Steve Larson

Steve Larson's Posts

• Design Awards 2005

  by Nina and Stacey Freed

  The winners of this year's REMODELING Design Awards showcase the best in residential and light commercial remodeling. From a beach house to a contemporary addition to an urban in-fill, these projects highlight the work of talented design and construction teams.

• Work as a voyage of personal discovery

  by Steve Larson

  Several years ago, after almost 20 years in business, I had begun to actualize a planned succession strategy. In doing so, my day-to-day role changed. An unanticipated result of these changes was an eroding of the passion I had for my work. I couldn't understand how this had happened; this is, after all, just what I said I wanted.

• New employee trial periods

  by Remodeling Staff

  We have a 30-day, “see if there is a fit” period. During that month, both the company and the employee take the time to make sure expectations are being met.

• Calculating a Lead's Management Hours

  by Joseph Schuler Jr.

  To help solve the problem, Larson and his team developed a method to determine management hours for his five leads, called project managers. Using the formula, Larson has found that project management can take as much as 30% of a lead's time. The calculations help Architectural Building Arts get within 10% to 15% of true hours; without the formula, estimates were lucky to get within half the true hours needed.

• Renaissance Design Competition 2002: Honorable Mentions

  by Nina Patel, Christy Hartman, and Christopher Walker

  The town of Jamestown, R.I., had been suffering from what the local planning board calls "aggrandizement," that is, residents buying small houses and remodeling them to the tune of homes double or triple the size of the original. Category: Whole-house remodeling, $100,000 to $250,000 Location: Jamestown, R.I. Contractor: Walter Pilz, Darlington Home Builders, Providence, R.I. Designer: James Estes, Estes/Twombly Architects, Newport, R.I. Commercial Remodeling