Despite everyone’s best efforts, interior design and architecture projects can be easily derailed—or worse, never quite get on the right track. Maybe the spirit of a home’s architectural style isn’t being captured, or perhaps the builder’s plans leave too many unanswered questions about how specific elements will come together. In either case, hiring an architectural consultant could ensure your project stays on schedule and within budget.
For DLN member Barry Goralnick, principal of New York-based Goralnick Design Studio, it’s now a regular service—albeit an unexpected one—that his firm began offering over the last few years. What they refer to internally as “house doctor” projects have Barry providing varying degrees of input (and hands-on involvement) for the architecture of residential and commercial projects that have missed the mark somehow and require an expert to assess the situation help solve the problems. “A lot of interior designers don’t have architects on staff, so it fills a need there,” says Barry, whose first job, in 1981, was a career-making position at DLN member firm Robert A.M. Stern Architects in Manhattan.
As Barry explains, it’s not just about plans and elevations, but taking a project that’s “just okay” and really making it work better. “If you look around—like in the Hamptons for instance—some builders put up these shingle-style houses, but they don’t understand expression or finesse,” he says. “They know the moves, but not how to implement them—whether it’s mixing different shingles or conceiving how a roof should gracefully meet the wall of a house.”
Recently, clients in the Hollywood Hills hired him to systematically untangle a mess of architectural plans that didn’t quite match the home’s period aesthetic. “They hired a Modernist architect who ultimately had no idea how to work with a 1940s Hollywood Regency house,” Barry recalls of the project, which was already under construction but had a multitude of unresolved issues when he came on board. “The original architect was good at the technical stuff, but he just didn’t understand the house, so we basically redesigned the entire interior—from all the millwork and cabinetry to solving for awkward situations where planes didn’t come together.”
Last year, fellow DLN member Chandos Dodson Epley from Houston sent an S.O.S. his way when her in-house architect unexpectedly exited a project. “Although we had some concepts, we hadn’t finalized the interior details,” she says. “So, I asked him to dig in with me to review the plans as they were, and then make suggestions based on our concepts for millwork and ceiling details and look at the architectural vocabulary overall and share his expertise.” It was just the sort of thing that Barry had in mind when he envisioned the service. “Sometimes it can even speed up the process,” he adds. “But that really depends on all the other members of the team.” And according to Chandos, the additional expertise was invaluable. “Everything is better with collaboration, so having someone like Barry come in who understands architecture and interiors is only a benefit.”
In terms of scope, Barry is just as happy offering constructive advice as he is diving in deep to salvage a wayward project. “If it’s an interior designer I’m working with, I don’t want to step on their toes—it should be a team approach, so I’m always sensitive to that,” he notes. “I’m just enjoying this role where I get to be creative and, depending on the scenario, sort of a knight in shining armor who saves the day.”
This story is from Issue 3 of The Quarterly. Click here to see the full issue.
