nterior design deserves to be taken seriously. Dana Nunn, interior design director at Bettisworth North, would like to see more respect for her profession.

“Public perception is largely that interior design is a luxury for the very elite who can afford it at home. Or it is picking paint colors and doing the surface things,” Nunn says.

Basic cable TV shows made some Alaskans look like heroes: crabbing crews, gold dredgers, ice road truckers. But interior designers had to endure the shame of Trading Spaces. Not every project involved a bale of straw glued to a living room wall, but more than zero did. That’s tough for a hard-working professional to live down.

Nunn says people only notice the surface of a designed space. “Everything else we do is behind that,” she says. “Finishes is less than 5 percent of what an interior designer does.”

“Anyone can pick a paint, but not everyone understands what it will do to the space,” say MCG principal interior designers Melissa Pribyl and Cara Rude. “We also space plan, design ceiling plans, and coordinate lighting and electrical needs with our engineering consultants. We understand the building codes and how to properly egress occupants, and we design for inclusivity and allow for individuals of all ages and abilities to safely interact with the space.”

When not choosing fabric or paint swatches, designers are busy with interior space analysis, planning and design, non-bearing interior construction drawings, furniture and finish specifications, and management of interior construction and alteration projects in public and private buildings. Pribyl and Rude explain that interior designers must comply with building design, construction, and life-safety codes.

Registered interior designers are qualified by education, experience, and examination to provide these services.

As she puts it, an architect suggests where lights should go, and the electrical engineer plans the wiring and ensures proper light levels. Nunn was trained to calculate light levels, and she’s done them on smaller projects, but at an integrated firm with engineers on staff, she usually doesn’t have to.

Nunn is less involved in drafting and modeling these days; as a supervisor, her role is to develop a project’s program, contribute to the concept, and influence the design direction, while also overseeing schedules and budgets. After twenty years as a designer, she says, “I have projects in over ninety Alaska cities and villages, and I have nearly seventy unique project types in my twenty-one years of working in Alaska.” Those types range from morgues and water treatment facilities to theaters and museums.

The purpose of a building guides the designer’s approach. The first step, according to Pribyl and Rude, is a program for the space, setting goals for how occupants will use it and how the shape of the structure supports those goals. Interior designers collaborate with other professions to meet these goals.

“Do they need a sink? Does the icemaker need a floor drain? If yes, you will need a mechanical engineer. Do the additional electrical outlets max out the existing electrical load? If yes, then you will need an electrical engineer. Do they want to have shelving installed above 6 feet? If yes, they need a structural engineer for seismic stability,” say Pribyl and Rude. They compare the collaboration to the different positions on a soccer team.

When collaboration goes wrong, the results might be public restrooms that are inaccessible to all users, flooring with measurably high rates of slip-and-fall accidents, or fabrics that break down under repeated cleanings, which can be an infection hazard in healthcare or restaurant settings.

A skilled interior designer minding the net (to extend the analogy) can keep these mistakes from slipping through.

Pribyl and Rude call the relationship a “fluid process with a collective goal.” A project needs both to succeed.

Pribyl says, “Architecture is broad in scope, but specializations like landscape architecture and interior design have evolved to the point where they are now recognized for their unique expertise. This parallels the different specialties of engineering, such as electrical, mechanical, civil, and structural engineering.”

Rude adds that most of the world uses the term “interior architect” instead of interior designer.

“Architecture is an age-old profession, and interior design (similar to landscape architecture) is a relatively new profession,” says Nunn. Historically, interior decorators were tradespeople hired by architects. As the specialty has professionalized, Nunn says, “That barrier has been falling away pretty slowly but consistently since the late ‘80s.”

Interior designers and architects now meet eye to eye as certified professionals. A designer can earn a four-year college degree and take the three-part exam from the Council for Interior Design Qualification that focuses on health, safety, and welfare codes.

Kapala says, “Interior design and architecture should not be in a vacuum, separate from each other. The more that the wall between is brought down, the better the project ends up being.”

“The best projects are when we’re working together and not working siloed,” adds Nunn. “The client experience is better. The project outcome is better.”

As an example of collaboration, Kapala notes that she and Nunn recently attended a conference together, and they both learned about accessibility in design.

“There’s overlap in the continuing education we do, between interior designers and architects, so that helps keep that bridge alive. We’re both learning about the same new things,” Kapala says.

“It’s about building your bank of knowledge and resources. When the opportunity strikes, you’re prepared to offer the best,” Nunn says.

Kapala adds, “It’s really satisfying when a client is like, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we had something like…?’ and you’re, ‘Actually, I do.’”

Pribyl cites some new techniques that MCG is adopting, such as biophilia and biomimicry, environmental psychology, and virtual renderings. Pribyl and Rude were the first designers in Alaska certified in the WELL Building Standard, a 2013 rubric for best practices in environmental quality and occupant wellbeing.

Bettisworth North’s offices in Anchorage serve as a showcase for the latest interior design features. Nunn says clients can visit to see how certain features might work, from the sliding partition panels resembling a birch forest to the seamless threshold between carpet and wood flooring.

The office also demonstrates an active acoustic system in the ceiling. “We have it everywhere, and we have it zoned. Our conference rooms and small meeting rooms are in one zone, so we can turn it down a little bit more,” Nunn explains. “And we have another zone in what we call our living room—our kitchen area and design lab—because those are the most rambunctious. And we have the open office space; it’s turned up a little more there.” The system is not noise canceling, she clarifies, but tuned white noise.

Whatever innovations might pop up next, the skilled interior designer is the first to know.

Furthermore, the state does not yet recognize interior designers as a licensed profession, but Nunn is trying to change that. She is urging legislators to pass a bill that would add interior design to the professions overseen by the Board of Architecture, Engineering, and Land Surveying. It would not mandate that designers register, but those who do would be allowed to practice independently.

If passed, Alaska would join fifteen states that allow designers to practice independently; a dozen other states regulate the professional certification of designers.

Nunn, for example, is registered in Texas, but she cannot practice independently in Alaska. “If I want to practice in the public realm—impacting public health, safety, and welfare—I have to have the oversight and over-stamp of an architect,” she says, acknowledging that this is less of a problem at an integrated firm like Bettisworth North.

The same goes for MCG, except that designers would be able to sign and author their own work. Rude says, “After twenty-two years of interior design, I will finally author work in my home state of Alaska. As a fine artist, there has never been a time I didn’t sign my work or had someone add their signature after a critique.”

Professionalizing the field, she says, would create an Alaska-hire incentive for professional interior design and attract high-quality design talent to Alaska, as students studying Outside can return home for career opportunities.

However, the legislation introduced last session failed to pass the Alaska House or Senate, and not for the first time. “We’ve found that understanding and recognizing the relevance and the rigor of the educational path is lacking,” Nunn says of the bill’s opposition.

Although architects have voiced concern that independent interior designers would take business away from them, Nunn doesn’t see it that way. “There’s so much work in Alaska. If you do good work and maintain your client relationships, then there’s no threat,” Nunn says.

At MCG, Rude has the support of her colleagues. “Our partners who are architects are in full support and recognize the growth and expertise of interior design,” she says. “I have high hopes the system will soon reflect this.”

Professionalizing interior design is “sweeping the country,” Nunn says, but the Alaska legislation has taken seven years so far. That’s not an uncommon timeframe, Nunn observes optimistically.

“I hope it’s not another seven years… We’ll see how it goes.”