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Lenore Weiss finally discovered exactly what she wanted to do with her artistic bent.
Dan Smith
Lenore Weiss wants “to do no harm, to always see the good, to be granted peace with no fear, no anger, no anxiety and to do my greater good.”
As usual, engineer John Garland was direct, precise and to the point. He was asked to assess Lenore Weiss, principal at Spectrum Design in Roanoke. Garland is retired from Spectrum and was a co-founder.
Here’s his view of Weiss:
“Very smart and personable. Interior designer and architect. Very creative. Did Center in the Square interiors. That should say much. Go to top of stairway and look down at the terrazzo. What do you see? Valedictorian of her [high school] class [in Giles County]. ... All clients want to work with her.”
That assessment is all professional, but it gets to the point about Weiss, 51. She knows what she’s doing, regardless of what she is doing. She hasn’t always wanted to be an interior designer. She pursued law, elementary education, teaching assistant for master’s students, construction, architecture, all with an artistic bent. She took a year off at one point to travel Europe.
She leaped into architecture because she saw the art in it and “wanted to learn how people experience space.”
Spectrum showed a strong interest in her skills, so she moved from North Carolina to Roanoke in 2003 and went to work. But she discovered that she “didn’t like architecture” because she was “doing things” she didn’t want to do. She gravitated to interior design because she is interested in “how individuals experience space. I love urban planning for much the same reason.” She wanted to “do what I love” and that turned out to be interior design, “even though I didn’t go to interior design school.” Her approach leans heavily on the artistic.
At UVa, she had moved from law to architecture “because architecture students seemed to be doing things that were more interesting. It incorporated every other subject” and Weiss is, if nothing else, interested, curious in a wide variety of experiences.
“As I progressed in what I wanted to do, I thought [in terms of] altruism, making a difference in life.”
That emphasis shifted to residential design in the last five years from industrial and business buildings. “I help others see what they want and realize what speaks to their souls,” she says. “I want them to be happy to come home every day.”
She has been an active leader in her profession, serving as the Government Affairs Chairwoman, attending Hill Day in Washington and “participating in planning and initiatives when interior designer certification has been threatened.” In 2020, Weiss was selected to participate on the American Society of Interior Designers’ National Task Force for Adaptive Living. She is Director-at-Large for the Virginia Chapter of ASID and will take over as President Elect October 1, 2022.
She says, “I think what brings me joy and satisfaction has shifted over the years as I have moved from production to a more supervisory capacity. Now, I am more often a resource than the principal designer. It is more collaborative, and my desire is to see others succeed with the same passion I have.
“These days, I do more programming, planning and studies with the occasional artistic flourish. And yes, the terrazzo at Center in the Square will always be a favorite.” It received a NTMA (National Terrazzo Mosaic Association) Award in 2014.
It is what she thinks of as “the greater good,” that holds her interest. Every morning she begins with a prayer “to do no harm, to always see the good, to be granted peace with no fear, no anger, no anxiety and to do my greater good … My little prayer is as follows: ‘Just for today, I will not fear, I will not anger, I will not worry. I will seek to serve my highest purpose in love and light.’”
All that together, she says, “helps me remember what’s important, keeps me grounded, makes me thankful.”
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