184: Stefano Basso, Principal and Partner @ SV Design

Four years into his architecture career, Stefano Basso returned to school for a Master's in Construction Management.

Not to change professions. 

To better understand how contractors think, what they need from architects, and where friction between the two begins.  

This decision reflects how Stefano has approached much of his work at SV Design: with curiosity about the full project process, not just the architect's role. Today, he is a Principal and Partner, leading the firm's commercial and multifamily practice with a strong focus on affordable housing. 

Stefano has spent nearly his entire career at SV Design, growing with the firm from Intern to Principal. He began in single-family residential design, where his work required close client communication, careful detailing, and an understanding of how design decisions shape the way people live. 

As the firm expanded, Stefano moved into commercial, mixed-use, and multifamily design, where tighter budgets, first-time clients, and a wider variety of project types sharpened his communication skills and exposed him to the competing priorities behind every development. Today, Stefano applies his construction-informed perspective to projects across Massachusetts, from affordable and mixed-use housing to shelters, supportive housing, and other mission-driven work.

Inside this week's episode: 

• Massachusetts's housing shortage, why Stefano traces it to zoning, and what rent control does to the development pipeline
• What SV Design's affordable housing portfolio looks like, and why the timelines that come with it are rarely short
• What Stefano took from his Master's in Construction Management, and the significance of a course in negotiation
• What it means to become a Partner, and how SV Design's ownership is structured today
• How AI is already shifting the architectural environment, and what's still waiting to change

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Transcript

Rens Hayes 0:08

Hi everyone, welcome to design development, your hub to learn direct from top performers of real estate design and construction. I'm your host, Ren Hayes, co-founder of H+O Structural Engineering, a lifelong learner, and I'm personally obsessed with high-powered organizations and the leaders academy. Let's go. Today, on design development, we bring to you Stefano Basso, SV Design. Thanks for joining us today. Thanks for having me, Rent. This is really exciting conversation. I like this statement for the start. And this is a direct quote from you. S V Design is only able to work at the far ends of the spectrum right now. High-end single family on one side and mission-driven affordable housing. Tell us what's going on.

Stefano Basso 0:49

It's just the sad state of our economy right now. And I don't have an answer for it. But the reality is we work for a ton of really good mission-driven organizations that are trying to help the world, help people, make it a better place. And then we're doing beautiful high-end single family homes, waterfront properties, second, third homes. We're doing homeless shelters. And what we're not doing is probably stuff that 80% of Americans would operate within. So it's just tough for middle class people right now. I think that's not going to be a shock for anybody.

Rens Hayes 1:23

Yeah, I'd see. Yeah, the undershared middle, so to speak. It's hard. We're not seeing a lot of that product come to the pipeline. Do you think something rent control? I know we're we haven't got to this point, but you're based in Massachusetts as am I. Rent control is on the ballot this year. Is that going to solve this problem?

Stefano Basso 1:39

No, so that's a that's a classic est intentions, right? Like I understand the instinct and we're all looking for creative solutions. I think the governor has done a great job of implementing a lot of strategies to help with housing, but rent control is not something that's gonna help. It's gonna have blowback. I've already been talking to developers who are looking at projects. Some work in multiple states, and they're saying, no, I'm gonna stay out of Massachusetts until this thing blows over, or if it's adopted, I'm not gonna be working in Massachusetts.

Rens Hayes 2:10

Yeah. The rent control is a problem. And I do think it's an education gap. And like you said, well-intentioned, right? I think we would all agree affordability is a core problem in our country and definitely our state, but it's the byproduct of hyperinflation for a sustained period of time, like a five, six year window, right? Printing a lot of money, low interest rates floods the market with liquidity, which drives prices up. And when I look at rent control as almost solving the symptom, and when I come back to like my roots as trying to build a business, it's like you can't you can waste a career trying to solve a symptom. It's like we got to get to the root cause. And I think sometimes we can really create have unintended consequential damages, of which is bringing more of that housing product to support that underserved middle.

Stefano Basso 2:52

I'd see, I'd go back even further. I think those are all things that exacerbate the problem. For me, the problem comes from zoning. Interesting.

Rens Hayes 3:01

Yeah, tell us more.

