Jim began his career at the age of 16 as an assistant to the design director of Fiorucci in Manhattan. He went on to open a series of influential furniture and design stores in the same city, including Form and Function with partners Fred Schneider of the B-52's, and Jack Feldman. Along the way Walrod developed an interest in interior design, and his collaboration with Andre Balazs resulted in the Standard Downtown hotel in LA. His more recent design work includes The Park restaurant, Colors restaurant, which is operated by the former employees of the Windows on the World restaurant in the World Trade Center, the Steven Alan Annex stores in NoLita, the West Village, and the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and Gild Hall and Thompson LES hotels in New York City for the Thompson Hotel Group. Walrod has consulted on interiors for architects Jean Nouvel and Richard Gluckman, in addition to independently designing multiple private residences. He is currently co-curating an exhibition on Paul Rudolph's Lower Manhattan Expressway drawings in conjunction with The New Museum, the Drawing Center of New York, and Cooper Union for September 2011.