Christine Malecki West loves to talk about sustainable features in her designs. She wants to tell you about the LEED-certified house being built on Providence’s East Side. She’s happy to describe the bamboo floors and rainwater-capturing system she designed as part of a mixed-use project on the city’s West Side.

And when she captured the 2008 Providence Sustainable Housing Competition, her expertise was validated.

But perhaps the best judge of the 39-year-old’s work is that in 2008 she was named principal – and became co-owner – at William Kite Architects Inc. She’s now one of three architects leading the firm. Kite’s leadership structure works “because our values and priorities are the same. We value making a contribution to our community through socially and environmentally positive work and do our best to nurture our professional staff through respect for their talent and dedication,” West wrote in her 40 Under Forty application.

West’s contributions to Rhode Island can be seen in the affordable housing community she designed for Crossroads Rhode Island. Her decision to focus on green building is “not only for the technical aspects but also [an attempt] to understand the underlying social mechanisms in play” with sustainable design.

West is the current vice president for the American Institute of Architects Rhode Island Chapter – she’ll take over the presidency in 2011. And she has served as one of the National Architectural Accreditation Board’s visiting team members, taking part in school evaluations.

Educated at Carnegie Mellon University and Harvard University, West also has taken time to learn about financing real estate construction, which is “surprisingly uncommon” among architects, she said, and in today’s environment, a talent increasingly put to the test. •