Curating Our Materials Libraries

As the Design Librarian in our Houston office, Sarah Moore managed more than 200 vendors in the materials library as well as more than 1,000 individual samples divided into 12 categories ranging from textiles to wallcoverings.

“I am obsessed with our wood veneer collection,” says Sarah. “We have close to 150 variations of wood from all over the world. We have been growing this catalog for approximately five years and I am really proud of it.”

Sarah notes that our designers are very conscientious about the materials that we use in our projects. Through our Materials Matter Program, we are encouraging teams firmwide to think about the health and sustainability impacts of the products we specify for projects. “I try really hard to pick items that are sustainable and yet unique to keep in our library,” she says. “We only want products that have health product declarations and environmental product declarations.”

Sarah recently moved to our Denver office, where she is learning the library and getting to know the local material vendors. “The Denver community is very focused on sustainability. The City has a policy that calls for that any new construction or major renovation of a city building achieve LEED Gold or better certification,” explains Sarah. “In general, Denver is all about sourcing locally whether that be for food or building materials, which makes me excited to learn about all the different product options here.”