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Architectural Digest hosted open auditions in a quest for exceptional design.
By Anne McCarthy Strauss, DTM Correspondent
Architectural Digest magazine is giving
unknown designers the opportunity to have
their work appear in the magazine’s pages
during a series of Open Audition events, the
first of which attracted more than 500 ap-
plicants over two days in New York City.
Participants began lining up in the rain
outside the Decoration & Design (D&D)
Building at 6 a.m. on the first day. By the
time the first group of hopefuls was ushered
up to the building’s 14th floor at 9 a.m.,
the line extended down Third Avenue and
around the block onto 58th Street.
Both professionals and non-profession-
als were invited to participate and were
asked to bring photographs of a com-
pleted residential project for presentation
to, and review by, the magazine’s senior
editorial staff.
Ruth Harvey of Queens, New York, a
Above: Professional and amateur designers wait in line at the Design Center of the Americas (DCOTA) in Dania
non-professional entrant, was nervously
Beach, Florida for a chance to have their work reviewed by Architectural Digest’s senior editorial staff; Below (left to
poring through color printouts of the rede-
right): Entrants line up outside the D&D Building in New York; Editor-in-Chief Paige Rense and members of the se-
sign she’d done of her Tudor-style home as
nior editorial staff meet with designers at DCOTA; Designers lined up in the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles.
she stood in line.
Aleksander Lembert of Miami, a highly
the president of Dorothy Draper & Com- glanced nervously at their watches, anx-
accomplished designer, had come to New
pany, Inc., the oldest interior design firm ious to move on to other commitments,
York to attend the D&D Fall Market.
in the country. With his roster of resi- while others remained stoic as if they were
When someone asked if he was there for
dential and commercial clients, his talent awaiting the opportunity of a lifetime –
the audition, he signed up on-site. Dip-
and his calm, confident manner, Lembert which, in fact, they were.
ping into his portfolio, he easily produced
seemed well prepared to attain his ambi- Open Auditions took place in New York,
professional-quality photos suitable for a
tious goal. Florida, California and Texas. Winners
highly competitive entry. “I want to be the
The mood of the line ranged from will be featured in future issues of the
next Carleton Varney,” he said, referring to
nervous to confident to impatient. Some consumer publication.

n Design Trade Magazine
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