What made you want to do the work you do? Please share the full story.
I got into this work because I hate watching good design die in the permit office. On my first co-op job, a dental clinic build-out, I watched a permit meeting almost blow a six-week timeline over one accessibility clearance nobody caught early. That mistake cost the client close to nine thousand dollars, and I remember thinking nobody warns you that this part of the job is often what decides whether a timeline holds together.
My honest take is that a lot of designers treat code and permit work like a chore that gets in the way of the real creative work. Drives me a little crazy honestly, because I’ve sat across from clients who lost weeks of rent on a space they couldn’t even open yet, all because someone treated the permit stage as an afterthought. Nine years into leading interior design work here in Vancouver, I’ve worked on maybe thirty projects where the design itself was strong but the permit side wasn’t planned for early enough. About a third of those ran over budget because of it, and every single time it was avoidable.
So, my answer to why I do this job comes down to one thing. I like being the person in the room who catches the problem before it turns into an invoice.
Tell us 3 surprisingly easy and 3 surprisingly difficult things about your business.
Sourcing moves fast once budget’s set, Vancouver suppliers turn samples around in a week. Contractors move fast too, a clean drawing set usually saves two or three site meetings I’d otherwise need. Clients pick layouts quicker than expected, usually inside two meetings.
Permits are the hard part, city review times still surprise me after nine years. Budgets are harder too, clients often lowball by 20% before I walk them through real numbers and what they actually buy. One late trade stacks delays fast, I’ve seen a two day slip become two weeks.
What are the 3 things you like best about your work and why?
I still watch a client’s face instead of the room when they see it finished and nine years in and that reaction never gets old for me. Solving a layout problem everyone said wouldn’t fit is what I like most, because that’s where technical and creative actually have to talk to each other.
Mentoring hits different too, a junior designer’s first solo permit set means one less thing riding on me alone.
What are your greatest 3 skills and how have they helped you succeed?
For me, reading codes fast saves clients’ money. I caught a missing clearance in week two on a clinic build, not month four, which would’ve cost six weeks on opening day.
Translating a client’s vision into something buildable is why three clients came back for a second project instead of shopping around. Staying steady under pressure matters too, a trade no-showed twice on one builds and I still hit the original open date by re-sequencing the work myself.
Tell us about a time where you saw a surprising outcome that you did not expect.
I was hesitant at first about a fitness center build where the client wanted an open floor plan with almost no walls between zones. I figured that layout would make the space feel chaotic, with weights clanging next to a yoga area, with no real separation.
Turns out I was completely wrong about that. We opened the space and the noise wasn’t the problem people worried about. Members said the open layout made the space feel bigger and more energizing, and retention in the first three months came in about 15% higher than the client’s other locations with walled-off zones.
What actually made the difference, I think, came down to sightlines more than sound. Without walls chopping up the room, natural light from the front windows reached almost every zone instead of stopping at the first partition, and members could see the whole space instead of feeling boxed into one corner of it. I didn’t expect that light and visibility would matter more than noise control. Now I push open layouts on fitness projects more often, even when a client’s first instinct is to wall everything off like I would have done early on.
What is the biggest challenge you face each day and how do you handle it?
The biggest challenge I face every day is keeping a client’s vision alive while it gets pushed through contractors, inspectors, and a budget that never has as much room as anyone hoped. Something always wants to shrink the design down to whatever’s easiest to build.
Just last month, a restaurant client wanted a custom curved bar top, and the contractor came back saying it would add three weeks and about $4,000 to the timeline. My first instinct was to just tell the client no and move on, that’s usually the faster conversation.
Instead, I dug into why the curve mattered to them, turned out it was about sightlines to the kitchen pass, not the shape itself. We found a straighter design that kept the same sightline for half the cost and no schedule hit.
That’s basically my method now. I don’t take the first no from a contractor at face value, and I don’t take the first yes from a client either. I ask what the thing is actually doing for them before I decide whether to fight for it or find another way to get the same result.
What do you value most and why?
Bringing honesty early, even when it hurts is what I value most. A client wanted a full glass storefront on a heritage building. I could’ve drawn it up and let permits deliver the bad news in month three, easily $15,000 in wasted drawings. Instead I said it wouldn’t clear review, we redesigned first. Easier conversation in month one than month four.
What achievement are you the proudest of and why?
A dental clinic build I led early as lead designer, tight $280K budget, six week timeline. Contractor said the layout wouldn’t work structurally. I redesigned the mechanical routing myself instead of scrapping the plan. We opened on time, $6K under budget. Still the project I point to when junior designers ask what “solving it” actually looks like day to day.
Who is your favorite motivational speaker and why?
Cheryl Broadhead’s principle that a room has to work before it can look good stuck with me early on. On that fitness center build I mentioned, I could’ve leaned all in on the aesthetic first. Instead I mapped sightlines and flow before touching finishes, and it’s why retention came in 15% higher than the client’s other locations. That order, function first, still shapes every layout I design.
If you could go back 2 years and give yourself advice, what would it be?
Stop taking the contractor’s first “it can’t be done” as final. Two years ago I redrew a whole ceiling plan because one contractor said the ductwork wouldn’t clear, instead of just asking a second one. Cost the client $3K and a week we didn’t need to lose. Now I always get a second opinion before I touch the design.
Are you willing to be a mentor? If yes, what is the best way to reach you?
Yes, mentoring is already part of my week at Ark and Mason with our junior designers and interns. I’m happy to talk with students or early-career designers about codes, permits, or breaking into commercial work. Best way to reach me is mlee@arkandmason.com.
Just for fun, what is your favorite dessert?
If I’m picking based on what shows up most in writing as universally loved, tiramisu gets my vote, coffee, cocoa, and texture contrast all in one bite, hard to argue with the combo.