Interior Design Today - Episode 034 Interior Design Today

Welcome to the Interior Design Today radio show with Mary Knackstedt. In our 34th episode, Mary talks about the renaissance of Harrisburg. I live in Harrisburg and also in New York. There is quite a bit of difference between the two. Both have very interesting qualities. John O'Hara once said that Harrisburg is the perfect place to do research because nothing ever happens to break your train of thought. In some ways it is a quiet city, but it is also a city that has a lot of opportunities. It is now ready for a major change. My studio is located on the river, with a beautiful view. A wonderful location. Except, when the river starts to come up. Then you really go a bit crazy. There is nothing that you can imagine that is like a flood coming into your living room. Unfortunately, our first floor has had 8 and a half feet of water. That is a lot of water, and obviously it can do a lot of destruction. When you live along a river, this is what you can expect. Fortunately, I have been working with a number of architects and designers who said, wouldn't it bel lovely to live along the river and not have this kind of fear. Not to worry about flooding. We started looking at his location, and the buildings, and because of so many floods, they deteriorate. It is a problem because every time you flood something, it does break down the infrastructure. What do we do so that we can live in this beautiful environment and not think about flooding? Obviously there are ways of doing this. We've worked out a plan to create an environment where people can live in perfectly healthy homes. Buildings that require no energy resources. Don't buy any electric, gas, or oil. You're living with all healthy materials so there are no contaminants in any of the building materials or environment. It is also a building that is so well constructed because much of it is built in a factory. The rooms are really correct in size. In fact, in many cases, this type of construction is off less than 1/32 of an inch. I know, as every other designer or builder will tell you, that there are very few buildings which are that exact. When you are building in a controlled environment, you can do things like this. Harrisburg is in a position where it is ready for a renaissance. It is ready for a big change. It's excellent in its location. Very close to Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, New York City. I travel back and forth to the city 170 miles, and there is not a red light until I hit the Lincoln Tunnel. That's not bad considering many commutes a lot of other people have which are far worse and more congested. Here we have a great beautiful city. Probably one of the most beautiful rivers in the East. It is really very attractive because it has not been commercialized. It is rock bottom. In fact, there are only 8 like it in the world. This river was formed geologically before the mountains, so it will always stay very much as it is. We have a beautiful river, a lot of conveniences, wonderful health clubs, very nice restaurants and other very good service industries. We have access to a lot of the other things on the East Coast. We live in a reasonably moderate costing environment. Why shouldn't Harrisburg be one of the greenest leading cities int he country? I would like to see this happen. As much as we have heard so much discussion about the financial aspect of Harrisburg, unfortunately the financial people are getting ahold of this. They think they have a system of really bringing Harrisburg out of this. Now, the designers need to take their position and create a city which is livable and safe, and a wonderful environment that we can all enjoy. Any of you who have heard me speak, I often say that when we look at our environment and our problems, don't blame the President, the governor, or the mayor. Blame the designers, the architects, and the engineers. They're the ones that create the environments that are really safe for us to live in, that are healthy for us to li