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Interior Design's Hall of Fame Welcomes Five New Members

The 23rd annual event drew more than 1,500 to the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria

Mark McMenamin -- Interior Design, 12/5/2007 12:00:00 AM

The crème de la crème of the design community filled the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria to its rafters on November 28 as Interior Design hosted its 23rd annual Hall of Fame gala.

The event, always an undisputed highlight of New York’s fall social season, drew more than 1,500 gowned and tuxedoed attendees to watch five new inductees ascend the stage: Todd DeGarmo of Studios Architecture, Carl D'Aquino and Francine Monaco of D'Aquino Monaco, Ingo Maurer of Ingo Maurer LLC, and Murray Moss of Moss.

But this year’s gala held particular significance, as it coincided with Interior Design’s 75th anniversary celebration. So, before kicking off the ceremony, Interior Design editor in chief Cindy Allen treated the guests to a pictorial montage of design icons that were featured in Interior Design’s Fall Market Tabloid, including Hilda Longinotti of Herman Miller, Iris Barrel Apfel of Old World Weavers and Ruth Lynford of Lynford Limited.

As the dessert plates were cleared, Allen took to the podium once again to officially welcome the newest members of the Interior Design elite. In place of the long-winded tributes typical of award programs, the inductees were introduced by videos that were alternately humorous and moving, but always highly personal.

Todd DeGarmo’s expose charted his path from childhood in Proctorville, Ohio to CEO of Studios Architecture, the Washington, DC-based firm with offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Paris. With an ever so slight Southern drawl, DeGarmo calls himself a “classic leader in that I’m fearless.”

Carl D’Acquino and Francine Monaco took to the stage together to join the Hall of Fame as a result of their partnership in New York-based D’Aquino Monaco. “We don’t really make a distinction between residential work and commercial work,” says D’Aquino. “We’re always looking for what’s personal about any project.

Ingo Maurer’s position as a design icon has been obvious for decades, but the lighting designer finally found his status authenticated in the Grand Ballroom. From early works such as 1966’s Bulb, to his latter-day dalliances with LEDs, Maurer was honored not so much for producing lighting, but for provoking magic.

Murray Moss is the first retailer to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but of course, he’s much more than a shopkeeper: style arbiter, design patron, provocateur. His Moss store in New York, and now Los Angeles, continues to inspire not only the design community, but the public at large.

Prior to the induction ceremony, the five honorees rubbed shoulders and posed for a photo opportunity with past Hall of Fame members at a special VIP reception. Following the program, the overflow crowd lingered after midnight for dancing and libations at the after party.

For more details on the newest members of the Hall of Fame, see the December print edition of Interior Design.