Stefano Basso 3:02

The root cause. So we have a scarcity of buildable land, or the land that we have is expensive to build on because of a lot of regulations we have. If you look around, if you travel around the world, people build a lot more in a lot less space than we have. So in that, you know, it's in Massachusetts, even it's pretty built out, it's pretty congested. The reality is we have a ton of space here, we just can't build on it. And zoning is the reason why you can't build more density on your land. And uh, we have a client, ArborLai Homes, that is them working on a project so they develop affordable housing, but they're also doing this project called Dirty Deeds, and they're looking back at deed restrictions that were written in that prevented people of color or different people from even being able to own land. And while that's illegal to do now, it's like the language is still on existing deeds if you do title search back, and so the reality is there's a ton of layers to zoning socioeconomic where you but the end product is we can't build like you and I could build a ton of building, right? We could always build more efficient, but our hands are tied.

Rens Hayes 4:06

And ultimately, affordability is a supply and demand issue, correct?

Stefano Basso 4:10

And it's a man-made scarcity, right? It's an artificial scarcity that you have a single family home, you might want to put in a second unit. So, again, the administration's allowed for ADUs across Massachusetts, which is great. It's incremental progress, it's important. But I think telling my dad was from Italy. In Italy, if you want to put in another unit, you just build another unit. Maybe it's not that simple. Here you got 10 times as much space, and you just can't put in another apartment for your mother to move in. She wants a bigger space than an ADU. You just you're not allowed to do it, right? So you got to go out and buy another what half million dollar condo, million-dollar home or something.

Rens Hayes 4:46

Yeah, makes affordability a real problem, but it's conversations like these that I think are important for people to hear because zoning, for instance, like I think there's a good zoning has a lot of benefits, right? Like I live in a suburban single family neighborhood. It would be really weird if somebody put an industrial building in my neighborhood, right? So zoning serves the purpose. It's and it's almost like it's not a problem to be solved, it's a scenario to be managed, which is really hard because change making zoning change is really and I know in mass here we had something, the MBTA Communities Act, which unlocked a ton of multifamily development and put a requirement. But we've seen some towns do great work and create a ton of housing with that, and then others escape by. I think what towns have you see create really great zoning to help alleviate this problem?

Stefano Basso 5:35

No, I mean, well, Lexington, I think nobody's zoned more units for production than Lexington. I think even they're trying to walk it back a little bit because it is they have a lot of housing closer to the Boston core. I think you see more progressive communities in general. They have better transit. I think there's like a history and a culture of wanting to build like an equitable community in their neighborhood. And it kind of makes sense as you get further from the city. Folks probably live further from the city because they want some more space and some more peace and quiet. So I think in the suburbs is where you see some reaction. And I think a lot of it isn't necessarily that they don't like housing or that they don't care about housing affordability, but I think we all struggle with change and fear of change. And you and I understand construction and development. So you think a lot of people who are living in a completely different world, they have a different job, different mindset, they're nervous, probably nervous about what kind of changes might come to their community that they love because they don't understand it. So yeah, probably more education is needed at all levels.

Rens Hayes 6:41

I think core to I think the root cause of a lot in a society comes back to education and I think financial literacy and teaching people like how even like our currency works, how inflation works, how commercial real estate investing works, should be a core part of education for somebody coming out of high school to make sure that they have at least a chance or know that there's something to learn more about so that they can make decisions.

Stefano Basso 7:06

100% agree.

Rens Hayes 7:08

Right. Like rent control, for instance, if I go back to that conversation briefly, because I think it's an important point, is like the negative consequential damages of rent control aren't in question. They're already happening. And so I, for one, was in design and construction like yourself. I had no idea how commercial real estate developments came. I just thought developers had a ton of money and they were funding the equity when I started my career. I just thought they were the equity and they would get bank debt to help them create a development. Turns out they're really stewards of financial capital. They have a little bit of money and then they raise money from institutional capital. So those are teachers' union, pension funds, right? Like large institutional capital, which means it's an investment vehicle. So just like you invest in a stock market or a treasury bill, people are putting money into commercial real estate development, which has to drive a higher return than those other two assets I just mentioned, because there's more risk. And if you can't drive those returns, the developments don't happen. And so rent control risks the future value of the development. So what it really is doing is causing all of that investment that people are typically funding or fueling into Massachusetts economy isn't happening. So if that doesn't happen, where people are going to lose jobs and they're going to have less liquidity in the local market to spend on other goods and services in local. So it's a huge economic driver. And we're already seeing that choke point because it's making it really challenging to attract capital to Massachusetts.

