Margo Grant Walsh

Margo Grant Walsh is an American interior designer also known as a collector of silver serving pieces. As a designer of workplaces, first for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and later for Gensler, her clients included companies such as Goldman Sachs, Pennzoil, and Shearman & Sterling.[1][2] Grant was inducted into the Interior Design magazine Hall of Fame in 1987,[3] and has been described by the IIDA as "one of the most powerful and influential women in American architecture and interior design", and a pioneer for both women in the field and the profession itself.[4]

Grant began her career in the San Francisco office of design firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, at the time the world's largest architecture firm, where she quickly rose through the ranks to become the top executive in the firm's growing interiors practice. She later took a position with Gensler and Associates in 1973, eventually becoming one of its vice presidents. Since retirement in 2004, Walsh has spent her time curating her extensive silver collection.

Early life and education

Marjolaine (Margo) Grant Walsh was born in 1936 to Alfred and Ann Grant on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Fort Peck, Montana. Her father was a Chippewa, and her mother of Scottish origin.[5] Shortly after her birth, the Grants moved to the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota,[5] a Chippewa Indian reservation near the Canadian border where Grant spent her childhood. After the start of World War Two, the Grant family moved to the Portland, Oregon area, to assist in the war effort at the Kaiser Shipyards. After high school, Grant took courses at the Portland Art Museum, which she later credited as sparking her interest in making a career in interior design.[5] She graduated from the University of Oregon Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in 1959 and a Bachelor of Interior Architecture in 1960.[6]

On 20 February 1994, Margo Grant married John Perry Walsh, becoming Margo Grant Walsh, at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, NY.[7][8] Walsh was a class of 1950 Yale graduate with an MBA from New York University, who worked as a private investor and former president of Florence Walsh Fashions Inc., his late mother's company. He died of cancer in 1998.[9]

Professional career

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Post-graduation, Walsh went to work for the Herman Miller furnishing and furniture design firm, where she met Alexis Yermakov who was then setting up the interior design department of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's San Francisco office.[10] Yermakov recruited her to work at SOM. While there, she worked closely with Davis Allen, then head of SOM interior architecture and design. One of their notable collaborative projects was the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel Hawaii.[11] Walsh spent thirteen years at SOM in San Francisco, eventually becoming associate director of interior design. Initially the firm's partners were hesitant to pursue interiors design and architecture projects as a separate practice and only sought to do such work in buildings designed by SOM. Walsh is credited with convincing them to more aggressively market their interiors studio.[3]

Gensler and Associates

In 1973 Walsh was hired by Arthur Gensler to worked for his corporate interior design firm Gensler and Associates.[12] When she first spoke with Art Gensler, the firm, which eventually became the largest interiors firm in the world, only had three employees. She became Director of Interior Design in their Houston office with a staff of 35. In 1979 she opened Gensler's New York City offices, where she was promoted to managing principal of the eastern region division. Later, she opened offices in Washington D.C. and Boston, as well as London in 1988. Before leaving Gensler in 2004, Ms. Walsh became one of four on the board of directors, and the company had grown to a staff of nearly 2,000 by the time of her departure.[3]

Interior Architecture/Design Projects

Silver Collection

After her retirement from Gensler in 2004, Walsh focused on her collection of twentieth century silver and metalware, which she started in 1981. With over 800 pieces, it includes silverware, serving dishes, trays, jewelry objets de vertu from the United States, England, Mexico, and Europe.[13] It is one of the largest such collections in private hands in the world. Walsh's "Collecting by Design" exhibition displayed over 450 pieces in 40 showcases and has been featured in 11 museum exhibitions since 2002, in locations from New York to San Francisco.[4][14][15][16][17]

