Eco-conscious designer has an eye for sustainable projects
Kitchen and bath designer Leslie Lamarre, CKD, CID, was designing sustainable homes in California even before the rigorous CALGreen Code was put into place. Sustainability is something to which Lamarre, principal/interiors at San Mateo, CA-based TRG Architecture + Interior Design – started in 1995 with her husband, Randy Grange – is deeply dedicated.
Many of the company’s early efforts toward green building, such as energy-efficient lighting and water-use reduction, are now standard requirements of the CALGreen Code. This allows Lamarre and her team to focus their energy on additional sustainability improvements. When specifying products for kitchens and baths, she seeks out businesses that do their part to provide sustainable and recycled products, and minimize waste created by their manufacturing processes. Lamarre’s firm is now working on its first rammed earth house, a planet-friendly technique that literally deploys rammed, or compacted, earth on select walls. In addition to the sustainable aspect of this building technique, Lamarre loves the design aesthetic of the striations.
As far as moving the industry forward, she says, “The bottom line is this: in order to advance, the industry has to accommodate sustainability along with smart design. In fact, they are becoming one and the same. And the companies that are not embracing sustainability risk being left behind.”