Stefano Basso 8:32

Yeah, the instinct is rents are going up. It's because there's supply and demand imbalance, and people think they can charge more to rip people off or something. So we should put a cap on that to stop that practice, price gouging. But the yeah, the reality is what you're saying is the margins in development are actually pretty thin when you look at them, and the risk is huge. So if there's not upside there, yeah, why would anybody take on that much risk if the upside's capped? Wouldn't make any sense.

Rens Hayes 8:59

Yeah, you can't attract that capital. And then if the capital's not coming here, not only are we risking jobs, but we're not creating more housing that would ultimately help housing pricing. But if we choke supply of housing, I think it creates a bigger future issue, even if we have rent control. I want to get back to SV design. Give us a snapshot of the company today offices, employees, the types of work you're doing.

Stefano Basso 9:21

All right. So we've been in business about 38 years. Company was founded by Thad Samasco as a small architectural practice, mostly single family stuff. So started out doing kitchen renovations, family room bump out, grew that into high-end single family, so new construction, waterfront homes, and uh started branching out. Basically, we do a project for a client and say, Hey, I love the work you did on my home, the architecture, the interiors. I'm a chair on the board of this school. We're doing a project. Do you do schools? And so for that, the answer is always yes. Just a pure designer, right? Like it does. Of course we do. Yeah, he'll do a chicken coop, he'll do a college.

Rens Hayes 10:03

You should design spaceships, we do now.

Stefano Basso 10:06

I mean, Elon calls, maybe, I don't know. So, yeah, we kind of grew like that. And then post-recession, we started getting into more of the mixed-use development.

Rens Hayes 10:15

And this is 2008, 2010, that recession.

Stefano Basso 10:18

Yeah, and downtown Beverly in particular, there was a big push for transit-oriented development. So we marched down the street with a developer and started putting up podium construction, four, five, six-story buildings, and built up the team and got really good at that. And so we've been growing that sector of the business a lot over the last 15 or so years. About 10 years ago, we opened uh office on the Cape in Chatham.

Rens Hayes 10:44

Oh, really cool. Your headquarters is in Beverly, right? That's where you were founded.

Stefano Basso 10:48

I'm in Beverly, yeah. And then we have an office we opened about almost two years ago in Winchester that's serving more of the greater Boston geography. So about 50 architects and designers across the three offices, like 30 in Beverly and 10, 10 in Chatham and Winchester each.

Rens Hayes 11:05

Very cool. What led to launching the Chatham office? Was it a lot of work down there? So you it like towards the end of the Cape, that was a long commute from Beverly.

Stefano Basso 11:13

Yeah. So Thad was spending a lot of time down there, was fixing up a house in Wellfleet, and just saw the market was underserved, and you just couldn't help it. And then so started doing some work down there and then launched the full satellite office. And I think the uh the challenge was appealing because there's a lot of Boston or North Shore architects that will open up a Cape Office, but it's uh it's really like a mailing address or a conference room or something. So we were pretty intentional about wanting to make this like a real office. So we have, you know, now we have a full-time principal down there, probably, and um full-time team. It's people who live on the Cape, they work on the Cape, they know the neighborhood. Really couldn't just come in as outsiders, want to be ingrained in any community we're working with. So that was really important.

Rens Hayes 12:00

That's very cool. I appreciate that entrepreneurial spirit from Thad too. It's hey, I'm seeing an underserved growing market. We might as well open an office here. Stefano, what part of the business do you sit in today? You're a principal and partner. Are you working across all asset classes or are you focused on single family, commercial, affordable? How do you think about it?

Stefano Basso 12:18

It's it's in our DNA to just work across everything. More so like I feel like I have clients that I work with. So if my clients are doing a project on their house, I'll help them out with their house. If they're doing a shed, I'll do their shed, I'll do their storage facility, whatever they need. Uh primarily I'm doing multifamily housing with a strong focus on affordable housing, but also most of the developer-led work. So if that's market rate projects, commercial work, occasional restaurants, really whatever the people need.

Rens Hayes 12:50

And I know affordable housing is a big focus of your work today. And you work some great organizations, one of which is HarborLight Homes, who you just mentioned. Could you tell us about some of the projects you're working on today?

Stefano Basso 12:59

Yeah, so we'll have 10 or 12 projects in development with HarborLight at any given time. They have them up on their website, but these projects take years to cycle through. Five or six years is standard. Occasionally they might move quicker than that.

