Meet a trifecta powerhouse; She’s a contractor, architect and designer
Lauren Howley started her construction firm, Howley Design Build, because she always loved her experiences watching her family remodel their 1920s house on Lucerne Boulevard. She studied interior design and architecture, but upon graduation in 2008 took a job with a contractor. She found her place in the world of construction and never looked back.
LAUREN HOWLEY grew up in Windsor Square in and around historic homes of the neighborhood. Photo by Betsy Newman
I visited Howley at her current project in Los Feliz and spoke with her about the journey of becoming a design contractor and her experience as a female in a world dominated by men.
Larchmont Chronicle: I feel wrong even asking you this, but…
Lauren Howley: How did a Marlborough girl get into construction?
LC: Yes! A woman.
Howley: Yeah, it’s a great question, and there’s more and more of us. I’m on a group chat with two other female contractors. We talk almost daily and share knowledge, which I think is unique to our gender in contracting—there’s enough room for everyone, we feel. One’s more commercial, the other works more on the westside, and I’m more in Hancock Park, Los Feliz, Hollywood Hills. It’s definitely a growing community.
I grew up on Lucerne and Third [in a historic house] and whenever my parents had money, we’d fix up part of the house—bathrooms were from the 1920s, the kitchen from the 1950s. I grew up around all these construction projects. I liked [the atmosphere] and assumed I’d be an interior designer because that’s what I saw all the women doing.
I was a student at Marlborough all-girls college preparatory school, then Eugene Lang College of Liberal arts at the New School in New York, and then Parsons also in New York. I studied interior design and architecture and when I graduated, worked as an assistant to a contractor who offered design and build. This is when I realized it’s what I liked the whole time. It’s not that I didn’t think I could do this sort of work, it just never occurred to me. If you don’t see women in it, you don’t automatically think that way. The women I saw on-site [when I was young] were architects or designers.
LC: With all the talk of jobs being lost to AI, I understand you and your subcontractors might be well poised for the future.
CURVED SKYLIGHT designed and built to be finished with smooth white plaster.
Howley: Formal education is valuable, but I think about all the money spent on colleges and what jobs there will be in the future and wonder why more people don’t recognize the value of these trades—plumber, electrician, etc.
[LC: I later had my son ask his Claude AI about this and it said, “Skilled tradespeople working in existing structures are likely the last to be displaced by AI.” From the horse’s mouth!]
LC: I’m noticing you’re not the six-foot, lift a redwood tree type [Howley is more in the mid-five-foot range, albeit very strong]. I’m so embarrassed to even say that, but good to know brains outdo brawn here.
Howley: That’s because that’s what we see! There are multiple kinds of contractors: contractors that wear the tool belts and do heavy framing work, the “country club” contractors that schmooze to get the jobs, and then there’s me, somewhere in the middle. I learned trades and the management side of things with a design background. So, I don’t do the heavy lifting but did learn how to do the framing because I think that’s important. I can fully check and see to make sure it’s done correctly. It’s important to learn every job. There is a huge value to showing your employees that you are not above any job in construction and know how to do it. We are all a team. You might not see me with the tool belt on, but you’ll see me with a tape measure, a laser and level, a broom, and a trashcan.
LC: What might be the benefits (or challenges) of being a female contractor?
HOWLEY’S construction firm builds challenging, unique designs such as infinity pools in the Hollywood Hills and smooth coved plaster ceilings.
Howley: I think of Marlborough again; it really did teach me I could be whatever I wanted to be. When I went to college, I noticed most of my female classmates did not speak out as much or as loud. After eight or nine years working construction, it finally hit me: Do you think they are treating me different because I’m a woman? It didn’t even occur to me that I would be heard differently because I was a woman. I just didn’t operate like that—that’s the field side of my work.
On the client side, there’s a night and day difference, especially working for women. I’ve seen more than one male contractor bulldoze over women’s questions or not want to explain and teach them what’s going on. Communication is the biggest difference. I overcommunicate with clients. I think that is beneficial and comforting.
LC: It sounds like you grew-up around strong women.
Howley: I’m a third generation Marlborough student. My best girlfriends are still Marlborough women. My mom went there, my great aunt, my grandmother, my godmother. The all-girls school environment and the women in my family taught me to have a voice.
For more information, visit howleybuilds.com.
Category: People
