It's one of those Monday mornings. You know, the kind where you spill coffee down your shirt, or you don't seal your lunch container quite tight enough and wind up with a briefcase full of sesame noodles. Or in today's case, you leave your laptop on the kitchen counter and you're an hour from home. You know the kind.
I had one of these Mondays a few weeks ago. I was right in the middle of a very pleasant egg sandwich when the publisher rushed in and asked me to sum up the BI Interior Design Awards competition in one or two sentences. It's never good to be at a loss for words, especially when you're a writer - but especially when you're a writer in front of your boss.
I hemmed and hawed for several minutes until he walked away in frustration. What I would have liked to have said is that the competition awards design that supports and enhances a commercial interior's performance. Our winners, each in their own unique way, embody the "cool" factor. Like Billie Holiday's sublime rendition of Summertime, a simple melody transformed, these spaces welcome, impress, and evoke a smile.
The same holds true for the technologies selected at this year's Innovations Awards competition, which recognized performance-based products at NeoCon® World's Trade Fair in Chicago in June. Grand Prize Winners and those receiving Citations of Excellence are featured in this issue as well.
Fortunately, bad Mondays pass and become good fodder for columns. BI's ongoing mission is to create a forum for facilities and design professionals to discuss and meet the challenges of the changing workplace. Facilities management is people management, tailoring the built environment to suit the needs of end-users. BI celebrates interiors that embrace emerging technology without losing the human connection.
