Interior Design Students Get Private Tour of Gensler
FIDM Interior Design Instructor and M+M Creative Studio President, Sandra Mitchell, recently took her Commercial Design Concepts class on a visit to Gensler, one of the largest architecture and interior design firms in the world. Following a tour of the facility, in DTLA, Sandra conducted a lecture in one of their conference rooms.
Each quarter Sandra works with Gensler (whose clients include Facebook, Instagram, and Adidas) to provide a guided tour by a senior member of one of their architectural/interior design studios, which is oftentimes Design Director Chris Mitchell, Sandra’s husband and co-founder of M+M Creative Studio prior to joining Gensler in 2017.
The students visited various design staff support areas, such as one of the best firm material and reference libraries in the world, the model shop with models of current projects, studio spaces to see how their design teams interact, as well as ancillary spaces such as conference rooms, semi-private meeting areas for one on one discussions, and large to medium sized open gathering areas with industry leading presentation technology.
The tour educates the students about the inner workings of a successful commercial office environment, as well as inspires them for their next project in the course curriculum—designing a small office.
In her lecture at Gensler, Sandra asked her students to pick a car company, research the client, and start the process of programming their 5,000 square foot space. For their first week assignments, the students create an inspiration image page to explain the brand, write a bio on the company to explain who they are and what they make, and sketch an idea of how their company’s office plan will lay out given the program requirements.
She ended the lecture with an example of a branded office project, showing just such a company in the city of Detroit.
Gensler is an integrated architecture, design, planning and consulting firm. With over 5,000 professionals networked across 44 offices, they provide global reach with a local touch.
Sandra Mitchell has been teaching at FIDM for a year in the Interior Design A.A. and Bachelor’s programs and is the co-founder and president of M+M Creative Studio. The company has many high profile clients in the fashion, corporate, and hospitality industries including GUESS, Edmunds.com, 7 For All Mankind, Nicole Miller, Alexander McQueen, and Stella McCartney.
Categories: Interior Design Industry Partnerships
