Interior Design Hall of Fame

Chances are that most, if not all, published biographies of Margo Grant lead off with her having been born on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation in Fort Peck, Montana. Paradoxically, even more interesting and unusual is what's happened in her life ever since.

The holder of Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Interior Architecture degrees plus Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude honors from the University of Oregon, Margo Grant spent 13 years with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in San Francisco; by the time she left she had reached the position of associate/director of interior design. In 1973 she joined Gensler and Associate/Architects as interior design director in Houston, then moved to the firm's New York office in 1979. There she became the founder and managing principal of the eastern region division, also one of four on the board of directors, and a member of the management committee. Her initial staff of two has, over the years, grown to a force of 143 designers in the New York and Washington offices. Participatory and supervisory work on top corporate installations, completed and current, include major spaces for: Mobil Oil Corp., Goldman Sachs & Co., Newsweek, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft (featured in the May 1987 issue of Interior Design), Davis Polk & Wardwell, Morgan Bank headquarters, and others.

Says an outside business colleague about Margo Grant's stewardship: "By sheer force of her personality and talents, she has established Gensler as a leading design firm in this city . . . she is a formidable saleswoman whose staff, without exception, credits her with providing the best learning experience because she takes such great interest in her work."

Since her induction into the Hall of Fame in 1987, she has transitioned from design and management to "senior statesman." Margo still has clients (including CCRW, Baker & Botts, Fiztpatrick, retired partners of Goldman Sachs, Ernst & Young, Sidley Austin, Brown and Wood, Clifford Chance and peripheral involvement with Deveboise and The New York Times) and her emphasis has been on up front strategic work and not necessarily design projects.