Our office has worked with Margie Stein on many projects over a number of years. I find her creative proposals consistently fresh. I’m frequently surprised and always pleased by the variety of her styles. For example, Margie designed our student spaces with uniquely shaped furniture and a current color palette. In contrast, she designed a more traditional look for the office of an older faculty member in which she incorporated all of the cutting edge technology that he uses. In both situations, the users were extremely happy with the functionality, look and “feel” of the spaces.
Margie listens carefully as we describe our needs. She is willing to provide multiple options of furniture and colors to help us find what we are seeking. She offers practical advice on furniture placement. As a result, I find Margie to be a pleasure to work with and would highly recommend her.
Susan Kinchelow
Associate Dean
Office of the Dean
Carnegie Mellon University
Dietrich College of Humanities and
Social Sciences
It’s a great pleasure to recommend Margie Stein for interior design services. As part of CMU’s Campus Design staff, Margie and I worked on many projects together. More recently, as independent consultants, we have had the opportunity to work on the same projects.
Peg Hart
Margie plans her projects with great detail and exceptional communication. She asks all the important questions to make sure that her work meets the client’s needs, schedule and budget. She thoughtfully presents choices – so the client can make informed decisions. Design wise – her work is always fresh, fun and durable. As an Owner’s Representative, I appreciate the value that Margie brings to a project – as a gifted designer, energetic project manager and strong advocate for the owner.
RA, MBA, LEED AP
Project and Facilities Management
My experience in working with Marjorie Stein was excellent. Her professionalism is revealed in her creativity, clear communications, sensitivity to client expense, and meeting her time commitments. I highly recommend her services.
Joe Calihan
Bradford Capital & Mansmann Foundation
ACTION-Housing has worked with Margie on most of its new multi-family develops over the past five years. We are thrilled to have her as a member of our team, helping us to pick just the right furniture, meeting both our sustainability specifications and design goals. Her selections are always the perfect finish to our projects.
Linda Metropulos
Vice President, Real Estate Development
ACTION—Housing Inc.
Marjorie has consulted with the college for a number of years on various types of projects, consisting of furniture selections to a campus-wide color scheme. She has also accomplished the design and installation oversight for a college-wide flooring project, as well as signage projects. Her assigned projects have ranged from a single room to a whole new construction, where she also provided for the furniture, fixture & equipment (FF&E) coordination & selection.
James (J.B.) Messer
Marjorie( … )1) Works effectively with the team to define the project scope & ensures we stay on task throughout the project; 2) Develops positive relationships with all our project end users to ensure their satisfaction; 3) Works well with product vendors to identify best quality & associated cost(.)
Vice President & Chief Facilities Officer
Community College of Allegheny County
I had the sincere pleasure of working with Marjorie Stein on Dartmouth College’s Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center building project where she served as the Interior Design Consultant. This 174,000 square foot LEED Platinum Certified building serves the college in many capacities including teaching, research and outreach.
Marjorie worked closely with all members of the project, including Biology Department faculty members and staff. In my role as the department liaison to the project, I was very impressed with her ability to listen thoughtfully and find creative solutions to meet the expectations stakeholders had for each aspect of the interior finishes. She understood and appreciated how busy faculty members are and how important it was to them to have interior finishes that are comfortable, welcoming and durable. She found a perfect balance of presenting excellent choices without giving an overwhelming number of options.
The classrooms in the Center were the some of the first on campus to be designed for hands-on learning. The galleries are still some of the only spaces on campus that have event space adjacent to classroom space. The furnishings created spaces that are flexible and work well for a variety of uses. The classrooms and galleries are used by departments and organizations from across campus and have transformed teaching and scholarship at many levels.
Offices, conference rooms, break rooms and lounges were carefully appointed to create areas of collaboration as well as areas of quiet. These areas are inviting, comfortable and have an enduring functionality.
Marjorie’s realized vision for the Center spaces is appreciated and enjoyed every day by occupants and visitors. Visitors are surprised to learn that the building is more than eight years old. Members of the Dartmouth community often come to the Center to relax in the gallery or walk through the building because it is “so beautiful.”
I highly recommend Marjorie as an Interior Design Consultant for the thoughtfulness of her approach and process as well as her finished work. Her work is truly astounding and enduring.
Ann Lavanway
Department of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth
As the School of Engineering representative, I worked directly with Marjorie during an 8-year, $151M renovation of our Benedum Engineering building, on our Oakland Campus, completed in 2014. The renovation encompassed all 500+K of space in Benedum including laboratories, classrooms, offices, lounges, and administrative areas. This renovation was done while Benedum was occupied, and we accomplished this task through multiple moves and close coordination with everyone involved to ensure no interruption of School administration, research, and classes. We were successful beyond any expectations.
Marjorie was a key player in the selection and coordination of furnishing selections for this lengthy and large-scale renovation of all of our spaces. Her work on the project involved an extensive number of meetings with individual School occupants, administration, furniture suppliers, architects, construction managers, and University Facilities over the course of the renovations.
Specifically, her involvement included:
•Coordination of material selections under University guidelines
• Direct meetings with individual occupants (an estimated 150) and departments to ascertain their requested furnishings
•Design layout and specification of the furnishings
• Follow-up meetings with occupants and departments for final furniture approvals
• Coordination with contractors, furniture suppliers, and installers
• Follow-ups on change orders and punch list items
The key to the success of these renovations was meeting the demanding coordination and required schedules, and Marjorie was in the middle of these challenges the entire time.
Firstly, her interactions and communication with our occupants was outstanding. An academic environment can be quite different from any other, and Marjorie worked well under constant changing requests from our occupants, which can be exasperating – often involving additional work that could be viewed as being outside the scope of normal design undertakings. Marjorie dealt with such issues in a very understanding and professional manner, providing design insight during these meetings, while offering the occupants alternatives and coaching them in making decisions and approving the furnishings.
Secondly, Marjorie always met our renovation schedules, having to sort out expected deliver times and coordinating meetings and approvals such that the schedules for occupancy were met. I cannot think of any time in which a missed schedule was due to Marjorie’s failure to provide coordination which is amazing given the scope of the renovations. …Schohn L. Shannon, PhD
In summary, given my direct experience, I highly recommend Marjorie as an interior design consultant – she would be an outstanding asset to your undertakings.
Assistant Dean of Engineering;
Executive Director, Swanson Center
for Product Innovation; &
Chemical Engineering Lecturer
University of Pittsburgh
Swanson School of Engineering
126 Benedum Hall
TEL: 412-849-6413
EML: schohn@pitt.edu