Rens Hayes 13:12

Yeah, we'd love to see that that process change, right? To accelerate how fast we can bring affordable homes.

Stefano Basso 13:19

But we have one that opened up about a year ago is 45 unit affordable senior housing in Wenham. And that one was like a 10-year, 10-year project because of approvals and litigation and everything. So that was extra special to see all the seniors moving in and kind of took hold of the garden, the community garden right away, really decorated the halls and kind of made it their own.

Rens Hayes 13:41

So Harbor Light Home, Senior Housing. You have a project down in Hyannis.

Stefano Basso 13:45

Yeah, we're doing a project with PAC down on the Cape, and uh they're doing a 50-unit home ownership, so an affordable condo project, essentially. And Hyannis was great to work with. They have uh form-based zoning, actually. So you go in, you kind of know what you need to do, and as long as you do that, you can build your building, which was very refreshing. And they really wanted their project to feel like it wasn't an affordable project, right? Folks wouldn't know. It looks like a great project. The design is top tier, the unit interiors are well thought out, there's community amenities spaces, so really a great place for folks at different stages of life to come in and start to build some equity with their own condo unit.

Rens Hayes 14:29

Yeah, that's fantastic. I didn't actually realize until the last few years that affordable housing funding in the state, there's different pools for multifamily apartments and then for affordable condos. And the affordable condo process was actually faster than the apartments and less competitive. So we had some affordable condo developments get some momentum these last few years, which was great to see. I love that program. You mentioned working in homeless shelters. Tell me about the project you have going on with Life Bridge in Salem.

Stefano Basso 15:01

Yeah, so we're just gearing up for planning board approvals on that project, but that's a collaboration between Hubber Light Homes and Life Bridge. So Life Bridge operates uh homeless shelter, shop, a lot of different supportive services for individuals. So not just homeless individuals, but all sorts of different folks who need different types of training or programs or just assistance.

Rens Hayes 15:25

Sounds like an amazing organization.

Stefano Basso 15:27

Yeah, so they're looking to re-revamp their site that they have in downtown Salem. And then so it'll be essentially two buildings. One half will be the shelter, the dining hall, job training center, and then administrative offices, and the other half will be supportive housing. So there'll be studio apartments for folks so you can come in and stabilize and then shift over to the other side of the building potentially, and then once you get your feet under you, you might move out into a different type of housing.

Rens Hayes 15:57

What an amazing program and partnership to make that a reality.

Stefano Basso 16:01

Yeah, and it's you love working for developers like that because besides the mission, the project's kind of a nightmare. Like we're keeping an existing church on the site. So we went through five rounds of completely different concept design with slightly different program. Do we relocate a public park? No, okay. So we're keep we're keeping this church, which at the end of the day is really cool. I think it's going to be a great space because you got the big sanctuary space that can be where all of the shelter beds are. You have the big community gathering space, which can be the dining hall, and from the street, you're keeping some of your architecture from a building that's 100 years old or so. Then we're tacking on all these additions to it. We're talking with folks at Historic Salem, and there's another building on site that they don't want demolished. So it's like, all right, we'll keep that one too. And so we're tying in multiple buildings together.

Rens Hayes 16:54

Design and construction challenges.

Stefano Basso 16:56

Yeah, it'll be worth it at the end of the day. But you feel like you're fighting for a good cause, even though there's some pain to try and coordinate all that.

Rens Hayes 17:03

You started working at SV as an intern and never looked back, apparently. What attracted you to the firm?

Stefano Basso 17:09

Uh, so I grew up in Beverly, so I always knew about SV. I actually tried to get an internship here after my freshman year, and they said no, thank you. Try again next year. So I went out and got a job in property maintenance for a year and reached out and said, Hey, I'm wrapping up my sophomore year. Can I come? Are you interested in hiring me now? And they said no. So I went back and started the other job again. And then the first day I was at work, they called me at lunchtime and said, Hey, the other intern dropped out. If you still want that spot, you can come back. So I go to the the shop manager and he told him what happened. He's what the hell are you still doing here? Drive there right now and never come back here again.

Rens Hayes 17:49

Oh, that's awesome. That's a good guy right there. I think that's a good lesson, too, for young college students looking for an internship. It's an internship is an investment. And after a freshman year, you might not have enough education yet to really learn in the work environment. So not everybody can hire an intern after their freshman year. Depends on how they're set up to onboard them, right?

