Biography

Honoreé Marlo Moore was born in Reno, Nevada where she was raised by her mother. Even in her earliest years she was fascinated with creating, drawing, building, and problem solving. As a result, she unknowingly spent her childhood developing the creative and technical skills that would someday prove invaluable to her architecture and construction career.

As an only child and part of a small, close knit family Honoreé gravitated toward her relatives interests and tried to learn from them.

Grandfathers on both sides of the family had technical and creative skills. Philip drew precise plans, elevations, and details for furniture he built and Foster drew cartoons for national distribution. Honoreé took up drawing cartoon figures as well as shoe and dress designs. In addition, Honoreé's grandmother Laura introduced her to arts and crafts projects in a variety of mediums allowing them to design, build, and paint within.

As the only child of a single parent Honoreé spent numerous hours with her mother, Monaé. They traveled up and down the Western U.S., Canada, and Mexico. At home or away they enjoyed playing games of strategy such as cards and backgammon.

In 1988 Honoreé moved away from home to attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). There she studied architecture under the College of Engineering.

Honoreés senior year in college was a busy one as she balanced her school curriculum, worked as an employee for the UNLV School of Architecture, and attended to family life. Still, excited to promote architecture within the student body she became the 4th President of the American Institute of Architecture Students UNLV Chapter (AIAS-UNLV). Through their efforts the executive committee doubled student membership and participation.

In addition, that year Honoreé married Chris Wilson, her high school sweetheart. Together they bought and moved in to their first house, rescued Brandy - a puppy at the local animal shelter - from execution, and took up golfing.

In 1992 Honoreé received her Bachelor of Science in Architecture degree and immediately applied for acceptance into UNLV's Master's program. The School was preparing an in-depth application for accreditation with the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). As a Graduate Student who wanted nothing less than an accredited Master's Degree Honoreé applied to work as a Graduate Assistant to help the school prepare. As such she spent long hours gathering and assembling information about UNLV, the School of Architecture, it's faculty, staff, students, and curriculum for the NAAB Team to review.

The first NAAB Team visit did not result in accreditation. The primary reason was not reaching the total number of books required in the Architecture Library. The next NAAB Team visit would not occur for two years. The same time Honoreé had planned on graduating.

In 1994 Honoreé began work as an Intern at Palladian Inc., a two person architecture office near the University campus. There she received ample opportunity to meet with clients, design residential and small commercial projects, and learn a little about hunting as this was the owner's favorite past-time.

The office grew to a staff of six and changed it's name to that of the owner, Dennis E. Rusk, Architect. Unfortunately, work slowed and as a result the office once again became a two person offce.

In 1997 Honoreé accepted a position at Lee & Sakahara Architects (LeeSak) Las Vegas office. A one room office with just enough space for the Principal and two employees. Although this office was small it had the benefit of access to all of the ammenities and services provdided by it's well established home office in Irivine, CA. The company was a good fit for Honoreé and it wasn't long before business boomed and a larger office space was necessary.

As a Project Captain Honoreé gained valuable knowledge in warehouse, office, and retail design while working with more experienced clients. Here, the Principal gave her the opportunity to gain extensive construction administration experience. And, as an added perk the company held annual golf tournaments allowing Honoreé to continue to learn the sport.

Eventually UNLV obtained NAAB accreditation and in 1997 Honoreé graduated with an Accredited Master of Architecture Degree. She continued to work for LeeSak and in 1999 she moved to Corona, California with her husband who was promoted and transfered within his company. For two years Honoreé drove 3 hours to work in to Las Vegas on Monday morning and returned to Corona on Friday night. Although she loved working there Honoreé eventually left the company to live with her husband in California.

Honoreé's next adventure began when she took a Job Captain position with Battaglia Inc., a theme park and major entertainment design company in Newport Beach. Entertainment architecture sounded exciting and the office view of Newport Bay and the boardwalk lined with expensive yachts made the new job even more appealing.

The construction drawings were already under way for a dark ride remodel at Lotte World Adventure, an international theme park, in Seoul, Korea. As the Job Captain Honoreé organized the construction drawings, supervised the drafters work, and coordinated with the set artist. It was her first dark ride and she took an immediate interest in the integration of the existing roller coaster structure with the newly themed fantasy-like scenes. Perhaps influenced by his previous work at Disney the owner carried creatvity into company events. Even hiring someone to build an elaborate entry path filled with ghostly sights as the haunted walkway leading to a Halloween costume party.

However, at less than three months there Honoreé was approached by unhappy co-workers about their conflicts with already established company policies. Agreeing that some policies seemed outdated and not competitive with similar local businesses she presented a letter to the owner outlining employee concerns. His review determined that change was not necessary. The response further lowered employee moral.

Realizing that the company's management style was not a good fit for her Honoreé began to look for a more progressive company to work with. The experience had taught her that well developed workplace policies were not enough. She now believed that to be effective employer policies must also be progressive. It became aparent that the flexibility to work with changes in the modern workforce was essential for a successful competitive business. One that promotes both employer and employee success.

As luck would have it, a Project Manager position with a leading laboratory & vivarium design consulting firm was immediately offered to Honoreé. GPR Planners Collaborative Inc. (later Jacobs Consultancy) works with numerous well known Architect's and Universities to design and build state-of-the-art education and research laboratories. She had previously interviewed with the Principal and knew that his management style aligned with hers. She was excited to accept the position and knew that she had her work cut out for her.

