For anyone with eco-friendly ideals as well as a penchant for high style, Dreaming Green showcases seventeen inspiring homes that are at once luxurious, beautiful, and fashioned inside and out with green materials, design, and details.
Read the full story »
Welcome to the companion site for our new book, “Dreaming Green Eco-Fabulous Homes Designed to Inspire”. Just five years ago, when our family began a top-to-bottom green renovation of a Manhattan brownstone, it seemed like a completely radical decision. Even though I’m in media and always up on the latest studies and trends, and Paul is an architect, earth-friendly design never seemed like a viable option for us. As city dwellers, it was something we associated with hippie living – picturing far-out houses with roofs made from soda cans, wind generators in the back yard and lifeless brown hemp fabrics. It took an emotional meeting at an environmental fundraiser with a couple who built an eco-friendly house after they lost a child to an environmental cancer to make us aware of the link between health and home. As parents of three growing children, we are concerned about the environmental toxins our family is exposed to every day, and we’d introduced organic produce, natural beauty products and homeopathic medicine into our home. However, we didn’t know about the lurking dangers most of us have inside our homes. It was frightening to learn that items we all have such as mattresses, cabinets and rugs, contain toxic chemicals like flame-retardants, formaldehyde, and volatile organic compounds. What’s worse is that those chemicals stay in our homes for years, off-gassing into the air we breathe and causing a host of potential problems that are being linked to diseases such as asthma, cancer and Alzheimer’s.
After that life-changing meeting, Paul and I knew that for the health of our planet and for our children, we had to go completely green. To be completely honest, though, we didn’t know exactly what that would entail; it was literally like stepping into an entirely new world. We can tell you however, that it was one of the smartest and best decisions we ever made.
The homes featured in our book are exceptional. But one day, green building will be the rule and not the exception. We hope you’ll join us in this revolutionary ideal by sharing your ideas and exploring the world of green living as we all learn how to live more healthy lives.
- Lisa Sharkey and Paul Gleicher
On sale Now. You can order your copy here:
Popularity: 100% [?]
Paul and Lisa’s elegant Manhattan home is proof that going green doesn’t have to come at the expense of style. (It also proves that if you’re going to gut renovate a dilapidated 1885 Manhattan townhouse in a single year, it comes in handy when the owner is also the architect.)
From Friday March 19th through Sunday March 21st, Paul Gleicher will be setting up shop at Pier 94, 12th avenue at 55th Street, New York City at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show and spaces are limited so sign up for a time slot when you first arrive at the show.
On the eve of Earth Day, my husband, Paul Gleicher and I take you on a video tour of our green Manhattan townhouse. We’ll show you the tricks of our trade and hopefully inspire you to take the leap into green living Enjoy!
ABC’s Sam Champion tours Lisa and Paul’s eco-friendly townhouse and Heidi Jones interviews Lisa on dreaming, building and living green. You can see it all right here.
Lisa Sharkey will be on Robin Hood Radio this Saturday at 2:00 PM EST talking about her book, Dreaming Green. You can listen live by tuning in at http://www.robinhoodradio.com The broadcast will also be available …
The New York Post presents “Season’s Readings”, a holiday reading gift guide on their blog. Dreaming Green makes the list!
Paul and Lisa’s elegant Manhattan home is proof that going green doesn’t have to come at the expense of style. (It also proves that if you’re going to gut renovate a dilapidated 1885 Manhattan townhouse in a single year, it comes in handy when the owner is also the architect.)
“My house is really just a laboratory that I happen to live in.” – Michael McDonough
“I thought it was really incredible how invested they were in the environment. It felt like a gift to do the house for them.” -Project Architect Mary Ann Thompson
“Early in the process, we decided that almost every aspect of the renovation was going to be green – from the gut job to the design. We wanted a healthy house made of chemical-free, natural materials that didn’t pillage the earth.” -Lisa Sharkey
