in Boston; San Francisco; and Portland, Ore., The Design Museum Foundation can reach audiences that traditional museums cannot, producing a real impact in the communities it visits. In 2016, the foundation launched the Center for Workplace Innovation, a hub for thought leadership focused on improving the modern workplace. The center is a think tank and resource for content and inspiration. The goal of the Center for Workplace Innovation is to educate, inspire, and drive change in the global workplace so that employees will be happier, healthier, more engaged, and more productive and so companies will achieve greater success, retain top talent and create a greater impact on the world.
2017 Nancy Vincent McClelland Merit Award
Presented annually, this award pays tribute to the accomplishments of McClelland, an ardent advocate for professional recognition and the first woman president of the American Institute of Decorators (now ASID) from 1941-44. The award honors an individual, organization, manufacturer or research team for outstanding support of the interior design profession.
“ASID is proud to support and recognize design industry leaders who lead by example and leave behind a legacy of excellence,” Fiser says. “Paula Wallace is a trailblazer with a long list of accomplishments that inspire us to imagine the endless possibilities of her talents.”
Wallace founded SCAD in 1978 and serves as the college’s president. Under her leadership, SCAD is a community of 13,000 students from nearly all 50 states and 115 countries who study in 40 academic majors and 60 minors. Wallace champions a balance between reverence and innovation in SCAD’s classrooms, labs, studios, and offices to educate future leaders in art and design. She has employed her distinctive approach to design and adaptive reuse to redeem nearly 100 historic structures throughout her career. From fashioning a 19th-century armory into classrooms, to revitalizing a mid-century Kowloon colonial magistracy, Wallace is well known for her signature style—one that mixes the inventive and contemporary with a timeless sensibility for sites steeped in history. Wallace has received numerous awards for her work in education and her achievements in interior design and historic preservation.
The ASID National Award winners were selected by a panel of judges comprised of professional members, ASID Fellows and representatives from the design community. This year’s prestigious panel of judges included Bill Browning, LEED AP, Hon. AIA, founding partner, Terrapin Bright Green; Khoi Vo, Allied ASID, chair, Interior Design, Savannah College of Art and Design; Philip Kennicott, art and architecture critic, The Washington Post; Rachelle Schoessler Lynn, FASID, LEED Fellow, senior associate, MSR; and Suzanne Tick, founder, Suzanne Tick Inc.
The winners will receive their awards at Celebration – The ASID Awards Gala, on July 15, 2017, in San Diego, along with the new inductees to the ASID College of Fellows. Purchase tickets to Celebration.