Good Steward of the Floor Plan

One area of interior design that I feel like I am pretty good at is space planning. In commercial design this is particularly important because clients are typically paying x amount of dollars per square foot to lease a space.  I like a good space planning challenge, it's like a puzzle. Since moving to Boston I have found good space planning to be very essential to residential design as well. In a city where parking spots retail for $300,000, you must use every square inch you you acquire wisely.

While working at an architecture firm here in Boston, the boss and I got into a heated debate over space planning. Good space planning was not his top priority, he would say things like we have to leave room for design. I, on the other hand, think that if you are good, you do both. So in my plea for efficiency I proclaimed "we must be good stewards of the floor plan" to which all of my co-workers, including my boss, laughed. I think they were mostly shocked that I cared so much about space planning. And in hindsight, in that particular instance, I probably just wanted my way. But what I said was true, good designers should be good stewards of the floor plan.

Here is a very good example of being a good steward of a floor plan.

Good designers also design in the third dimension.

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