A MUSEUM FOR MV? BY SOUTH MOUNTAIN? (Part ll)
So. . . we got the job.
The next two and a half months (mid-November through January) became a wild whirlwind of committee meetings, inquiries, design excursions, public meetings, and pedal-to-the-medal production of the deliverable products we had promised. The holidays didn’t help, and it didn’t help either that we were establishing an intense collaborative relationship with a firm we had never worked with before, and doing it under the gun.
But we got it done. We’re very proud of the products of this work. And pleased with the collaboration with the Museum staff and planning committee, and with Oudens Ello, the Boston firm with whom we partnered. Talented architect Ryan Bushey, the youngest SMC owner, did a superb job leading our charge – pulling together complex programming information, working closely with our Boston team, and pulling a few late-nighters to get all the drawings done.
A MUSEUM FOR MV? BY SOUTH MOUNTAIN?
For more than a decade I have had a low-grade obsession with the St Pierre property in Vineyard Haven, the site of an old Marine Hospital that sits high on a bluff overlooking Lagoon Pond and the Vineyard Harbor beyond. The evocative 4.4 acre property is a short walk from downtown. It is surrounded by small lots with small homes.
The imposing wood-frame hospital was built in 1895 by the U.S. government to treat soldiers, sailors, and their families. In 1935 they expanded with a brick addition on the rear and continued to operate the hospital. When it closed in the mid-fifties the St Pierre family bought it and operated it as a school and summer camp (and then just a summer camp) for 50 years. In 2007 Barbara St Pierre, daughter of the founders of the St Pierre School, ceased operation. The 10,000 SF building is in a state of disrepair, but it still has very good bones and begs for new life.
A HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR ALL
This year is all done.
That’s good. I feel like I’ve “been rode hard and put away wet.” I’m ready for the New Year. Here are some random things I hope for in 2011:
• Health in my house. . . and yours.
• To remember that there are two parts to a crisis – reacting to the immediate with urgent solutions, and adapting long term to the new reality that results from the initial crisis.
• Rewarding work for all. Paul Hawken once said, “We are the only species without full employment.” Isn’t there anything that needs to be done?
THINGS CAN CHANGE IN A HEARTBEAT
WARNING: This post is really long. It’s a friggin’ tome. Enter at your own risk. It’s in two parts. The first is about trouble and recovery. The second is about the internal workings of an extraordinary place.
TROUBLE & RECOVERY
It was Saturday afternoon. Chris was cleaning the basement. I was lying on the bed, reading a book called Amish Grace, about the incredible ability of a group of Amish people to forgive and embrace the family of the guy who had mowed down their daughters in a one room schoolhouse.
Suddenly Chris burst into the room with a look of terror in her eyes.
“Something’s weird and wrong – really wrong – with my right foot.“ Her foot started to shake uncontrollably, then her hand and arm, and then everything went haywire.
EXITS & OPPORTUNITIES
BO BURLINGHAM IS AN INC. MAGAZINE editor-at-large who has been writing about entrepreneurship for three decades. I know him; we have crossed paths several times. But I know him much better from his writing, which includes a fine book called SMALL GIANTS: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big (I have to admit here, sheepishly, and maybe arrogantly at the same time, that when I read that book I wished we had been included).
The November issue of INC., has a long piece by Bo called “What Am I, If Not My Business?” which is about the challenges entrepreneurs face in leaving their companies when they retire or sell. He is in the midst of writing a book about the subject.
THREE GENERATIONS
WHEN SOUTH MOUNTAIN BEGAN, in 1975, I was 26 years old. Most of our clients were twice my age. Now, 35 years later, our long-time client base is aging. They (and their cohorts) have been our primary source of work and referrals, and now we must appeal to the next generation. Can we? Do we? Will we be able to serve their needs and desires?
At least we have set the stage.
During the past decade we have hired and cultivated a superb cadre of younger people – in their twenties, thirties and early forties. Some of them have become owners. This helps us in many ways as we begin to transition to Generation Two, but will it help us appeal to the next generation?
THE LONG HOT SUMMER
It’s been almost two months since I last posted here. It’s not that I didn’t have time, or that it flew by, or that I didn’t want to.It’s just that I wanted to say something that I wasn’t ready to say, and until I said what I wanted to say I didn’t want to say something else.
I wanted to look back at events of the early summer, but I was still “in them” and had no distance. Now we’re deep into autumn. The long hot summer is long gone. I’m far enough way. Enough distance.
HARVESTING POTATOES AND WIND ENERGY ON PEI
My wife and I spent the last week of July relaxing at the southwestern tip of Prince Edward Island. There’s not much there except a small harbor filled with lobster boats, a lighthouse, an inn, a restaurant 
(we stayed in a sweet little apartment above the restaurant – from our balcony we looked at the beach, the harbor, and the Northumberland Strait), endless cropland stretching to the horizon in every direction, and 55 giant wind turbines towering over the fields.
We didn’t do much except walk on the beach, ride our bikes (on the main road one car passes every 10 minutes or so),read books and PEI history, eat fresh food, and talk to the locals about the turbines (and the lobsters).
MADELINE’S SOLAR HOUSE
In 1980 a woman named Madeline Blakeley called me to ask me to look at a piece of land with her. She was a librarian in her early sixties whose husband had recently died. They had no children and had always lived in rented apartments. Her dream was to own a piece of property.
She had $7,000 in cash. A realtor showed her a lot priced at exactly that, but all her friends advised her against buying it. The property sloped steeply south to a beautiful little valley, a perfectly matched solar exposure and view. But it was right beside the main road from Vineyard Haven to Edgartown, which was very loud and loomed over the property. Except for that proximity and the fact that the whole lot was a hillside, it was a lovely site. There was nothing else on Martha’s Vineyard within her price range.
For Better Or Worse
Several weeks ago my old friend Marc Rosenbaum 
arrived on Martha’s Vineyard. He often arrives on Martha’s Vineyard. For 20 years this distinguished, nationally recognized building performance engineer has been arriving here to consult with us – to help us make better buildings. For 30 years he has been responsible for some of the most advanced buildings in New England.
When he arrived here last Tuesday, it was different than most times. Read more
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JOHN ABRAMS is co-founder and CEO
of South Mountain Company and the author
of COMPANIES WE KEEP read more
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COMPANIES WE KEEP is published by Chelsea Green Publishing
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