It’s not only the product, however. “John is just thinking on a whole other level,” Ireton adds. “He’s figured out a way to attract good people, where they enjoy what they do and feel good about it.”
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE At 57, John Abrams may be the most influential but least-known design/builder around. You won’t see signs or advertisements for South Mountain Co. anywhere, not even on Martha’s Vineyard. He travels extensively and speaks dozens of times each year, though more often before community and environmental groups than construction audiences. His 2005 book, The Company We Keep: Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, and Place, has sold well enough that he’s been asked to update it in a second edition.
In fact, Abrams has never really considered himself a remodeler; roughly 70% of South Mountain Co.’s work is new construction. But he likes to think that his being selected for The Fred Case Remodeling Entrepreneur of the Year Award implies that the word “remodel” can — and even should — be more broadly defined. “We’re radical remodelers, perhaps,” he wrote after being informed of the award. “Aside from some traditional remodeling, we remodel homes by adding renewable energy. We remodel sites and give them new life for new generations. We do total remodels when we move houses and prepare them for their existence in a new place.” (For details about the Fred Case award see page 88.)
Abrams’ friends and colleagues appreciate that expansive thinking. They say he’s “a big-picture thinker,” “extremely collaborative,” “a wonderful leader,” “articulate,” “charismatic,” “curious,” “modest,” “balanced,” “creative.” “He’s very studious and inquisitive,” says Richard Leonard, president of Martha’s Vineyard Cooperative Bank. “He will travel the world … to bring fresh ideas and perspectives” back to his community and his company. In 1990, for instance, Abrams toured co-housing neighborhoods in Denmark, where the concept originated. In 2000, South Mountain Co. completed Island Co-Housing, a 16-home community where Abrams and his wife Chris live.
This studious approach also plays out in Abrams’ interest in alternative construction methods and materials. “John has always been pretty early to embrace new ideas,” says Alex Wilson, founding editor of Environmental Building News. “But he doesn’t do it in a cavalier fashion without studying whether they’re going to work.”
Clients are similarly complimentary. In the late 1970s, Frimi Sagan and her husband Eli hired him and Posin to build them a house that would be “interesting, but contextual,” Frimi says. The process “couldn’t have been more comfortable and congenial,” and for years Abrams brought prospective clients to see it. “The beds were always made. We wanted them to be successful,” she says. More recent clients continue the practice of opening their homes today.
Politically, Abrams is as left of center as you might expect, but his openness to new ideas helps him bridge broad ideological chasms. “I call him my little red friend,” says Merle Adams, CEO of Big Timberworks, a Montana timber-framing company also known for its use of salvage lumber and its creative design. They disagree about a lot, yet they’re also good friends who counsel each other on business issues. In fact, Adams was so impressed by Abrams’ employee ownership model that he adopted a similar structure several years ago.
“One thing that probably is not apparent to most people is that John is an absolute bulldog,” says Tom Chase, director of special projects for the Massachusetts chapter of The Nature Conservancy. “He is kind and respectful and open and giving, but underneath all that stuff is dead earnestness. If he sees something that needs to be done, he really puts his back into it,” especially as it relates to affordable housing and environmental issues.
Education is a key way Abrams puts his back into issues that matter to him. Chase remembers being at a public discussion about affordable housing when a skeptic raised questions about the supposedly higher costs of natural materials. (South Mountain Co. uses sustainable materials in all of its work.) “John said, ‘Everyone talks about the cost of materials, but almost no one talks about the cost of maintaining them.’” Abrams helps people understand how salvage cypress, for instance, is not only beautiful but will last forever; how natural landscaping doesn’t require mowing or irrigation; how good day-lighting and cross-ventilation minimize use of electric lighting and air conditioning.
“He likes to push the envelope on things,” says client Brian Mazar. “He wants people to understand how some things are for the collective good.”