Meet Ms. Yoss
A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City with a degree in Interior Design, Alma L. Yoss is the President and Senior Designer of The A.L.Y. Group. Originally from New York, she was introduced to interior design by her art instructor in high school.
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After studying interior design in college, she worked for many of the largest national interior design firms in New York on fabulous projects of great size and scope. Eventually, she sold her New York business to an employee and moved to Florida in 1985 to take over a company with offices in Boca Raton and Miami Beach. At all her firms, she was generally in management and headed the interior design departments while designing major projects. Her projects are marked by their variety in size, scope, and budget, and include all design criteria.
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Later moving back up north, she split her time between New York and New Hampshire and founded The A.L.Y. Group of New Hampshire. Her expertise goes beyond management, extending to the creation of architectural drawings including, electrical plans, construction plans, demolition plans, and decorative and detailing plans.
Credentials
Ms. Yoss is a longstanding member of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and was on the board of directors of the New Hampshire Interior Design Coalition. In addition, she holds a Certificate of Recognition from the National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ). This is a national accreditation and is a requirement for licensing in all states. She has been published many times and is a sought-after seminar speaker as well as an adjunct professor at the college level.
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Portfolio
Within her residential portfolio, Ms. Yoss has completed projects from individual rooms to condominiums to complex homes exceeding 7000 square feet. Ms. Yoss is widely recognized for her talent, knowledge, and creativity in addition to the execution of construction and bid documents. Her vast knowledge in the specification and procurement of furniture and furnishings was honed as the Head of a Facilities department within a Fortune 500 Company. Included in her commercial portfolio is a corporate environment, covering approximately 125,000 square feet.
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Adjunct Professor
Ms. Yoss was invited to teach as an adjunct professor at Miami International University while practicing interior design in one of South Florida’s top ten design firms. Important to the school was having the teaching staff actively involved in the design community.
She taught for two semesters in the accredited 4-year program, one in commercial design and one in residential design. In addition, she was a guest speaker at several seminars at the school and the Design Center of the Americas (DCOTA), in Dania, FL
Upon relocating to New England, Ms. Yoss assisted in developing a revised 2-year program in the Continuing Education Department of the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester, NH. While continuing to teach for 4+ years, she continued to develop her company. Classes included drafting, space planning, color and fabrics, and lighting design.
She taught for another 4 years, again continuing to develop her company, at the Art Institute/New England Institute of Art (Ai) in Brookline, MA in the Continuing Education Department.
This program is taught at all Ai Universities throughout the United States. The classes mimicked real-life projects beginning with programming and space planning through all phases of projects including, drafting, colors, fabrics and finishes, history of furniture and architecture, design development, budgeting, purchasing, paste-ups and presentation.
Additional classes offered and developed by Ms. Yoss included ‘aging in place’ and ‘staging’. And to further hone the students presentation skills Ms. Yoss developed a program to display and present completed projects by students in the ‘Open to the Public’ School Art Gallery.
