Go “green” Moroccan style for you party
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The Marrakesh Room-Phot Courtesy of Mara Myers
The “going green” trend has been huge in the event industry for the last year or two. Luckily for those of us here in Los Angeles, we have a couple of wonderful brand new party rental spaces with impeccable “green” credentials.
From the initial vision through execution and everyday policies, Marrakesh House and The Smog Shoppe, are committed to moving “green” from trend to lifestyle when it comes to entertaining. In today’s article we’ll take a look at Marrakesh House (come back for next time at when we’ll look at The Smog Shoppe).
Marrakesh House is the brainchild of Chris Paine, director of the documentary film Who Killed the Electric Car -and one of the Hollywood community’s most well regarded and influential environmentalists.
The design for Marrakesh House was inspired by Paine’s 2008 visit to Morocco. Realizing that Marrakesh and Los Angeles are located on similar latitudes, and that they shared desert topographies near high mountains, he decided to incorporate Moroccan design into his new home, and based his project on the country’s traditional “riads”, houses arranged around a central open-air courtyard.
Paine wanted to create a showcase residence that incorporated the arts and a unique indoor/ outdoor entertaining space into the home, all infused with his strong environmental values. The renovation was designed to utilize many of the house’s pre-existing features (including a dramatic grove of palm trees at the entrance), thereby reducing potential reconstruction waste by 75%. The home’s furnishings are locally built using sustainable materials, and the house is situated next to one of our region’s newest state parks.
Marrakesh House encourages their event clients to implement “green” reduce/reuse/recycle techiniques. Some suggestions- selling paperless tickets to events online, using serviceware that is recycleable or reuseable, and cutting down on individually packaged products. They also request that caterers separate waste into trash/recycle/compost, and they then use the compost in the house’s organic victory garden. Additionally, they encourage carpooling and are working in the long term to build an electric car shuttle service (of course) to transfer guests up and down the hill with the objectives of reducing carbon footprints and broadening the role of electric cars.
Most of the house, including all the outdoor spaces- backyard, pool area, courtyard, and indoor spaces- the great room (which includes the living room/bar/kitchen), the library/office, and the featured “Marrakesh Room”, a little jewel box designed and decorated in completely Moroccan style, is available for use, and additional bedrooms are available for use as dressing rooms, if needed.
The average fee for renting the space begins at $4000 and goes up depending on size, duration, and scope of the event. It can accommodate up to 650 people for a stand up cocktail and dancing party, and 250-300 for a sit down event. Renters are free to bring in their own caterer, or the Marrakesh House staff can recommend a local green caterer. The contact for events is laura@firecircleevents.com
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