Honoreé was now focused on learning new planning criteria, specialized equipment, and the unique needs and desires of Universities competing for top researchers and large grants.
She studied laboratory and vivariam plans and sat in meetings listening closely to the Principal, clients, architects, engineers, doctors, researchers, University administrators, maintenance people, and green building consultants. In addition, she researched the specialized fixtures, furniture, and equipment used in laboratories and vivaria.

Soon Honoreé was working on multiple projects in nearly all phases of design and construction. The complexities of designing spaces for both fixed and moveable research equipment such as casework, sterilizers, and fume hoods was like a fantastic puzzle she couldn't put down.

Honoreé enjoyed traveling to project sites as well as meeting with project teams to develop and review design criteria. Gathering equipment specifications early in a project allowed Honoreé to understand the equipment in detail. She soon learned that the Universities and researchers placed high importance on implementing cutting edge equipment for furthering their studies and receiving grants. For Honoreé this meant updating specifications and sometimes modifying the laboratory or vivarium design to accommodate new equipment before sending the project out to bid.

Honoreé also enjoyed construction sites visits. There she met with general contractors and clients follow construction progress and answer questions.

During this time, Honoreé and her husband grew apart and went their separate ways. Honoreé kept busy with work.

Two of the projects she had the good fortune to work on were selected by their respected Universities to strive for LEED green building certification. The complicated and expensive nature of research laboratories and vivaria coupled with the high utility usage of these buildings often left energy conservation and eco-footprint concerns behind. As the LEED rating system had only been introduced three years prior,  LEED green building provisions for laboratories was only newly being developed. This made the challenge more exciting.

The well respected architects & general contractors selected to design these complex buildings carefully chose building orientations, recycled and low emitting materials, mechanical solutions, and construction methods. Their choices influenced the design and construction of these buildings to an extent Honoreé had not seen since the imaginative projects students presented in college. As a laboratory design consultant Honoreé could help by selecting recycled and/or renewable materials and more energy efficient equipment such as low flow fume hoods. A team effort by all disciplines helped contribute to the overall success of these projects - both resulting in LEED Gold certifications.

As time passed, Honoreé was keeping an eye on the boom in residential/commercial mixed use projects that was occuring as she had always been interested in this project type. She researched and found an award winning firm with experience in single family, multi-family, and mixed-use projects. She applied and was hired as a Project Manager for the High Density Team at KTGY Group, Inc.
 
Here Honoreé gained experience in Podium projects throughout California. These projects ranged from three to five stories of residential units above one story of commercial retail at ground level with two levels of parking below. She travelled to San Jose, California to learn more about a development by KB Homes called Tuscany Hills for which KTGY would design townhomes and provide architectural drawings. This project later became a 2005 PIllars of the Industry Award Finalist in the "Best For-Sale Multifamily Community: 15-40 units per acre" category.

The project she would enjoy most was The Lofts at Promenade in Long Beach. This redevelopment project by Lyon Capital (a.k.a. Lyon Realty Advisors, LLC) presented a unique set of problems to solve. Where typical multi-unit residential building design challenges included fire separations, path of egress, sound attenuation, and ventilation. This project was on a tight site in an urban setting with an alley dividing the site in two. The parking structure would extend both above and below ground and house a swimming pool and gym on the roof. In addition, this was a mixed-use project where the ground level was programmed to house the leasing office, a conference room for tenant use, and accommodate retail tenants who had not yet been selected.

The projects were exciting; however, as residential work slowed she along with some of her co-workers and the Vice Principal in charge of the team were laid off.

This gave Honoreé more time to develop a budding relationship with Tim Kerrigan, an Operations Manager and talented bassist she had recently met. Although she grew up in Nevada and he in New Jersey the two enjoyed similar hobbies. And, with patience Tim began to teach Honoreé to "hear bass" in songs. Soon they found themselves traveling together to Germany, Austria, Ireland, Italy, and Mexico ~ enjoying the music found in each country.

Honoreé's next stop: The Bergman Companies (TBC). A construction company with architecture services including design-build, national rollout programs, planning, CD's, and CA serving clients such as Best Buy, Lowes, Fresh & Easy, Starbucks, and more. As a Project Manager there Honoreé supervised five Job Captains who were each resposible for the production of construction documents and the building permitting process for multiple 6,000-8,000 s.f. design-build America's Tire Co. (ATC) and Discount Tire Co. (DTC) retail tire stores nationwide.

In 2008, Tim was offered a transfer within the company to open a new facility in Pennsylvania. It would be the same position he currently held but would cover a new region only an hour and a half from where he had grown up. He and Honoreé visited the proposed location and liked what they saw. Tim proposed marriage to Honoreé and accepted the job transfer offer. And together, they began planning their move.

Again, Honoreé found herself preparing to leave a job she enjoyed. While training her replacement she wondered what work would be found in P.A. The economy was slowing and she would be moving from the fast-paced state she had enjoyed for the past decade to an unfamiliar state with more conservative construction growth. Then, Honoreé received the fortunate news that TBC would keep her on the team! She worked remotely via telephone and Internet for nearly six months before the slowing economy forced the company to cut her work to part-time. In another six months she was completely laid off and looking for work once again.

Honoreé remains active as a participating member of:

• ArtsQuest^TM Special Events Committee
• The Junior League of The Lehigh Valley Communications and Marketing/PR Committees
• Lehigh Valley Homebrewers
• Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley
• American Homebrewers Association\

Honoreé currently resides in Bethlehem, PA with her husband Tim, their soon to arrive son, and their senior terrier mix, Sammy. She is actively pursuing architecture, construction, and consulting work in Lehigh Valley.

Honoreé is interested in new opportunities with progressive companies. She would make a positive contribution to your project so please do not hesitate to contact her.