CURATOR TURNS COUCH POTATO

Art gallery curator Robert Bjorn Santos sleeps on a couch in his nephew’s room nowadays after the Makati-based Grupo Santamaria that he hired to renovate bedrooms in their ancestral house in Valenzuela City left the job unfinished and a mess, according to a damage suit filed by Santos.

Santos, who claimed he had already advanced P4 million to interior designer Nina Santamaria, is still asking P6.7 million in damages, despite the profuse apologies extended by Santamaria, whose list of satisfied clients include Nick and Lucille Locsin of Forbes Park, model Apples Aberin-Sadhwani of Bel Air and the Ayala Tower One executive lounge.

Firm faces suit from unhappy client

By Beverly T. Natividad
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:38:00 07/03/2010

Filed Under: Judiciary (system of justice)


AN INTERIOR DESIGN FIRM IS FACING A P5 million damage suit filed in a Valenzuela City court by a university professor for what he claimed was a botched renovation plan for an ancestral house.

Robert Bjorn Santos, corporate secretary and a professor at the Our Lady of Fatima University has taken Grupo Santamaria owner Nina Santamaria to court for allegedly reneging on their obligations in the renovation of his house in Valenzuela.

Santos complained that the renovations were not completed within the period of time agreed upon in the contract due to the interior designer’s neglect. This, he said, resulted in the undue delay of the project causing inconveniences.


Nina Santamaria with Pamela Picazo of Louis Vuittons

According to Santos’ complaint, he was sleeping on a couch at the renovated dressing room while waiting for the repairs on his bedroom to be over.

During delayed renovations, he also had to bear the difficulty of using a bathroom downstairs for twice-a-night trips to the toilet as a borderline diabetic with a hyperactive bladder.

Apart from delays, Santos also asked to be reimbursed for what he claimed were several defects in the repairs done by Grupo Santamaria.

According to the complainant, the urinals made for his young nephew in the bathroom were too high for the child. There were also missing tiles on the mosaic inside the bath which, he said, diminished the desired effect of the design.

Santos said he sought to rescind his contract with the design firm on January 2010. By that time, he claimed he already shelled out P4.9 million in construction costs and P160,000 for professional fees.

Santamaria, however, told Inquirer that the delays were mainly due to unforeseen circumstances on the suppliers’ end and on the physical defects of the ancestral house, of which she had no control.

She added that three suppliers had not delivered their materials on time, but her contract with Santos clearly did not make her responsible for such third-party accountabilities that were beyond her control.

“Additional work would of course require us to put in additional time and also delay the project,” she said.

BUTCHERED ANCESTRAL HOUSE AND AN EXPIRED LICENSE

Forget gossiping about our local starlets – they’re just not worth our time.

The fact is, Gretchen Barreto, Angelica Panganiban and Venus Raj’s “major major” underwhelm me. In my life ,I know of a far more interesting and deserving disaster in Nina Santamaria, head of interior design firm Grupo Santamaria . Society people are talking in hushed whispers of how she botched the renovation of the ancestral home of Robert Bjorn Santos. Santamaria is now the object of a two suits, a civil suit as well as a complaint with the Professional Regulations Commission.

Because of the botched renovation job, Santos sleeps in a couch in a dressing room and struggles with a urinal that was placed too high - where is our sense of madness and our appreciation of the spectacular?




Since this issue came out, clients from Forbes Park, Dasmarinas and Urdaneta are questioning Santamaria’s abilities.

“Admittedly and regretfully, there was a lack of supervision on my part otherwise, it wouldn’t have dragged on for this long. Although it seems too late already, I wish I could have had more suppliers bid for the different works, assigned more carpenters on site or at least managed your expectations more.” said Santamaria in her very incriminating email to her ex-client Santos. What a disorganized mess – a total run-of-the-mill answer worthy of discussion.

Sad that she represents herself as having a grasp or an understanding of the field, while she is clearly incompetent. However, I do not agree that formal education shapes and molds the best designers. The best designers possess the ability to design before they are even able to understand the concept of interior design.

The object of much controversy in the industry boasts of her ties with Louis Vuitton as she designs their local exhibits, when in fact she has been working with an expired license since 2008! Are her other clients aware of this?



Remember, if you’re not good at something, the likelihood of you succeeding is not very high. Talent and knowledge are keys to success in any industry and one should apply these rules when considering interior design as an income earning activity.

So, when’s our next surfing trip?