December 28, 2023

On this week’s From the Tap podcast, we welcomed Katie Miner, general manager of ADAC – the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center. She shared with design professionals how to use local design centers as a business tool.

ADAC was started in 1961 by architect John Portman and now serves a 10-state region in its two buildings, which include ADAC West. There are more than 60 showrooms (five of them for the kitchen) with more than 1,200 product lines and 25 design and architectural offices.

Miner describes a design center as basically a shopping mall where interior designers go to shop for their projects. ADAC is also open to the public, so homeowners can come in on their own, but most of the purchasing is done by the design professionals.

ADAC, the design center of the Southeast supports designers all over the Southeast by visiting various cities and attending and supporting local design events to foster a sense of community in the design industry. ADAC also supports the value of hiring an interior designer, as it can be overwhelming for potential clients to traverse 60+ showrooms. Visiting ADAC gives them the opportunity to understand a designer’s role in navigating a project and making the appropriate selections.

ADAC also gives designers the ability to promote themselves in the industry via its Southeast Designer of the Year Award, which is a self-submit opportunity with anonymous-to-the-judges entries. The ASID Georgia Chapter is located at ADAC and can help connect potential clients with design pros. ADAC also hosts several industry events that are open to the public and free to attend, including DESIGN ADAC in the spring and DISCOVER ADAC in the fall.

To learn more about how to submit to the Southeast Designer of the Year Award and all the other ADAC initiatives, events and future plans and showroom openings, listen to the podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Pandora and other outlets.