The evening of May 11, 2016, The Retail Design Institute's (RDI) New York chapter teamed up with the Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI) – an organization that creates safe, supportive environments for lesbian, gay, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth between ages 13 and 24 and their families – to host the “Iron Design” Student Design Competition. Hosted at JPMA's New York showroom, five teams of students, each with a mentor from a leading design firm or retailer, competed to create a booth that will go on to be displayed during the Brooklyn Flea, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016.
The teams included “Team Williamsburg,” lead by Alicia Proctor, Estee Lauder and Ian Tornquist, Highland Associates; “Team Park Slope,” which included Roe Palermo of Lord & Taylor and Michael Neumann of MNA; “Team Bushwick,” with Richard Bennett-Fosdick of Saks Fifth Avenue and Germana Gioglio of FRCH; “Team Crown Heights” comprising Roya Sullivan of Macy's and Anthony Simon of Interior Architects; and “Team Bay Ridge,” which featured Sal Lenzo of Bergdorf Goodman and Nikki Francisco of Sargenti Architects.
The esteemed judges of the competition included Robert Verdi, leading lifestyle expert, celebrity stylist and television personality; Robert Smith, global chief merchandising officer of Haddad Brands; Darra Gordon, coo of HMI; Megan Gundrum, director, store planning and design, HBC; and Ray Ehscheid, president of RDI's New York chapter.
All proceeds collected from the event will go to HMI.