Keeping Design On His Mind
Blending Interior Design Skills And Strategic Planning Among Joe O’Hollearn’s Trademarks
Joe O’Hollearn sees the success of his space planning and interior design firm flowing from one basic act.
“I surround myself with people who are better than I am at design who can bring different skills to the table than I have,” O’Hollearn says. “I also ask them to check their egos at the door.”
O’Hollearn, a co-principal with his wife, Kristine, in the Downtown interior space planning and design firm Ir2 , Interior Resource Inc. , sees some of the things he values in business as mutual respect, honesty, trust and open communication with clients and other professionals. He also sees his business as a combination of strategy and art.
Blending interior design skills and strategic planning to help his corporate clients expand their facilities, consolidate or relocate is what makes his company unique, he says.
It has paid off with design awards and numerous corporate clients. The firm recently won a national award of excellence for the renovation of the headquarters of Guidant Corp. in Santa Clara. The award is now in its 11th year and Solutia Inc., a carpet fiber producer, sponsors the national design award competition.
He’s also done projects for San Diego Gas & Electric Co. at its headquarters and for Ericsson Wireless Communications at its facility in San Diego. Among his firm’s other clients are Diego-based companies Alaris Medical Systems Inc. and Pyxis Corp.
He also has developed a set of strategic maxims to help corporate executives relocate their companies as smoothly as possible that he says are important to keep in mind when a company plans a move or expansion.
O’Hollearn, 38, was born in Evanston, Ill., to a salesman father and a mother who stayed home to raise their five children. He in part attributes his interest in interior design to having a grandfather in the furniture business and the rest to his love of art and wood shop classes in high school.
The Point Loma resident attended Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, receiving his bachelor of science degree in 1984. His sister, Peggy, was attending the University of San Diego and that was how he became familiar with his future hometown. To fulfill a graduation requirement, he worked as an intern at Southwest Business Interiors in San Diego.
His first full-time job was as an interior architect trainee for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in Chicago, a full-service architectural firm.
In 1990, while working at the McCulley Group where he eventually became a vice president and design director, he met his wife through a mutual friend. They married in 1994.
The very same month they married they also bought a house and Kristine started Ir2.
He left his post at the McCulley Group in 1998 to join his wife at the firm.
Now the O’Hollearn’s company has 20 employees and is expanding into larger quarters at its 1500 State St. location. Gross revenues reached $1.8 million last year.
He admits the current expansion of his business into larger quarters at its present location has given him a refresher course in what his clients go through when they move or relocate.
New technology and the need for energy efficiency has changed the way interiors are designed, he says.
Direct, indirect and task lighting are now used in combination, instead of the way it used to be done with only ceiling fluorescent lights for illumination.
“Using daylight as much as possible also is desirable,” he says. “Lighting is an integral part of a design solution.”
The increased use of computers, fax machines and scanners has also changed the way desk space is designed.
“We’re seeing a lot of informal areas in floor plan design,” O’Hollearn says. “We still have conference rooms, but open areas for team meetings that allow for expansion into them as space needs increase are becoming more popular.”
He also suggests using cubicles because they are flexible whereas walls are expensive to put up and move. Telephone and data cabling is also expensive to move, he adds.
“The flexibility of open floor plans that allows for expansion are also very important,” he said.
When cubicles are required, use of transparent and translucent materials for walls helps people feel more connected with their co-workers, he says.
“We’re involved in the business of creating environments for people to spend more than one-half their life in,” O’Hollearn says. “Hopefully the space is nice and user-friendly.”
O’Hollearn says he keeps his workweek to less than 50 hours and encourages his staff to do likewise.
“Everything in this business is deadline driven,” O’Hollearn says. “It’s the planning up front that avoids the long hours and weekend work.”
He says one of the high points of his week is to take his sons, Joseph, 4 and Jackson, 2, with him to buy flowers on Saturday mornings at the San Diego Farmers Market in Pacific Beach and then play together on the nearby sand.
O’Hollearn took his first job when he was 11. Working as a caddy, he kept the job for nine years. It stimulated his love for golf, which he still plays with a 10 handicap as often as time permits. Ice hockey is also a passion with him.
“Mom put me on skates at age 6 and by 7, I had a hockey stick in my hands,” O’Hollearn says.
His spare-time reading is mostly business books and mystery novels.
Keith Schonewill, general manager of Johnson & Jennings General Contracting of San Diego, has worked on five tenant improvement projects with O’Hollearn in the last three years.
“Joe is very insightful and he looks at the long-term picture for the client,” Schonewill says. “He does an excellent job of finding out what in a design is really important for a client as far as which departments work closely with each other.”
When it sometimes is necessary to change a design while a project is under construction, O’Hollearn is very accessible and quick to respond, Schonewill says. “When it comes to making design changes, he’s quick to respond and looks out for the client as well as being a real team player.”
Jeanne Barkett, facility manager for Sempra Energy in San Diego, agrees.
“He is very easy to work with and I tell you he certainly has a lot of experience in architecture, interior design, space programming and corporate relocation,” she says. “Joe is very accessible.”
Snapshot
Title: Principal, Ir2 , Interior Resources Inc.
Education: Bachelor of science, Northern Arizona
University
Residence: Point Loma
Birthplace: Evanston, Ill.
Hobbies: Golf, hockey, reading
