In My Spare Time

When Lucy Dunn, a lawyer-turned-builder/developer with Irvine, Calif.-based Hearthside Homes, is away from the day-to-day regulatory and entitlement issues she deals with, she sings.

A longtime member of a professional choral group that regularly performs all over Europe and in Carnegie Hall, Dunn lately has been lending her talents to builder charities, especially HomeAid America, much to the admiration of her industry colleagues.

Dunn is often out in front of the 55-member Cypress Masterworks Chorale performing solos of classical works. But her growing following in the Southern California builder community is more familiar with her renditions of recent tunes. At a HomeAid fund-raiser with a 1960s theme, Dunn belted out two standards from Jefferson Airplane, “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit.” At a more recent HomeAid event with a ‘50s theme, she sang Peggy Lee hits.

Her biggest kick while performing? When at a recent HomeAid event 400-plus Building Industry Association members lifted their table candles for an encore.