As builders, our task is more about perceiving than it is about conceiving. We don’t invent the what, but we often have to invent the how. How to translate a transcendent vision into a practical reality, how to transform raw materials into an elegant solution, how to take what once was nothing and make it into an exquisite something. And to do that, you need to be able to see the vision, understand its essence, anticipate every contingency, and ultimately find a way to bring it to life.

Admittedly, Dr. Freud may have called us out as a company when he described this personality type: “Neat, orderly, hardworking, always on time, scheduling things very carefully.” We’re fastidious about every project we manage. And we’re transparent about everything we do, every step of the way. (This is perhaps an understatement.) We take as much pride in an astonishingly accurate estimate as we do in a joint-fitted staircase that no one thought could be built.

Do we consider ourselves artists? We are certainly at home in the company of artists, and have done a fair amount of work for and with them. But we view ourselves more as craftsmen in the classical sense. And craft, when done at a certain level, can approach the sublime. But the pride we take in our work comes more from interpreting someone else’s vision, from solving problems thought to be insolvable, from the trust we have earned from the most demanding of clients.