The Coach House

In the early 70’s Leezee heard that the New York School of Design was going to offer a one year course in Washington as an experiment, so she signed up, took the course, liked it, and decided to pursue work in the design field. At that point, the focus was on Residential Design. 

The only accredited professional design affiliation that was available at the time was called the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and it was focused on Residential Design. Since Leezee's firm was doing mostly business design, ASID did not suit her.  At about that time Leezee was invited to join 3 other Designers in founding a Washington Chapter of The Institute of Business Designers (IBD), which they did. 

She started small but soon had more jobs than she could handle and took on other designers.  As her business grew she became more interested in commercial design than residential.  She took more courses on commercial standards and her firm took on jobs primarily with law firms. 

Asbury Methodist Village was building a larger residential building and asked The Porter Group to work with the architect and the builder on the interior design.

Here, Leezee is having a discussion with the builder, whose men were about to install a thermostat in the middle of the only possible wall for a painting or a photo.

The Washington Post featured Leezee's designs in their Living In Style article about the Decorators Show House.

The Washington Post.  September 26, 1976.

Soon thereafter, Leezee was asked to do the design work for a new restaurant on Pennsylvania Ave. named Maxine's. Restaurant Magazine gave her work a front cover photo for Maxine's. They also got coverage for some of her law firm work and for a large project called Asbury Methodist Home in Maryland. 

The Porter Group's redesign of Maxine's, a popular eatery in Georgetown, was featured in Restaurant Design, Spring 1981. 

The article from Restaurant Design, Spring 1981, featured the Porter Group's redesign of Maxine's, a popular eatery in Georgetown.

Defying tradition, The Porter Group reversed the standard two-tier restaurant formula when creating Maxine's, a popular restaurant located at 2519 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW in Georgetown.  The designers placed the main dining room on the ground floor and the informal bar on the second level mezzanine.  

Defying tradition, The Porter Group reversed the standard two-tier restaurant formula when creating Maxine's, a popular restaurant located at 2519 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW in Georgetown.  The designers placed the main dining room on the ground floor and the informal bar on the second level mezzanine.  

Defying tradition, The Porter Group reversed the standard two-tier restaurant formula when creating Maxine's, a popular restaurant located at 2519 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW in Georgetown.  The designers placed the main dining room on the ground floor and the informal bar on the second level mezzanine.  

Defying tradition, The Porter Group reversed the standard two-tier restaurant formula when creating Maxine's, a popular restaurant located at 2519 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW in Georgetown.  The designers placed the main dining room on the ground floor and the informal bar on the second level mezzanine.  

Defying tradition, The Porter Group reversed the standard two-tier restaurant formula when creating Maxine's, a popular restaurant located at 2519 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW in Georgetown.  The designers placed the main dining room on the ground floor and the informal bar on the second level mezzanine.