It is possible to know a lot about the city after looking at the way the showrooms are styled, their product mix - even how the showroom staff dresses.

When I was traveling for the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), giving seminars and holding meetings around the country, my favorite thing to do was go to the local design center. It is possible to know a lot about the city after looking at the way the showrooms are styled, their product mix - even how the showroom staff dresses. They all have a look. The marketplace is more formal in San Francisco than in Los Angeles. And on Fridays in New York City, everyone puts a jacket on over his or her colorful polo shirt and white pants, and they're ready for the country or an out-of-town weekend.

When I started working as an interior designer in the '60s, I went to market in the summer and winter. We lived in Hawaii and my father owned a furniture store, so I would travel with him to San Francisco and Los Angles for the furniture shows. Los Angeles had the Merchandise Mart, and it would be jammed with permanent and temporary showrooms for the furniture store buyers. Up north, San Francisco's temporary showrooms would be set up.

It was a whirlwind trip - four or five days in each city, driving all over the place in each city, and flying up to SF from LA in between the two market weeks. It was exhausting, too.

Permanent showroom spaces began to appear, and the markets settled in major areas such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as Chicago, Dallas and High Point. In the 1960s, the profession of interior design was fairly new, and most designers worked for furniture stores and office furniture showrooms, or in an architectural firm.

As the profession of interior design began to grow, and designers opened their own offices as a "freestanding" profession, the market began to open up and change. In addition to permanent merchandise marts for the furniture buyers, major markets also developed a designer area where more specialty items, accessories and fabrics were shown.

I can remember when I first went to the Jackson Square area in San Francisco. Instead of acres of suites of furniture, companies like Knoll and McGuire styled their showrooms and showed all sorts of stuff designers could use for their clients. And the design centers moved to the country - enter the mini-design centers, which began to develop for the smaller communities and make shopping with retail clients even more accessible for both designer and the client.

The benefits for everyone in the marketplace are huge. For the designer, it is the convenience of seeing the scale and quality of the merchandise. It also helps to develop a personal relationship with knowledgeable people who are familiar with the products and have the ear of the factory. Clients benefit because they can get a real feel for the furniture. They can test the "sit-ability" of a new chair, say.

Clients will spend more money in a showroom when an interior designer is involved. They have more confidence the product will be the right choice for their home. That's all good for business, and everyone wins. But the best benefit is the synergy created when the design center becomes a hub in the design community. Often ASID has an office in the design center or holds chapter meetings there. That's good for everyone - fresh exposures for designers and the sh owroom, more interaction between individuals and familiarity with products and vendors. When the design center is right smack in the middle, it's doing its job to be the vehicle or the catalyst to keep good design accessible to the public.  F+I

Liz Dreher Howard, FASID, is president of Howard Design Group. Call 808-732-4915 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .