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Martha’s Vineyard’s integrated design/build company

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The Company We Keep

Dear Reader,
This blog is now an archive. John Abrams (Founder of South Mountain, author of this blog, and a book of the same name) retired on December 31, 2022. All posts published up until this date are preserved below.

For updates on John's next chapter, visit abramsangell.com.

For updates on South Mountain's second act, subscribe to our newsletter using the form below.

Uncategorized

Transition Fruition

December 1, 2022 by John Abrams 8 Comments


On January 1st, in just a few short weeks, I will no longer be a South Mountain owner or employee.

Deirdre Bohan, our current COO, will step into the CEO role. She will be supported by a crackerjack leadership team consisting of our four department directors – Ryan Bushey (Architecture & Engineering), Newell Isbell Shinn (Production), Siobhán Mullin (Finance & Administration), and Rob Meyers (Energy Technology). This remarkably well-aligned team represents nearly 100 years of collective South Mountain service. I will become Founder and President Emeritus and, for the next two years, continue to serve on the Board of Directors and work eight hours a week as a consultant. (In my next blog post – in January – I will share more about my Next Chapter).

Beginning in 2014 with our first Avalanche Scenario (what happens tomorrow if I’m buried by an avalanche today), we began to consider the company beyond my tenure. In 2019 we completed the design and details of our next-generation structure. We gave ourselves three years – to this moment – to build the necessary capacities and prepare ourselves for the transition. Our leadership team has worked relentlessly. The work is all but complete – at this point, we are just polishing the mirror of a promising ascendance.

South Mountain is a new company. It’s not the company I birthed and built by the seat of my worn and faded Levis; it’s the company new leadership is guiding to uncharted terrain, using tools, methods, and information barely imaginable a decade or two ago. This I know: due to the people in place and the nature of the work ahead, I leave with the company in its best condition ever. After 50 years, that’s as clear to me as a full moon in a cloudless sky.

I am deeply optimistic about the future of this company under new leadership. Not hopeful. Optimistic. They’re different. Optimism is based on sufficient evidence to convince us that things will get better and better, whereas Hope is not the conviction that an endeavor will turn out well but the certainty that it makes sense, no matter the outcome. In this case, optimism is appropriate.

To thrive, prosper, serve, and endure, an organization needs effective leadership. Leadership – a process of social influence that maximizes the efforts of others toward the achievement of goals – is both a skill and an art. Everyone has some leadership ability, just as everyone has some athletic ability, some musical ability, and some of every other kind of ability. Even if you say you have no musical skills at all, you can still sing a song to your child at bedtime. It’s the same with leadership. Some have more leadership skills than others, just as some are better athletes and better musicians. Some people have an orientation toward leadership; they think about it and practice it. Some work hard to learn it and cultivate it, while some are natural leaders. Most good leaders have aspects of each. John Quincy Adams said that “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” This is what I see in our Leadership Team.

The group of people hired to succeed those who have retired or left in recent years includes a solid component of third-generation leadership as well, which we have consciously built because it will be needed sooner than later. When I founded the company, I was 23. When Deirdre becomes CEO, she will be 55. Will she stay another ten years? Highly likely no more than 15. Future leadership transitions will happen more frequently. I am excited to see, among our 38 employees, significant third-generation leadership potential thriving in the present.

In 1987, when the company was 14 years old, we made our first great transition: becoming a worker co-op. A path to ownership was established for all employees. That was an uncertain experiment. No longer. With adjustments along the way, the structure has served well; this new transition proves the point. Our 18 current owners and the leadership team they have chosen will carry the torch forward.

Photo by Randi Baird

From the people of this company and its new leadership, I have learned more than I’ve taught and gained more than I’ve given. Now my long-time buck-stops- here responsibilities, oversight of the business, and role as the face of the company have been successfully distributed.

I am certain that our clients, our employees, and co-owners, and the various communities we serve are in the best of hands. The future of South Mountain Company has fully arrived. It could not possibly be brighter.

I hope my colleagues will cherish what it is as they make it what it will be, and I hope the journey ahead will be filled with delight, compassion, courage, equity, love, and most of all modesty and humility, the true foundations of all virtues.

Max DePree, the founder of Herman Miller, says in his book Leadership is an Art, “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.” My last act as leader of this company is to say Thank You – to everyone in the company and everyone who reads this. Without You, I would not have been able to be Me, and this company would not be what it is.

Filed Under: Collaboration, Cooperatives, Employee Ownership, Leadership, Long Term Thinking, Small Business, South Mountain Company, Uncategorized

A Design/Build Breakthrough

June 27, 2022 by John Abrams 1 Comment

For many years South Mountain has engaged in master planning and conceptual design efforts for island non-profits – Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, MV Museum, Island Grown Initiative, The MV Public Charter School, Featherstone Center for the Arts, The Nature Conservancy, and others.

But when these organizations moved from planning to design and construction, our design/build commitment (we don’t build what we don’t design and we don’t design what we don’t build) left us out in the cold. Non-profit Boards of Directors, with a fiduciary responsibility to their donors and organizations, generally feel that the conventional project delivery method – i.e., architecture firm designs, builders submit competitive construction bids, and a contract is awarded – is the only viable path. Our design/build method (architecture and construction by the same company) contradicts their allegiance to the perceived financial efficiency of the traditional approach. Even though some board members are attracted to the potential efficacy of single entity responsibility, it’s understandable that they would be concerned about eliminating the financial control of a competitive bid process. This has been a tough obstacle to overcome.

The Breakthrough came in 2017 when we were helping Camp Jabberwocky plan renovations. Camp Jabberwocky is the oldest sleep away camp in America for people with disabilities. It’s a magical place where dreams come true and nothing is impossible. It’s been that way for 65 years.

The main building on their campus needed major change. After some initial programming work, we spoke to their board about the possibility of hiring SMCo for architecture and construction services. The same old problem surfaced. Not long before, we had been hired to develop a schematic design for the new Martha’s Vineyard Museum and had been disappointed when they elected not to accept design/build for the next phases.

This time, we had an idea.

We developed an important clause to add to our design agreement. Essentially, it said that:
• At the completion of design we would prepare a detailed cost estimate for construction.
• Then Camp Jabberwocky could elect to hire an independent professional estimator to provide a comparative estimate.
• If the independent estimator’s construction estimate was close to, or higher, than ours, the construction contract would automatically be awarded to us.
• If it was more than 5% lower, there would be a reconciliation process to assess the reasons for the differences and reach agreement on a final price.
• If the parties were unable to agree, Jabberwocky could use our plans to get bids from other construction companies.

This suggestion breached the dam; we signed a construction contract, and the project was built. Since then, two other boards – Martha’s Vineyard Community Services (MVCS) and Island Grown Initiative (IGI) – have agreed to this approach for major projects. The result: three of the most rewarding endeavors in our history.

It’s notable that by the time we completed the Jabberwocky design, enough trust had been built that their board decided to forego the comparative estimate opportunity and directly engage SMCo for construction.

MVCS is the island’s umbrella social service agency; it provides an array of services to thousands of islanders each year. Just after the Jabberwocky project was completed, we created a master plan to replace the dilapidated and insufficient MVCS buildings – to make a new campus – and completed the design for their Early Childhood Center, the first phase of the campus re-build. Their board took a more conservative approach and hired an outside estimation firm, whose pricing turned out to be higher than ours. They signed our construction contract, and we completed the project on time and on budget in 2021. The organization and the families the building serves could not be happier. We begin design of phase two this fall.

Meanwhile, we will soon complete design for a new Education and Innovation Center, three units of staff housing, and extensive infrastructure improvements at IGI’s Island Grown Farm. When we complete our construction estimate in the fall, we do not know how the board will proceed. Either way (the Jabberwocky way or the MVCS way) works for us.

One way or another, we are thrilled by the prospect of building this project, about which longtime land planner and sustainability advocate Rob Kendall recently wrote in the Vineyard papers, as public permitting hearings proceeded at The Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC), “This is a gift from the Island community to itself. The plan has the long-term educational potential to move the island closer to a more sustainable food and energy future.”

We are looking forward to IGI construction, to MVCS Phase Two, and to more of this mission-driven institutional work in the future. Using SMCo’s integrated design/build approach, we are bringing high performance and high-quality development to a sector we respect and organizations we cherish. This trilogy of exemplary projects embodies our values and allows us to contribute to and synergize with our community in a very public way. Our staff loves the opportunity to explore different building types and scales, new ways to practice our craft, and the purpose and meaning embedded in this work. We are humbled by the great work these organizations do and proud of our modest contributions to their success.

And it’s all because we stopped seeing our approach as an obstacle, gave up
trying to convince boards to take us on faith, listened carefully to their concerns, and devised a way to alleviate them. There are lessons here: saying no to no is valuable, finding the heart of an impasse can inspire innovation, and making minor method adjustments can produce major harvests.

In this case, a simple solution caused a quantum leap.

Filed Under: Collaboration, Martha's Vineyard, Small Business, Triple Bottom Line, Uncategorized

Innovation, Strategic Planning & Starting With Why

May 16, 2022 by John Abrams Leave a Comment


Last week, all 41 members of our company gathered in the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse for a “Day of Business”. The purpose was to review and adjust our Mission and our Guiding Principles , and to engage in a strategic planning exercise to envision the next five years for our company. As partial preparation for this and the department-level visioning that proceeded it, Deirdre asked me to share some perspective on Innovation. The following is an edited version of a memo I wrote to the company.

—

I don’t think of innovation as being in any way separate from daily work, meaning it’s not some special kind of work – it’s just what we do. Incremental innovation (small improvement to existing services) is happening every day at South Mountain. Every time we improve a system, an approach, a design, a use of technology – we’re innovating.

There are three other types of innovation often recognized by innovation thinkers. These past few years at SMCo have been chock full of each, big and small. The types, and just one example from recent times:

Sustaining innovation (significant improvement to existing services)
Example: The recent overhaul of our Management and Governance System . This will significantly expand internal participation, transparency, and engagement across the company.

Radical innovation (creating new markets)
Example: Establishing and building our Energy Technology business, which took solar from something we employed on our own projects to something we offered to residential, institutional, and commercial customers island-wide, including working people who we do not often serve with our design/build services.

Disruptive innovation (creating new products)
Example: Expanding our services to creating high performance buildings and campuses for island non-profits like Camp Jabberwocky, Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, and Island Grown Farm – a whole new kind of work for us with significant learning and community engagement rewards.

Innovation is harder than maintaining the status quo and is often accompanied by a healthy feeling of discomfort. Luckily, the drive to push through is baked into SMCo DNA. It’s a constant gravitational pull – a non-innovative SMCo would be unrecognizable to each of us.

It began that way. When I say (probably too often) that “we never know what we’re doing, never have,” it’s because innovation was the foundation of this company, and it still is. We’re always in the process of learning how to do what we’re doing.

We are also constantly building incrementally on the innovations of others, adding our innovations to theirs. We are forever prospecting our various networks and colleagues for innovative practices that we can employ and enhance.

My two favorite books about innovation are Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, by Carmine Gallo (a deeper, more comprehensive treatment of the same subject is Walter Isaakson’s book Steve Jobs) and Let My People Go Surfing, by Yvon Chouinard.

Jobs’ “Seven Secrets of Innovation” are:
1. Do What You Love. Think differently about your career.
2. Put a Dent in the Universe. Think differently about your vision.
3. Kick Start Your Brain. Think differently about how you think.
4. Sell Dreams, Not Products. Think differently about your customers.
5. Say No to 1,000 Things. Think differently about design.
6. Create Insanely Good Experiences. Think differently about your brand experience.
7. Master The Message. Think differently about your story.

Chouinard’s book does not position itself as a book about Innovation, but it emphatically is. A quote:

“While values should never change, every organization, business, government, or religion must be adaptive and resilient and constantly embrace new ideas and methods of operation.”

In the case of both Apple and Patagonia, Jobs’ first two “secrets” – Do What You Love and Put a Dent in the Universe – tower above the rest: be sure to work where your passion lies and be sure your work makes a difference. If you do just those two, you are bound to innovate. (How could you not if you’re in a position to make a difference about that which you love and care about?)

But what does innovation have to do with the strategic planning exercise we are about to engage in? The primary points of intersection, I think, are in visioning the future and setting goals to reach that future. Identifying the innovations that might make a difference. Creating goals that look ahead and that, if they manifest, will allow us to look back from an entirely new place.

Making an overall vision from which the goals derive may be more about another “I” word: Imagination. We must imagine a different future to create a platform on which to innovate. Visioning helps us to arrive at the place we imagined. John Lennon’s song “Imagine” is one of the most treasured and visionary songs ever. If we can imagine what we want, we can get there. Little things but big things too. Climb the 14ers out west (get to the top). Hike the Appalachian Trail (get to the end). Transition to SMCo Next Generation (get to the new beginning).

Our job is to imagine and define the visions that are the stage-set for our innovation goals.

Innovation is a survival mechanism too. Someone once said, “Either we become good at planting in the spring, or we learn how to beg in the fall.” Planting in the spring must be a hallmark of our practice.

Simon Sinek, in the book Start With Why, says that there are three parts to attracting people to your product or service and to inspiring team members to innovate: the What (what you do), the How (how you do it) and the Why (why you do it). The most successful companies, he maintains, are those that lead with – and consistently emphasize – the Why.

From its humble garage workshop beginnings to its extraordinary position in commerce today, Apple has always led with the Why:

“Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently.” Front and center, always, is their purpose. Only after that comes How: “The way we challenge the status quo is making our products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user-friendly.”The What is really just an afterthought: “By the way, we happen to make great computers.”

Most companies and organizations start with What, then get to How, and only later (if at all) get to Why. This is a fundamental oversight.

The best possible way for us to inspire innovation throughout our company is to focus our primary attention on Why. Why are we doing these things? When we nail the Why, we can begin to create pathways through which new capacities and new value can flow.

Innovation comes in all forms. Once we were beginning a new house on the site of a decrepit old one that the clients wanted torn down. We decided that one part, the oldest, was in fine condition and convinced our clients to let us move it and make it into a garage with a studio above. We built a slab-on-grade foundation to move it to. Now, when you move a house, you generally place steel beams under it, lift it, set it over a foundation, cut holes in the foundation for the beams, set it down, pull the beams, and patch the holes. In this case, with a slab on grade, was no place for the beams to go, no slots for them to lower into. The building could be placed over the foundation, but how would it be lowered in a way that would allow the beams to be pulled?

Our crew asked the mover, Mike Reid. He said, “come back Thursday morning and I’ll show you.” Our crew arrived, Mike and his helpers pulled in, and they started to unload blocks of ice from the back of the truck. They set the blocks of ice, which were taller than the steel beams, on the foundation, lowered the building onto the ice, pulled out the steel beams, said “You guys are all set here” and drove off. Twelve hours later the ice had melted and the building was sitting, fair and square, on the foundation.

Innovation, pure and simple…on ice!

—

Note: I first saw Jon Foreman’s extraordinary land art, used as illustration here, on Mitch Anthony’s amazing blog Love and Work, which is one of the few blogs that I read, religiously, top to bottom, week after week on Friday afternoons. Highly recommend!

Filed Under: Long Term Thinking, Uncategorized Tagged With: Innovation

Get Out The Vote: Get it ALL-THE-WAY Out

March 29, 2022 by John Abrams Leave a Comment


This is a memo I recently wrote to all SMCo employees in advance of a company meeting specifically devoted to Housing.

The effort to create an MV Housing Bank modeled after the MV Land Bank is now 16 months old. A broad coalition of islanders, young and old, has been engaged in a complex effort to make this happen. Abbie and I both serve on the Steering Committee of The Coalition to Create the MV Housing Bank, and have been deeply involved from the beginning.

The Goal To establish a regional Housing Bank that provides a reliable and significant source of long-term funding to advance year-round housing

Revenue Source A 2% transfer fee on all real estate sales paid by buyer. A minimum of the first $1,000,000 of the sales price will be exempt from this fee.

Projected Revenue $10-12 million per year

Governance & Operation
  • Seven elected commissioners (one from each town + one at-large)
  • Professional staff
  • Town Advisory Boards which must approve all spending in their town
What It Will Do
  • Receive and fund proposals
  • Provide grants, loans, loan guarantees, rental assistance, purchase restrictions, etc
    • Individuals, for profits and non-profits, and public entities will be eligible for funding
  • Buy and sell real estate
    • It will not develop, manage, or maintain.

Who It Will Serve Those in need of stable housing who make up to 240% of Area Median Income ($251K for a family of four) and below. This allows for the future certain rise in real estate costs (Nantucket is now at $3M median home sale price).

Requirements & Priorities
  • At least 75% of funding must be used to re-purpose previously developed properties with existing buildings
    • Reclaiming short-term rental (Airbnb) properties is the focus
  • All new construction must adhere to stringent environmental requirements (no fossil fuels, no new net nitrogen pollution, ecological restrictions) and priorities (honor smart growth principles, avoid priority habitats)
What Does It Take To Get It Done
  • Passage in at least 4 of the 6 towns at town meeting and town elections
  • Passage in the state legislature
  • Final ballot vote to adopt the legislation upon its return from Beacon Hill
Relevance

Existing subsidized affordable housing programs (like IHT and DCRHA) can’t come close to meeting the need. Over 1,000 households are currently in sub-standard housing.

On top of that, countless Vineyarders make too much money to qualify for limited current assistance but too little to enter the inflated housing market.

The housing bank will have both funds and tools with which to serve these people.

Here’s just one example that would be relevant to some of you: Let’s say that you can afford to spend $650,000 for a house, but you can’t find anything suitable for less than $900,000. You could apply to The Housing Bank for a $250,000 shared appreciation loan to make up that difference. The way that we envision this working is:

  • If you never sell that house, you never pay back the loan.
  • If you do sell the house, you pay back the loan and only a portion of the appreciation of that house during the time between the receipt of the loan and the sale.

This kind of program availability will fundamentally change the housing issue for a large number of Vineyarders.

The Lift

Passing the Housing Bank, in both the towns and at the state legislature, is a heavy lift. It is by no means certain. To date, our efforts have been focused on:

  • Designing the housing bank
  • Bringing it to the community, including countless meetings with town boards, organizations, businesses, etc
  • Gathering support
  • Drafting warrant articles and getting them on all six town meeting warrants and ballots
  • Drafting legislation (26 pages long) to submit to the legislature

Now our focus has changed. Between now and town meetings/ballot elections, it’s all about Getting Out The Vote! A major effort is underway to get people to the town meetings and the ballot box. The effort is particularly focused on younger members of the population, many of whom rarely or never go to town meetings and some of whom aren’t even registered.

The Ask

Although lawn signs are appearing and an extensive social media campaign is underway, this is primarily a person-to-person effort.

Here’s what we ask:

  • Browse the extensive information on our website: If you’re a person who likes the details, check out the Warrant Article. If you want a general overview, check out the FAQ. If you feel opposed to the Housing Bank, have a look at the Common Misconceptions section to see if you might have something wrong.
  • Personally talk to at least five people you know about the Housing Bank. Ask them to go to their town meeting and their town election and vote for the Housing Bank. Ask them to talk to five others. If someone asks a question you can’t answer, send them to Abbie or me.
  • Go to your town’s meeting and your town’s election and vote YES for the Housing Bank!

This is an exceptionally important moment in time for the Vineyard. Please join us in this effort. It will change the future of island life – for all of us – forever.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

On Building Second Homes

February 1, 2022 by John Abrams 4 Comments

This piece was written for and published in Fine Homebuilding. Thanks to Kevin Ireton (former FH editor) for the idea and his stellar editing. As always, he held my feet to the fire.

“How can you justify devoting so much time and energy to building vacation homes for rich people?”

It’s a good question,and one that I’ve heard often during my nearly 50 years on Martha’s Vineyard. In resort communities, many don’t have a first home. They’re scrambling to find stable housing while more than half the houses sit empty much of the year. That’s a problem. And in light of our climate crisis, the significant materials and energy dedicated to building and operating those houses compounds the problem.

When I came here in the 1970s, designing and building homes was so thrilling that I was content to build anything that developed new skills and knowledge. Working with head and hands gave me great pleasure; the idea that people would pay me to do it felt like a bonus. After a few years, however, the joy of the work and the satisfaction of the results were no longer enough. By then second homes had become a staple of our company, South Mountain, and my colleagues and I began to ask ourselves how we could justify this work.

The answer came in 1980. It began with a phone call from a woman named Madeline, who asked if I would look at a piece of land with her. She was a 60-year-old librarian whose husband had recently died. They had no children, and they had always lived in rented apartments. Her dream was to own property. She had $7,000 in cash. A realtor showed her a lot priced at exactly that, but her friends advised against buying it due to its topography and location.

The steeply sloping parcel was adjacent to the main road from Vineyard Haven to Edgartown. Traffic on the road was noisy and constant. The property faced due south toward a beautiful little valley. Except for the proximity to the road, it was lovely. I suggested an earth-bermed, partially underground house and told her we could design the noise of traffic right out of the picture. She was excited. She bought it.

At about the same time, I was approached by a single mother who owned property in West Tisbury and wondered whether we could build a house she could afford. Her budget was too small, but we had heard that the Farmer’s Home Administration was providing 1% loans to those with low and moderate income. We hoped to bundle a nice passive-solar house for Cathy and the earth-bermed house for Madeline, though the Farmer’s Home fixed-expenditure cap did not take into account either the Vineyard’s high construction costs or the long-term energy savings our houses would realize. We applied anyway.

We created plans for simple, compact houses and submitted them to Farmer’s Home with a request that they raise the mortgage limit (from $40,000 to $48,000) on each house due to the energy savings, which we analyzed and documented. After some bureaucratic wrangling, the increase was approved. Unfortunately, it still wasn’t enough to build the houses, unless we cut our overhead and profit to nothing and reduced our labor rates to below cost. Additional subsidies were needed.

Enter David and Pat Squire, who had purchased land in Edgartown and designed a second home with a Boston architect. They asked if we would be interested in bidding on the construction, and I told them that South Mountain built only those projects that we designed and that we didn’t bid on construction projects. They persisted, and a radical thought occurred to me: What if we gave the Squires a bid that had an explicit “premium” built in to subsidize the two Farmer’s Home houses? I shared the idea with the Squires, and they invited us to submit such a bid.

Our bid, one of three, was roughly $40,000 more than the next highest. They chose us nonetheless, and we built their house. We also built the two small houses for Madeline and Cathy by making up the shortfall with our extra earnings from the Squire project. Dreams came true, and mortgage payments were under $200. The Squires’ philosophical alignment with our purpose led them to become strong supporters of affordable-housing efforts on the Vineyard. Years later, when the Island Affordable Housing Fund was established to raise money for affordable housing, David became an important board member.

That was the first and only time that South Mountain inflated the cost of a project to support affordable housing efforts, but the experience inspired an idea that shaped the future of our company. If we could become a reasonably profitable enterprise, we could devote a portion of our earnings to affordable housing work for our community, and we could engage our wealthy clients in the issue.

At that point, the work of building second homes became meaningful. From then on, I often told new clients that they could count on me to ask them, in the future, to help with the Vineyard’s affordable housing problem (which they exacerbate, of course). I have done that now for 40 years, and the response has been heartwarming millions of dollars donated for attainable year-round housing.

Building second homes also allowed us to experiment and take risks. One of these occurred in 1987 when, in response to a request from two long-time employees for a greater stake, I sold South Mountain to my employees (and myself). We became a worker-owned cooperative and began to introduce new values to our business activities. For example, we committed to the creation of lifelong living-wage jobs and family-first policies, such as flexible work arrangements and stellar benefits. We began to codify our commitment to our community by donating to essential nonprofits and engaging in pro-bono work. We became a triple bottom line company long before we’d ever heard the term, measuring our success not just by our profits but also by effects on people and the planet.

Our journey since then has been influenced by many others, but particularly by Patagonia, the outdoor clothing and gear company that has become the gold standard for corporate social and environmental responsibility. Just like our second homes, many of Patagonia’s products are nonessential. Not everyone needs a pair of $300 ski pants or a lifetime wetsuit. So the company balances that reality with its social and environmental contributions, its political advocacy, and its important innovations, such as pioneering the use of organic and recycled cotton, and buying back old garments to refurbish and resell for far less than new ones.

Inspiration from Patagonia and others, combined with our own cantankerous sense of justice, has helped South Mountain become at once a profitable business, an active agent of community change, and a supporter of the local economy that supports us.

Today our second-home work is unusual in several ways. First, we restrict the size of the houses we are willing to build. Only on rare occasions, on very large parcels, have we designed and built houses over 3500 sq. ft.

We also use our second-home work for de-facto research to advance the building industry, especially with regards to energy performance, comfort, health, and durability. By experimenting with the homes of our well-to-do clients, we’ve learned a lot about high-performance building. As a result, we set minimum performance standards for our buildings that are well above code. Now we mostly produce net-zero-possible buildings. We use reclaimed materials extensively and are beginning to reduce embodied carbon (a work in progress with net-zero carbon as the ultimate goal).

By elevating performance standards, we make models that others can emulate and that we can incorporate in our affordable housing work. For us, truly affordable housing differs from luxury housing in only three ways: it’s smaller, it’s less detailed, and it’s differently financed. The performance and quality are uncompromised.

Perhaps the biggest step we have taken with our second-home work is doing less of it. Over time, we diversified South Mountain’s work into five parts; here’s a rough breakdown over the past year in terms of dollars per category:
• Limited-use second homes: 10%
• Year-round, fully occupied homes: 20%
• Attainable workforce housing: 10%
• Institutional work for nonprofits: 35%
• Solar for homes and businesses not built by us: 25%

This is only one year, and it happens to be a year with an uncharacteristically small amount of second-home work, but it indicates a direction: less harm, more good. Causing no harm is impossible — we are part of the problem too — but we share our experiences and hope others will join our push to turn some of the negative impacts of building into positive benefits for communities and the environment.

An added benefit of our business practices is that the second-home clients we attract tend to share our values. We love working with them. They go from being clients to becoming partners in our efforts to make the Vineyard a better place. Many have become friends for life. The rewards of this work and these relationships have become deeply ingrained in our core purpose.

Filed Under: Collaboration, Housing, Long Term Thinking, Martha's Vineyard, Small Business, Triple Bottom Line, Uncategorized

A Joyous Building

November 16, 2021 by John Abrams 5 Comments

When a pack of wide-eyed youngsters cut the ribbons for the Island’s new Early Education and Care Center (EECC) earlier this month, it was a crowning moment – for both Martha’s Vineyard Community Services (MVCS) and South Mountain. It concluded five years of intensive planning, design, permitting and construction. (Technically it was far longer – MVCS first contacted us about renovating or replacing their outgrown, outmoded, and problematic buildings in 1999. But it wasn’t until 2017 that the organization was ready to create a long-term vision for a new campus and raise the funds to make it happen).

The new building is a tremendous improvement, but ultimately, it’s the program that the building houses that’s more important than the building itself. In a recent Vineyard Gazette article, Louisa Hufstader writes that “Nearly half of the Island’s children aged five and younger have no place to go for care and education while their parents are working.” The new EECC is the Vineyard’s largest early child care provider, with space for 65 kids plus a home-based Head Start program that accommodates another 40.

The scruffiest of the ribbon-cutting bunch – with his long unruly blonde hair – was my three-year old grandson Rockland. Among those behind him was Heather Quinn.

In the summer of 2008, my daughter Sophie was working at the Art Cliff Diner. Heather worked there too. At the time my wife Chris was the director of the Chilmark Preschool. Sophie learned that Heather had early childhood training and was a licensed preschool teacher. She told her mom about her new friend and said she should offer her a job. Chris did, and Heather took it.

In 2010 Chris was diagnosed with brain cancer and had surgery to remove it. One day during recovery at Mass General, Chris had a conference call with her teachers at the Chilmark Pre-School. She told them it was unlikely she’d be back for a long time (which turned out to be never). She said, “Heather, I want you to be the director. Laurisa, Talia, and Kathie – I want you to support Heather in every way that you can, and I know you will.” Both things happened.

A few years later Heather was hired to be the director of Early Childhood Programs at MVCS. Due to under-staffing, Heather has been teaching this year (as director, she usually doesn’t). Remarkably, the class that she teaches is Rock’s. Full circle. The woman mentored by Chris (the grandmother Rock never knew, because she died six months before he was born) is now Rock’s teacher. One of those multi-generational serendipitous stories that the Vineyard is full of, right?

Just a few years before Sophie met Heather at the Art Cliff, a young architect named Ryan Bushey came to work at South Mountain. Over time he became a company owner and today he is our Director of Architecture.

Ryan was the architect for the new EECC. But he was really the conductor of a comprehensive orchestra that always played in tune, due in large part to his attentiveness, creativity, collaborative spirit, leadership, and dedication. He deftly wove together:

  • MVCS staff (whose input was invaluable)
  • their highly effective building committee (led by board member Stephanie Mashek)
  • a collection of consultants (including Boston early childhood specialists Studio G)
  • a team of engineers who designed the structure and mechanical systems
  • town and regional regulatory officials
  • SMCo interior designer Beth Kostman
  • SMCo production staff led by Director of Production Newell Isbell-Shinn and Project Lead Rocco Bellebuono
  • our construction partner The Valle Group (based in Falmouth)
  • and a host of trade partners who did a stellar job.
Photo by Lynn Christophers for the MV Times

The process was tremendously complex but there was little strife. Despite the pandemic, it was completed on time and on budget. When students and staff transitioned from the old center to this new one, they went from a building that couldn’t have been much worse to a one that – I say immodestly, but with conviction – couldn’t be much better. The contrast is stark.

The new building epitomizes high performance in terms of energy, comfort, health, safety, and durability. The envelope is super-insulated. The mechanical systems are designed to provide highly efficient fossil-fuel-free ventilation, heat, and cooling (as designed, the ventilation system exceeded pandemic standards and required no updating). All finishes and furnishings are non-toxic. And with the addition of solar during the next phase, the building will likely produce more energy than it consumes.

The project also minimizes the negative impact on the Island ecology.  Stormwater is managed carefully with permeable pavement and rain gardens. Wastewater is treated with a denitrification system. The native plantings will thrive without irrigation. 

This is a building full of light. Nobody fails to notice this when they enter. Large windows and generous skylights flood every nook and cranny with daylight.

It’s a tranquil place. The teachers say their job is easier now than it was in the past – the thoughtful design, soothing colors, beautiful equipment, environmental comfort – all of these promote ease and well-being for staff and students alike. Parents even say it lifts their mood at drop-off and pick-up.

Donors can be proud that it’s economical too. Approximately 90% of the work was done by islanders, which rarely occurs with Vineyard public and institutional buildings. According to a benchmarking study conducted by CHA Companies, the owner’s representative for the project, this building cost the same or less than lower quality, less efficient off-island buildings of similar scale and use. Americans have become accustomed to mediocre buildings fashioned by a lowest-bidder, race-to-the-bottom mentality. There is no good reason for this. This building will cost little to maintain and operate, and it should serve our community well for 100 years or more.

Aside from all that, the building has another quality that results from Ryan and Beth’s design approach. Sometimes I pick Rock up after school and take him to the nearby skate park where he loves to ride his scooter with his friends. When he leaves the classroom, he always bounds up the cushion sculpture in the center of the atrium and jumps off the top. Joyously.

It’s a joyous building.


Filed Under: Collaboration, Long Term Thinking, Martha's Vineyard, Uncategorized Tagged With: Community Services, Early Childhood, Heather Quinn, MVCS, Rockland, ryan bushey

Solutions On The Horizon

September 10, 2021 by John Abrams 3 Comments

Summer’s done. The west burns, the east floods, and there’s nowhere for working people to live on Martha’s Vineyard. Comparing the worldwide climate crisis to the local affordable housing shortage may seem like comparing the 20-year Afghanistan war to a Saturday night bar fight, but there’s a connection.

The current condition of each requires massive transformation to solve; the fundamental difference is scale. We know how to overcome climate change, but we don’t yet know if we will. We know how to solve the local housing crisis, too, and – lo and behold – there are two indications that we just might. The first is circumstantial; the second is intentional.

Something that is happening right now has never happened before: in each of the six island towns, there is, simultaneously, one or more significant affordable housing projects moving forward. In a recent editorial in the Martha’s Vineyard Times called “Making Progress,” most of the projects were listed. Here they are again, paraphrased for brevity:


  1. In Tisbury, Island Housing Trust (IHT) is in the construction phase of a 20-unit pocket neighborhood of affordable apartments at Kuehn’s Way. Proposed mixed-use development at the mini-golf course on State Road would also include affordable housing.
  2. Edgartown is planning 36 rentals and four homeownership opportunities on town-owned land at Meshacket Way.
  3. West Tisbury voters have approved the transfer of town-owned land at Lambert’s Cove and State Road to their affordable housing committee. And recently, IHT, the MV Land Bank, and developer William Cumming revealed plans for the old Olsen Farm that will include eleven housing units for members of the island workforce, especially teachers.
  4. Oak Bluffs is planning 60 units on its eight-acre Southern Tier property, and CapeBuilt plans to include affordable housing in its development on Lagoon Ridge off Barnes Road.
  5. Aquinnah and IHT will partner on four units on land abutting the town hall.
  6. Chilmark is in the early stages of planning for housing at Peaked Hill Pasture.

Others are being planned. Island Grown Initiative will build four units of farmworker housing at Island Grown Farms in Oak Bluffs. Most significantly of all, perhaps, the MV Hospital and Healthy Aging of Martha’s Vineyard have secured property and much of the funding for a large project for elders. It will house 70 people of mixed incomes at a complex using the innovative Green House model that has been successfully replicated nearly 400 times nationwide.

The combined result of this activity may produce roughly 250 new affordable and elderly housing opportunities. If they are all completed in the next five years, they would satisfy the ambitious Martha’s Vineyard Commission Housing Needs Assessment goal of producing 50 units of new community housing per year.

This unlikely convergence of tremendous parallel efforts is the first indication – the circumstantial one – that we will solve this crisis.

With all this development, there is opportunity to contribute to the solution of that bigger problem: our climate crisis. Buildings (their construction and operation) account for nearly 40% of all carbon emissions. With care, attention, and investment, we can make buildings responsible for significantly less carbon than the norm. It’s even possible to build carbon-neutral (and carbon positive!). We should be doing nothing less.

All of these projects need funding to bridge the significant gap between cost and affordability and to ensure health, comfort, durability, energy efficiency and reduced carbon content.

That brings us to the second indicator – the intentional one.

In November 2020, Coalition to Create the MV Housing Bank (CCMVHB) formed to establish a regional housing bank funded by a 2% transfer fee like the MV Land Bank. The effort has a full head of steam. We have joined forces with a dozen other cities and towns to craft statewide transfer fee legislation and are working with all six towns to pass warrant articles supporting the housing bank. A dedicated funding source producing $7-10 million annually for housing would allow for progress like we have never seen before.

All the projects listed earlier involve development or re-development. The housing bank could support these efforts financially, but it could take other approaches as well.

Think how many campground cottages, Edgartown bungalows, Chilmark colonials, and West Tisbury farmhouses could be purchased, re-furbished, taken off the short-term rental market, and made into stable year-round housing (rather than being demolished and replaced with mega-mansions to rent for a ton of money in the summer and sit empty and dark the rest of the year).

Consider how many people, way short on a down payment for one of the ridiculously priced fixer-uppers on the market today, could walk into the Housing Bank office and say, “How about one of those ‘shared appreciation loans’ for me? I’ll pay it back. I’ll work hard. I always have. You can count on me.”

We probably can, and it sure wouldn’t hurt to try. (Shared appreciation loans would provide down payment assistance to those struggling to enter our inaccessible housing market and would be repaid upon sale or re-financing – with some of the appreciation returning so the funds could be re-purposed in the future).

Our partner, the Land Bank (which has consistently supported affordable housing efforts and has volunteered to collect the housing bank funds using its existing apparatus), has transformed the island for our pleasure, health, stability, and well-being. That is precisely what the Housing Bank could do for people. Land Conservation and People Conservation. Two sides of the same coin. Currency for community. An investment in generations to come.

During the past 25 years, Vineyard non-profits and municipalities have slowed the march of the housing crisis through a variety of important finger-in-the-dike efforts. But if you want to get to Mexico and you’re heading for Canada, just slowing down won’t get you to where you’re going. You need to change direction. The Housing Bank will combine with current efforts to turn us all the way around.

When will the moment come that we see a similar light at the end of the climate tunnel?

Filed Under: Uncategorized

The Two Best Vineyard Banks

March 2, 2021 by John Abrams 1 Comment

Disclaimer: These words do not reflect the formal position of CCMVHB; they are my own.

One Exists. One doesn’t …yet.

In the 1980s the Vineyard experienced an explosion of population growth and development. Access to beaches and properties once enjoyed by all became limited. Islanders, sensing their way of life slipping away, got organized. After a grassroots campaign and an act by the Massachusetts State legislature, The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank was established in 1986. Funded by a 2% transfer fee paid by buyers of Vineyard real estate, the Land Bank has transformed the island in diverse ways by buying and managing property for conservation and public access. It has expanded and created countless trail systems and provided new ways for the public to get to our beaches. It has initiated farming and affordable housing collaborations. It has helped to preserve wildlife habitats, pond and aquifer water quality, fishing and shellfishing – the essential ecological services we depend on.

The Land Bank has provided significant solutions, but their job is not complete; according to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, nearly 16,000 acres of developable land remain up for grabs on the island, and it took the Land Bank more than three decades to protect 3,500.

Meanwhile, the pandemic real estate boom has intensified our affordable housing crisis. Despite 25 years of progress, the situation is worse than ever:
• There is a $780,000 gap between what the average Island family can afford and the median home sale price ($1.15 million in 2020).
• Only 38% of our housing stock is available for year-round occupancy
• Over 600 year-round residents and their families are waiting for year-round rentals, including 210 children.
• Rents are 30% above the statewide median costs while wages are 27% below the statewide median income.
• Over 300 year-round residents are currently on waiting lists to purchase homes within their financial reach.
• More than 1,200 Vineyard residents pay more than half their income for housing costs.

Another way of life is slipping away fast. Only a major long-term funding source can preserve it. It’s time for The Martha’s Vineyard Housing Bank, the other most important Vineyard bank. This is not to take anything away from the importance of existing local commercial banks; only to say that the Land Bank and the Housing Bank are the vital cornerstones of a balanced and prosperous future.

Island Housing Trust’s “Eliakim’s Way” neighborhood is West Tisbury.

We’ve tried before. A 2005 Gazette editorial stated: “The housing bank initiative has cleared its first major regional hurdle now that all six towns have thrown their support behind the idea, which aims to create a bank of money for affordable housing using a transfer fee on most real estate transactions. The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank is the model . . . “

With overwhelming support from the Vineyard, the Housing Bank failed in 2005 in the state legislature due to the strong lobbying of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, who disliked the concept of transfer fees. At the time, the median home sale price was approximately $500,000.

That was then. This is now.

With median real estate prices over $1,000,000 and the need greater than ever; there have been multiple calls for a renewed effort to establish a Housing bank.

They are being answered.


The Coalition to Create The MV Housing Bank (CCMVHB) is a citizens’ campaign to establish a regional Housing Bank for Martha’s Vineyard.

The campaign is led by a 12-person Steering Committee co-chaired by Julie Fay and Arielle Faria. (Other members include Kimberly Angell, Makenzie Brookes, Caitlin Burbidge, Stan McMullen, Elaine Miller, Lucy Morrison, Juliet Mulinare, Doug Ruskin, Abbie Zell, and me.)

We are supported by one paid staffer (Laura Silber, our Coalition Coordinator) and a growing “Coalition Council” whose members include selectpersons, town affordable housing committee members, county commissioners, business leaders, realtors, young professionals, housing activists, and those in need of housing – from every town.

Meanwhile, there is a dramatically different political climate in the Commonwealth. At this moment the towns and cities of Nantucket, Provincetown, Boston, Somerville, Brookline, and Concord have all passed Home Rule Petitions to create Housing Banks. All are based on transfer fees. A coalition of these communities has formed which includes the Vineyard. The island coalition is working closely with our state representatives – Dylan Fernandes in the House and Julian Cyr in the Senate.

To meet the goals of the Housing Production Plans created by the six towns in 2018, we will need to create hundreds of units of community housing during the years to come.

It is time for action.


The plan to model the new Housing Bank after the existing MV Land Bank means there is no identifiable group of people (besides the pool of unidentified future buyers of Vineyard real estate) who will be adversely affected, and because this would be an entirely new funding source, it would not tap into or alter existing funding streams like the short-term rental tax or Community Preservation Act funds.

Some ask why not try to use some of the existing Land Bank funds? Not only is it a flawed strategy to pit one good thing against another – conservation vs housing – but there just isn’t enough money; the Land Bank needs its funds. More than 60% of its budget goes to land management and to service existing debt; it needs the rest to continue its work.

Another common question is: will this lead to extensive new development? We will certainly need some. But the Vineyard has 18,000 existing buildings. Some of these can be purchased and re-purposed as affordable housing. Accessory dwellings (ADUs) can be built on developed properties. I hope the Housing Bank will prioritize expenditures on already-developed land and mechanisms like down-payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.

Winners of the “Jenney Way” housing lottery, crossing the threshold of their new home.

During the first half of 2021, CCMVHB is forming committees in each town, bringing the concept to town boards, and designing the new housing bank. During the year that follows, we expect to create warrant articles in all six towns and bring them to town meetings; if successful in all six towns, we will advance to the state legislature.

Between now and then, there are plenty of questions to answer: how much will the transfer fee be, who will be exempted from paying, who will be served, and for what uses will funding be available? In terms of governance, I hope the Housing Bank will adhere closely to the Land Bank structure – run by an elected commissioner from each town, a representative from the Commonwealth, and professional staff. Each town would have a Housing Bank Town Advisory Board which would have to approve development in its town. This combines regional vision and oversight with ultimate local control and is a tried-and-true method that has worked for the Land Bank for 35 years. There’s no need to re-invent this wheel.


Community consists of a place and those who have a relationship with it. Land conservation is important. People conservation is equally vital.

School teachers and social workers, farmers and fisherman, nurses and nannies, truck drivers and technicians, artists and arborists, plumbers and plasterers, carpenters and curmudgeons, troublemakers and troubleshooters, those of different ages, abilities, incomes, colors, religious beliefs, and gender identities – we need all of these people to maintain a living, breathing community.

Taking bold measures about affordable housing will ensure that the Vineyard community we know and love won’t recede like the eroding shoreline.

Support the CCMVHB effort by
– Visiting ccmvhb.org to learn more, and informing your peers.
– Emailing info@ccmvhb.org to join the Coalition.
– Making a donation to The MV Community Foundation earmarked for CCMVHB to cover campaign expenses
– Following our progress on Instagram and Facebook @ccmvhb.

An island united can get this done once and for all. Our two essential Banks, working side-by-side, can assure the future we all wish for rather than the one that circumstances will otherwise dictate.

Filed Under: Housing, Long Term Thinking, Martha's Vineyard, Politics, Uncategorized

Riding Toward A New Future

December 4, 2020 by John Abrams 1 Comment

More than 25 years ago, I was in a room somewhere organizing a conference for the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. There were two new faces among the group – Marc Rosenbaum and Bruce Coldham – who were engaging and appeared to know their stuff. Not long after, The Wampanoag Tribe asked SMCo to design a new Headquarters, the first building they would raise as a tribe in 300 years. I was excited, but knew we had neither knowledge or capacity to take this on alone. I asked Marc (a mechanical and systems engineer from New Hampshire) and Bruce (an architect from Western MA) if they would collaborate. They agreed; we did that project together and several more after. Although we collaborated deeply on all aspects, at the heart of our shared work, Marc was Numbers, Bruce was Pictures, and I was Words. Together, a seamless composition.

Thus began a relationship that has endured. For several decades, Marc was our go-to consultant about all things energy and systems. He taught us so much about buildings that we wouldn’t have known otherwise. He still does!

Ten years ago, our relationship changed. Marc and wife Jill moved to the Vineyard. He became an SMCo employee, and later an owner. His contributions to the company, to our buildings, and to our institutional knowledge ever since have been entirely remarkable. He thinks in a way that is unlike anyone I’ve ever met. The thing about Marc is – he cares. About truth, excellence, people, life, and impeccable data-driven information. It matters to him to make a difference; he’s committed to improving conditions for people on our planet. He does – consistently, relentlessly, and generously.

At the end of this year, our relationship will change again. Marc recently announced to our leadership team that he will end his time as an employee-owner and transition back to being a trusted consultant. He has other endeavors he wants to combine with his SMCo work, so he wants to be more independent and flexible and . . . well, you know, unemployed. He’ll still work with our architects, engineers, solar team, and production staff on most of our projects. It really won’t be much different (since he’s not in the office these pandemic days anyway). We’ll still be asking “Hey Marc…” on a regular basis. He’ll still be finding the best intelligence, dreaming up new solutions, and teaching us all. We’ll still have the benefit of well-filtered know-how from his extraordinary nationwide network of experts. He’ll still be pointing out my typos and making bad puns.

He’ll still be here. We’re very lucky and very grateful. We all hope that his path forward is all-the-way fulfilling, as we’re sure it will be. After all, he’s never been one to waste opportunity.

Our mutual friend Jamie Wolf illustrates this point with an early NESEA conference story. He remembers this guy in the front row at every presentation. Invariably, his hand would shoot up to ask penetrating questions. “I first met the back of his head,” says Jamie. “Inquiry, scrutiny, mastery. That was his method. He embodied that – it’s the NESEA ethic, but we learned it, as much as from anyone, from Marc.”

About SMCo, Marc wrote after his announcement, “ . . . This community of people is extraordinary in so many ways. . . . . I’ve never been in a group where dedication to excellence, and doing the best one can, has been so prevalent. The richness comes from the diversity of what we define as excellence. That diversity leads to differences of opinion about what should be prioritized, but the commitments we bring are the foundation of goodwill that allows us to, together, create something profoundly better than any of us could do alone.”

The first time I visited Marc and Jill in New Hampshire, decades ago, I stayed in their finished basement. Hanging on a sheetrock wall in the hallway at the foot of the stairs, where you’d expect a painting to be, was a bicycle. I asked him about it. “Oh, that’s a bicycle I built for my senior thesis at MIT. At the time, it was the lightest bicycle in the world.”

Buildings are one of his passions. Bicycles are another. He’ll surely find time for both in this new chapter – The Rosenbaum Chronicles, part three.

Filed Under: Collaboration, Employee Ownership, Small Business, Uncategorized Tagged With: Bruce Coldham, Marc Rosenbaum, NESEA, Wampanoag Tribal Center

Carver Ken Left His Mark

October 23, 2020 by John Abrams 9 Comments

As we steadily approach a Nex Gen Transition that will culminate two years from now, a two way migration is occurring at SMCo. Elders migrate out, and new faces/new talents migrate in. In the last decade, six longtime employee-owners have transitioned to new careers or retired. Collectively, they represent 168 years of employment

The most recent retirement was that of Ken Leuchtenmacher.

We first ran into Ken working up on the hill above the Allen Farm at Rob Kendall’s camp. Must have been around 1988. At the time, he was building solar greenhouses under the Solar Sanctuary moniker.

Ken grew up on a farm in Iowa – a true corn-fed boy – who went on to study at the University of Iowa. When the school shut down in 1969 due to the horrific shootings at Kent State, he migrated to Minneapolis and studied art for a while at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Afterward, he worked a couple silk screening jobs: first for a bottling company, then for a sign-making firm that created all the posters for IDS tower, the tallest building in Minnesota. The grandparents of his best childhood friend had a camp on East Chop. Upon visiting in 1974, Ken was smitten. He went back to Iowa, dealt with the way-too-early death of his Dad, returned to the Vineyard, and never left. He worked at the hospital for a while before joining Roger Wey’s construction company. They poured the slab in the second house we ever built, in 1976. (I remember that slab. Can’t say it was the best ever.) Soon after, Ken signed on with Burnham and Magnunson, earning his carpentry chops before starting his own business in the early 80s.

In 1993, we began work on our largest project – by some measure – to date: the Kohlberg House at Swan Neck. By that time, Ken had formed a partnership with Patty Egan and Larry Schubert. We hired all three to help us with the endless carpentry in this highly crafted timber-framed house. Shortly after completion, Ken migrated to SMCo. For many years, he was Billy Dillon’s solid second. Quite the duo – Ken was the quiet, steady, curmudgeonly assistant who always kept his talented and rambunctious leader in line.

He would work in the shop on rainy days. In 2005, he became an SMCo owner. A year later, after a long shop tour-of-duty building the Marcus stairway, he stayed. And never left until this May. He was a fixture as Jim’s assistant shop lead. A craftsman through and through, and an artist too, he was always a steady force and a mentor to our younger carpenters and woodworkers.

He also became our resident stairway maven. I have no idea how many times he set up in the annex, crafted a complete housed-stringer stairway over the next month or so, disassembled it, took it to the job site, and installed it.

Ken doesn’t suffer fools gladly, he doesn’t tolerate injustice, and he’s never one to pull a punch. He has a way of giving you (and me!) a piece of his mind that always sticks. Because he is generally quiet, his voice, when raised, carries weight. And for Kenny, nothing ever stands in the way of quality, his one-word guiding star. He is a standard-bearer.

During his time at SMCo, Ken took classes and learned woodturning and wood carving. These began as avocations and became integral parts of his craft. The essence of professional development. He always continued to grow his skills.

Never one to stay idle, Ken was recently recruited by his old partner-in-crime Billy Dillon, and Camp Jabberwocky, to do an extraordinary job.

He transformed a swing pergola (that we built when we did our Jabberwocky renovation in 2018-2019) into a memorial to celebrate campers who have died over the 60 years of Jabberwocky’s storied past. He hand-carved their names – 24 of them – into the re-purposed tree trunks that support the pergola. “When you go to camp [as a kid] , you carve your name on a tree,” Ken said in a Vineyard Gazette article “It’s like they’ve been there and carved it themselves.”

Each day camp caretaker Jack Knower, a former counselor and keeper of institutional knowledge, would tell Ken about the campers whose names he would carve that day. Ken said it was almost a religious experience. “I really feel connected to these people.”

We will always feel deeply connected to you, Ken. You’re an essential part of our history.

Filed Under: Employee Ownership, Small Business, South Mountain Company, Uncategorized Tagged With: carving, ken leuchtenmacher, retirement

Stick A Fork In It

May 16, 2019 by John Abrams 4 Comments

When I first learned carpentry, it was part of a seat-of-the-pants effort to create shelter on the communes of the late sixties and early seventies. My teachers were books, occasional mentors (some of whom knew only a bit more than I did), practice, and pure dumb luck.

Later, when South Mountain (SMCo) became a design/build firm on the Vineyard, we hired carpenters of a similar breed – self-taught experimenters like Pete Ives, Heikki Soikkeli, and Steve Sinnett. In the late eighties, we were working on projects of greater complexity and it was time to hire a well-trained carpenter who had the discipline and orderly learning history that we did not.

We cast a wide net around New England and New York. We found some good candidates. The response that stood out came from Billy Dillon, a 32 year-old union carpenter who had graduated from a Hudson Valley apprentice program at 22 and racked up years of on-the-job experience since. He came to visit. We loved his skills and enthusiasm. We hired him.

