BC: What the best thing about your job?
Fownes: I know it sounds trite, but the people I work with and the product are the best things about my job. It’s really a great profession and a great life where you meet a very diverse group of people from our clients, the designers I work with every day, our suppliers/vendors, and engineers to contractors. I have worked with some of the top executives of Fortune 500 companies. I have seen projects built for children being treated for cancer and executives building companies to great successes. It is always interesting.
I enjoy it so much so that my daughter has decided to follow in my footsteps and is in interior design school currently and looks forward to a career as “fun” as mine. (Yes, she apprenticed with me twice, so she knows what she is getting into!)
BC: What don’t you like?
Fownes: Project schedules that put too much of a burden on my team. Though my firm discourages long hours, sometimes we do have to work the late nights or deal with finicky clients. Clients may be demanding for lots of reasons, usually because they are answering to someone who is putting demands on them. We try to mitigate both of these with our clients early on through tight scheduling, but there are sometimes items outside of our control.
I care deeply for the people that work with me. I don’t want them to sacrifice their personal lives. I have difficulty with unreasonable or unethical people. It always takes me aback.
BC: How much money do you make? Do you think you are adequately compensated?
Fownes: For the most part, but this is not an industry where you are going to get rich unless you own it, and I’ve never been willing to take that risk. I always say, it’s not about the money. I know Perkins + Will treat me equitably. I expected to be a starving artist but luckily, I’m not.
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