When I was a younger man, I was working on a residence designed by Charlie Gwathmey and his crew in the city. The residence was a weekend and vacation home in Kent, CT. At the time, I was young and very (very) nieve. The owner of the company I worked for used to tell me, “You are so green, if you were in a pasture, the cows would eat you .”  I was green.

As green as that, I was also the lead on the project. My Father was the GC. During a regular meeting, midway through the project, The homeowner, Mr Robert Gary, was concerned about cost overruns. ( There is a poignant moral so read on.) The homeowner was justified in his concern, but you need to know that this was a project where we were building everything custom ( Bespoke for you English readers.) Including the doors and windows. It was and is a magnificent property in Kent.

When My Robert Gary voiced his concern, and without skipping a beat, Mr Gwathmey quipped, “… What the —- are you going to do with your money anyway.”

At first I was in shock. Then thought for a moment about the comment. Charlie Gwathmey was right. It was not like Mr Gary was “SPENDING” the money. He was building something of great value. I would not go so far as to say an investment. When you think about this you will realize that this is how wealth IS built. Artists, ( I include Mr Gwathmey in that category) and artisans teaming up to build something of greater value with the added bonus of something to completely enjoy.

What is the moral of this story? You, the architects  and designer, the dreamers, the creators of great things, teamed up with the people who can pay to complete the projects can inspire people to rebuild this economy- in a sustainable way. You can help the people who right now are looking for work.

Dream big, and work to bring your dreams to life!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Interior Design, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.