Earlier this month, I attended the 2017 Awards Gala of the American Society of Interior Design (ASID), where I had the honor of accepting The Nancy Vincent McClelland Merit Award, in recognition for my contributions to the advancement the profession and study of interior design. ASID is the oldest and largest professional organization of interior designers, with nearly 20,000 design members and industry partners and 5,500 student members, including many B.F.A. and M.F.A. interior design students from SCAD, home of the top-ranked interior design program in higher education.
SCAD and ASID share a great deal in common, including our beliefs in the transformational nature of education and the power of design to influence and improve the human experience. Two years ago, hundreds of SCAD students were privileged to meet Randy Fiser, CEO of ASID, when he visited SCAD Savannah to speak on workplace design and Well Building Certification, the world's first set of standards "to focus exclusively on the health and wellness of the people in buildings."
Nancy Vincent McClelland (1877-1959), for whom the ASID award is named, was the nation's first great advocate for interior design as a profession and a historical figure after my own heart, with her double B.A. in Latin and English. (Swoon.)
Nancy Vincent McClelland was the first woman president of the American Institute of Decorators (predecessor of ASID) from 1941 to 1944 and was an expert on the American Neoclassical Designer Duncan Phyfe.
Before I was called to the stage to receive the award, ASID screened a short video, and my heart flooded with gratitude as I watched the images of my life's work flicker and dance across the ballroom wall, featuring images of university architecture and interiors, alongside interviews with SCAD benefactor Dr. Walter Evans and SCAD alumni Chuck Chewning (of Studio Rubelli in Milan) and Christian Sottile, AIA (of Sottile & Sottile). So overwhelming was the sensation of thinking about my nearly four decades in design and higher education, I barely remember the inimitable Reed Kroloff handing me the award.
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Thank you, Reed.
I am so pleased to dedicate this honor to my husband, designer Glenn Wallace, and to SCAD interior design professor emerita Dr. Crystal Weaver, who had a dream to make our university a source of wonder and brilliance and who encouraged me so exuberantly as a friend and colleague.
Forty years ago, if you had told me my life's work would be defined by design, I'm not sure I'd have believed you. Before SCAD, I was a bright-eyed young teacher in the Atlanta public schools. That's when I discovered the power of place, as I worked to transform a bare classroom into a dreamscape of imagination and learning. When I founded SCAD a few years later, I continued transforming spaces into joyful, productive learning environments for generations of artists and designers.
My journey to tonight and this cherished honor has taken me across three continents, from the much-admired 19th century cityscape of Savannah ... to the New South pinnacle of Atlanta ... through the medieval fortresses of Provence ... to a masterpiece of midcentury design in Hong Kong.
Educators often say, "To teach is to learn twice." To teach is to learn twice, but to design ... to design is to learn thrice: To realize the Vitruvian triad of strength, utility, and delight. Although I think Vitruvius forgot to mention two other essential elements of design: to finish the work on time ... and on budget.
My sincere gratitude to everyone at ASID ... to my SCAD family ... and to all the Nancy Vincent McClellands and Dr. Crystal Weavers here tonight and around the world, who create places and transform lives. Thank you!
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As I spoke, I thought about our SCAD students and alumni, especially the thousands of indefatigable, visionary women who have graduated from SCAD and are daily triumphant in interior design the world over, walking proudly in the trail blazed by Nancy Vincent McClelland, Dr. Crystal Weaver, and so many other hardworking designers and educators. I am thinking of multitalented alumni like Courtney Broaden (C. Broaden Interior Design), Lathem Gordon (GordonDunning Interior Design), Michelle Harper (Gensler), and Caroline Farouki (Farouki Farouki). The honor I accepted on that stage in La Jolla, California, earlier this month is for them, and for every member of the SCAD family who answers the grand and noble calling of interior design.
Other ASID Awards Gala honorees that night included the brilliant Steve Clem (Designer of Distinction Award), principal of tvsdesign and designer of the Georgia Aquarium and the College Football Hall of Fame; the visionary Susan Szenasy (Design for Humanity Award), longtime publisher and editor-in-chief for METROPOLIS magazine and pioneer in connecting environmental stewardship with design; and the Design Museum Foundation of Boston (Design Innovation Award), for helping share the story of design with communities around the nation. Past recipients of the Nancy Vincent McClelland Award include Caren S. Martin, Ph.D., CID, FASID (2016); Lisa Marie Tucker, Ph.D., ASID, IDEC (2015); Amy Campos, RA, ASID, IDEC, IIDA, LEED AP (2014); Linda Sorrento, FASID, IIDA, LEED AP BD+C (2013); Kerrie Kelly, ASID, CAPS (2012); and Jacqueline Vischer, Ph.D. (2011).
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Paula Wallace is the president and founder of SCAD, a university with more than 13,000 students at four locations on three continents and with one of the largest interior design programs in the world, with nearly 700 students earning B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees in interior design in the SCAD School of Building Arts. The SCAD interior design undergraduate program has been ranked no. 1 in the world by DesignIntelligence a record five times in a row. In Fall 2017, the university will release SCAD: Architecture of a University, the story of SCAD’s award-winning built environment.