Awards
  • In 1987 Margo Grant Walsh was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame.[3]
  • The University of Oregon honored Walsh in 2001 when the School of Architecture and Allied Arts announced the establishment of the Margo Grant Walsh Professorship in Interior Architecture.[6]
  • In 2002 the University of Oregon awarded Margo Grant Walsh the Ellis F. Lawrence Medal – the highest honor of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts.[6]
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References
  1. Dunlop, David (5 June 1983). "Making the Best Use of Office Space". The New York Times Company. p. 1, Real Estate section. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  2. Slesin, Suzanne (7 April 1988). "What's the Message? Good Design Starts At the Office Door". The New York Times Company. p. 1, section C. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  3. Interior Design. "Margo Grant Walsh: 1987 Hall of Fame Inductee." Interior Design. 31 May 2014. Accessed 22 September 2016. http://www.interiordesign.net/articles/8371-margo-grant-walsh/.
  4. Watkins, Eileen. "Living Heroes." : Personalities : Publications : IIDA. September 2005. Accessed 22 September 2016. http://www.iida.org/content.cfm/living-heroes.
  5. Moonan, Wendy (21 February 2003). "A Modernist Sees Luster In Old Silver". The New York Times Company. The New York Times. Retrieved 31 May 2019. with a Chippewa father and a mother of Scottish lineage.
  6. A&AA Communications. "School of Architecture and Allied Arts." Margo Grant Walsh. n/a. Accessed 20 September 2016. https://aaa.uoregon.edu/100stories/alumni/margo-grant-walsh.
  7. The New York Times. "Margo Grant, John P. Walsh." The New York Times. 19 February 1994. Accessed 20 September 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/20/style/weddings-margo-grant-john-p-walsh.html.
  8. New York Times. "WEDDINGS; Margo Grant, John P. Walsh." New York Times, 20 February 1994.
  9. Grant Walsh, Margo. "Paid Notice: Deaths WALSH, JOHN PERRY." New York Times, 7 September 1998.
  10. Truppin, Andrea (1 September 1999). "Chateau Margo". Interiors. Nielsen Business Media Inc. 158 (9). Davis Allen, a legendary SOM interior designer she considers a mentor
  11. Slavin, Maeva (1990). Davis Allen : forty years of interior design at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Rizzoli. pp. 50–59. ISBN 9780847812554. [Grant] was astonished to be told that she would be his lieutenant for the project
  12. Perkins, Sam; Fratini, Emanuela (August 2020). "Margo Grant". Silent Masters. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  13. Timothy, O'Brien; Grant Walsh, Margo (2008). Collecting by design : silver and metalwork of the twentieth century from the Margo Grant Walsh collection. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. ISBN 9780300138924.
  14. Burstyn, Dorothea. "Margo Grant Walsh: Collecting by Design: An Article for ASCAS – Association of Small Collectors of Antique Silver Website." Margo Grant Walsh: Collecting by Design: An Article for ASCAS – Association of Small Collectors of Antique Silver Website. 2007. Accessed 22 September 2016. http://www.ascasonline.org/articoloMAGGI83.html.
  15. By Contract Staff • 15 April 2010. "Industry Icon Perspectives: Looking Back 50 Years in Design." Contract Magazine. 15 April 2010. Accessed 20 September 2016. http://www.contractdesign.com/practice/Industry-Icon-Perspe-1555.shtml.
  16. Kirkham, Pat. Women Designers in the USA, 1900–2000: Diversity and Difference: Jacqueline M. Atkins. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.
  17. 2008. "Collecting by Design: Silver & Metalwork of the 20th Century From the Margo Grant Walsh Collection." Interior Design 79, no. 10: 239. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 29 September 2016).

Bibliography
  • Abercrombie, Stanley. "What They're Reading.." Interior Design 76, no. 10 (August 2005): 201. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 29 September 2016).
  • Gans, Jennifer Cross. "Collecting By Design: Silver & Metalwork of the Twentieth Century From the Margo Grant Walsh Collection." Metalsmith 28, no. 2 (June 2008): 48. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 29 September 2016).
  • Slavin, Maeve. "Davis Allen: 40 Years of Interior Design at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill." Rizzoli, 1990. ISBN 978-0847812554.
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