Next week Billy will complete a wonderful, multi-faceted project at Camp Jabberwocky. It will be his last project at SMCo. Over the course of three decades, Billy has contributed to the company as an Owner, as a member of our Management Committee, and as the on-site lead for many of our most demanding projects.

Perhaps his most meaningful contributions have been made as a teacher. He has taught stairmaking, framing, timber joinery and other skills in a variety of settings, and he has been an extraordinary mentor to our young carpenters. Some of them are not so young anymore, but Billy’s lessons stay with them.

Chris Wike tells this story: ‘Do you know how to make a set of sawhorses? It’s the level cut of a two pitch! Mark the side of the 2by…’. Those were my instructions on day one of my new job. I had been working as a carpenter for many years, and knew my way around a jobsite. As I approached the pile of lumber to begin my task he called out, ‘work right off the pile, we will need the horses right after lunch.’ Eager to do a good job, I dove in. I knew he was testing me at this point and wasn’t just giving me some mundane task. It didn’t matter how many sawhorses I had built before or how great they might’ve been. Everything I needed to know for the task at hand was right there in those few words. He told me exactly how to do it, where to do it, and how long it should take me.

Chris goes on to say,

I learned pretty quickly how to work with Billy. You have to be ready to absorb. Whenever he gives instruction, he speaks deliberately and uses building trades vernacular that is vast, and authentic. There’s always an opportunity to learn while around him. You just have to be listening. He has a particular way for every task and he wants to share it with you, because someone shared it with him, or because he knows from experience it’s worthwhile to repeat. Those who have worked with him recognize that he is someone who is passionate about his work and committed to sharing his knowledge with those who seek it.

Chris is now one of our two next-generation Project Leads.

Although his instructions are crisp and his expectations high, Billy has always been keenly aware of how difficult the work is and how hard expectations are to fulfill. He has never been embarrassed by his own mistakes, and he expects others to make them too. He often says, “The only people who are making mistakes are the people who are working.”

Billy’s a good talent-spotter too. He actively recruited Rocco Bellebuono (our other next-gen Project Lead) to join South Mountain 16 years ago. Rocco tells how the association came to be: I met him in some random down-home eatery in Germany. We were both fresh off the redeye, and somehow connected before the start of a three week intensive drawing program. Dennis [Thulin], Kenny [Leuchtenmacher], and Billy were the first classmates I met. Little did I know how much that moment would change my life. Billy and I took an immediate liking to each other. We both loved to draw. And we both loved complex geometry, and how it could help us build mind-blowing beautiful wooden buildings. We were searching for the same thing.

Before we left Germany, Billy said to me ‘you should come and work with us’. Shortly after, I came to the Vineyard for a visit. It took some time to work out the details, but two years later I joined the South Mountain crew.

Billy has never ceased to be an inspiration for me. He recognizes the importance of giving and sharing the knowledge that he has, and even the knowledge that he doesn’t have! The quest. He has always embraced the arcane, and the elusive. The mystery of craft. He brings a lot of heart and soul to his work.

Carpenters haven’t been the only beneficiaries of Billy’s talents and generosity. Our Director of Finance and Administration, Siobhán Mullin, recently shared the following:

Over the years Billy has become a valued colleague and friend. He has always treated me with respect and shared his wealth of knowledge when I needed to learn something related to the field and his work. He showed me how to use a few tools in the shop, and has even helped me make my own Swedish cheese knife! His generosity with his time when my husband and I have needed advice for our personal building projects has been invaluable; Billy has been a constant resource. Then there are all the ways he has been involved with our family, like sharing his worn Adirondack chair plans with my Dad many years ago and teaching my boys (who he once liked to balance on one hand) how to make apple cider, tap maple trees, collect eggs, and drive a four-wheeler. I’m so happy for him that he is moving into retirement smiling.

Like Siobhán, I too am happy that Billy has chosen his moment, on his own terms, to “stick a fork in it.” That emblematic Billy saying (which means “okay, that’s done, time to move on”) inspired Phil Forest to make the giant fork that gets passed, at each company meeting we have, to a deserving recipient, who keeps it until the next meeting and chooses to whom it will get passed next. Billy was the first recipient years ago.

Billy’s retirement makes five employee-owners who have retired since 2011 collectively representing over 150 years of employment. Billy’s retirement is an exclamation point on the gradual departure of the old guard and transition to the new. Each of those five left us with a lot. Among the many things Billy leaves behind is an appreciation for the trades in our society and economy. In recognition of that, South Mountain is working to establish a scholarship program or contribution, in his name, that will enable young islanders to get the training they require.

It’s bittersweet to see him go, but Billy is embracing the moment, chomping at the bit, and excited about more time and travel with his wife Amy and daughters Lucia and Augusta. He’s got a list of projects a mile long.

For now, we stick a fork in it, but we look forward to continuing to learn from Billy in his retirement. He has plenty left to teach.

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The Red Arrow Story

March 13, 2019 by John Abrams 1 Comment

The Vineyard is full of narrow dirt roads that wind out along the ponds and into the hilly uplands. Until recently, many of these roads were unmarked; some still are. Years ago we used to make and circulate hand-drawn maps to help trade partners and suppliers – and our own crews – find jobsites.

Sometime in the 1980s we started making red arrows and strategically locating them along the way. The arrows themselves evolved and ultimately became a cut-out. Jim Vercruysse, our Shop Lead, who has been with us 30 years, has probably made and painted hundreds.

We mean to take them down when the job is complete, but many are left behind. In some cases, homeowners request that they remain. They may even paint them a different color. They may even paint them lime green.

In 1998, when we developed our Stoney Hill Road property, which included the development of Island Cohousing (a neighborhood of 16 houses and extensive common facilities) in addition to the South Mountain office, shop, and storage yard, we cut a new access road. We needed a name for the road. At a company meeting we held a brainstorming session to find one. Derrill Bazzy, former Designer and Owner, suggested we name it Red Arrow Road. He remembers, “All of a sudden it just popped into my head, made total sense to me, and when I suggested it to the group, everyone said ‘Of course!’ It was unequivocal.”

It stuck, so that’s how we ended up on Red Arrow Road (where we remain today, two decades later).

The Vineyard’s hundreds of dirt roads have some unusual names, like Pancake Hollow Road, Tar Barrel Road, and Glacier Glen. Some commemorate historic attributes of the particular road, like Blacksmith’s Valley Road, Fulling Mill Road, Oxcart Road, and King’s Highway. Or physical features, like Peaked Hill Pastures, Kettle Hole Lane, Rustling Oaks Road, and Clay Pit Road.

And then there’s Mud Puddle Road (which most of them are this time of year) and just plain Old Dirt Road (love that one), Beaten Path, and Goah Way.

Many clearly have a story behind them, like Pimpneymouse Lane, Robin’s Nest Road, Pennywise Path, and Black Duck Road.

There are even some numbered dirt “streets” along Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road, that go from 3rd Street to 22nd Street, with some random Avenues (10th, 12th, and 13th) thrown in for good measure. This area is particularly bizarre because the numbers aren’t even in order, just helter skelter. What’s that all about? How did it happen? Stoner town planners or developers playing a joke on the rest of us long ago?

Back to Red Arrows. Remember that none of them will lead you to Red Arrow Road. In fact, even your GPS is unreliable for that task. It will lead you up the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven side of Stoney Hill Road – the worst dirt road on the Vineyard, where you are sure to bottom out multiple times.

Stick to the map below. And if you know a good story about how any of those dirt roads were named, let me know.

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West Tisbury, MA 02575

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