Design New England Mentors in Design

de sign the magazine of splendid homes and gardens • july/august 2016

new england

Summer Sensations

the knowledge that comes from having swung those hammers, he and Slive manage the 60-person residential building company with a humility and care that retain and satisfy their employees.

They have, in Hanna’s words, “a personality trait to want to make people happy over the bottom line.” When problems arise, says project manager Walter Mayne, “[Slive’s] honest and matter-offact approach to problem solving and dispute resolution is exactly what you want in a general contractor and an employer.”

Hanna and Slive are always “trying to find people’s wheelhouses,” says Hanna. “We’re good at putting folks in places where they will succeed.” If an employee’s strength is fine carpentry and weakness is supervising others, “We don’t make him supervise,” says Slive.

They are also willing to take a leap of faith with an employee’s idea. “I proposed taking six months off my project-management job to start transitioning the company to more digital systems,” says Sarah Lawson. “Had I ever done that before? No. Did they give me a chance? Yes. That type of supported freedom allows employees to thrive.”

Holding employees in high regard, says project manager Teri Swartzel, “gets translated to how those at S+H interact with each other, as well as clients, subcontractors, and suppliers.” No wonder Hanna and Slive are, as their publicist Joanne DiFrancesco puts it, “the ‘good guys everyone wants to work for.’ ” She should know. “They took a chance on me,” she says, “when my company was just me and I had only one other client in the construction industry.” She’s now been with them 12 years.

There are two things Hanna and Slive emphasize to their employees. One: listen. “We teach them to ask questions,” says Hanna, “and come to understand the customer’s needs and desires.” The other: It’s OK to admit you don’t know everything. “I lead by example on that,” says Slive with a laugh. He adds, “I learned from my first boss, who was not honest and didn’t treat his people well, how not to run a business.” That guy did a long line of satisfied S+H customers and employees a very big favor. —bruce irving 74

D E S I G N N E W E N G L A N D. C O M J U LY/A U G U S T 2 0 1 6

DAN CUTRONA

2016 mentors in design

Setting a Higher Standard sk Jonathan Fox about architect Mark Hutker’s mentoring, and he says the gold isn’t found only at the drafting table. For Fox, who has been a designer at Hutker Architects since 2010, Hutker’s best lessons came on a bicycle.

“When I think of the way his mentorship has affected me, I don’t envision him at my desk, or me at his,” says Fox. Instead, he recalls the Last Gasp, a 62-mile bike race from the Cape Cod Canal to Provincetown, Massachusetts, at the tip of the Cape.

Each year, a Hutker team rides the race to raise funds for Cape Cod’s Habitat for Humanity. Fox hadn’t owned a bike in many years, but with Hutker’s encouragement, he found a bargain on Craigslist. Hutker, himself an accomplished cyclist, helped Fox train every day and almost literally dragged him across the finish line. “He 2016 pushed us to dig deep, to rely on the strength of the group, and to hold DISTINGUISHED ourselves to a higher standard,” says Fox. “And we did because he did.”

MENTOR Holding himself and the 40 folks who work with him to higher ////// standards is the common denominator at Hutker’s firm. “He makes MARK HUTKER the most of every day, looking for opportunities to improve himself and FOUNDER AND others,” says architect Charles E. Orr, one of the firm’s principals. HutPRINCIPAL, HUTKER ker’s energy is seemingly endless, says Orr, and his visionary thinking ARCHITECTS inspirational. “Mostly,” he says, “Mark has mentored me by pulling me forward instead of pushing from behind.”

As a founding member and current president and treasurer of the Lyceum, a notfor-profit organization that sponsors an annual design competition to advance the development of the next generation of architectural talent, Hutker has shepherded its fellowship program for more than 32 years, resulting in nearly half a million dollars in support to 87 students.

Of being honored as a Distinguished Mentor, Hutker says: “I am very humbled. This recognition is essentially the opposite impetus of why one might have a propensity to mentor.” How does it make him feel? “Beholden mostly.”—john budris

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