Stefano Basso 18:12

Yeah. And then to be fair, it's a great experience, and you kind of have to be willing to do anything, right? How can I come in and just help support the business and try to pay for myself a little bit?

Rens Hayes 18:23

Exactly right. Yeah. How do I make myself valuable and cover my costs?

Stefano Basso 18:27

The reality is most of us coming out of design school aren't going to be very useful or productive for a few years, unless you're like prodigy.

Rens Hayes 18:36

Like it really requires Hopefully not a few years, right? We got to find something for them to create value in that first year.

Stefano Basso 18:42

I don't know. Maybe it's just me. Took me a long time to create any value.

Rens Hayes 18:46

So you're a success story today. You studied architecture at Syracuse. When did you know you wanted to be an architect?

Stefano Basso 18:54

Oh man. So I think I have this memory of being over with my dad in Italy, and he always had a ton of ideas and plans. He had done some development construction over in Italy, but then immigrated to the US in the 80s and worked as a stonemason. But we'd go back to Italy, and there were all these they call them rustic buildings. Literally, they're like ruins, there's roofs caved in, abandoned farms and stuff. And he had really cool ideas about how you could renovate different things and bring life back to this village, like almost a little hamlet in the mountains and stuff. So they did some of that, and they're working with an architect over there, and it just felt like a very frustrating process, even as a kid. I'm like, wow, this is doesn't seem like the way it should be. So I think I thought that I could take that job and we could work together and take the most painful part of the process and turn it into a strength, maybe.

Rens Hayes 19:44

I love that. I think that shows you were leading with curiosity at a young age, right? You were looking, you saw you identified a problem and saw it as opportunity, which I think is a really important trait in any leader.

Stefano Basso 19:57

Yeah. How do we get it done? What do we need to do? What's the issue? We need to figure out how to troubleshoot.

Rens Hayes 20:01

When you first started at SV design, what type of projects did you get exposed to?

Stefano Basso 20:05

So I started out do on the single family residential team, had a mix of brand new 6,000 square foot house, some stuff on the water, some stuff in the forest, really top-notch design, but then also always had a mix of somebody wanted to put a garage edition on. Uh I did a bunch of screen porches for some reason, mud rooms, so a little bit of everything.

Rens Hayes 20:28

You even got some interior design experience there too.

Stefano Basso 20:31

Oh, yeah. We do all the kitchen elevating, kitchen cabinetry, and trim profiles, all the crown molding setup and everything.

Rens Hayes 20:39

I don't think you'd like my cabinet drawings. I did them in Bluebeam for my kitchen. Sorry, Late.

Stefano Basso 20:45

Is this a paid ad for Bluebeam? Because I can go up.

Rens Hayes 20:48

Yeah, exactly. Sponsored by Bluebeam. That's too funny. Yeah. Bluebeam and pictures. That's how I did my interior design. Yeah, I don't know that you'd be too happy with it.

Stefano Basso 20:56

No, I it's what you were saying before. It's all about communication, right? The drawing set is just meant to convey and communicate an idea. So if you were able to achieve that, then as a perfect drawing set, right?

Rens Hayes 21:07

If a 25-year-old architect cornered you today and what and they asked you, what should I be working on now so that I can become a leader in architecture?

Stefano Basso 21:15

You gotta know what your own personal interests are. I think you gotta be you have to be at a firm where you're working on something that you're interested in. Maybe I don't know, some people might just not have a dream type of project they want to work on, but you can't be somewhere that you're not doing what you love or be being near what you love. But I think the other side of the coin is that you have to be very patient and very realistic about what kind of opportunities you're gonna get. So, you know, you might get the toilet room, right? And you're like, I want to be a great designer, I want to design a building, and all I have is a toilet room, but no one's gonna let you design a building, right? You gotta, if you can't design a toilet room, you gotta lay it out to code, you gotta get the clearances, you gotta document it well. And once you do that a few times, you gotta go out and say, What's the next opportunity? I'm ready for more. I've proven myself and work your way up. And I think so having that that both sides of the coin where you have to be patient and cut your teeth and work in the trenches, but you have to seize the opportunity and outperform and then just keep pushing up.

Rens Hayes 22:18

I love that example, Stefan L. Jim Rohn, who I look at as like a founding father of personal development. Like he has so many great quotes. And one of them is the better job is looking for a better you. So it's don't say you'll do better when you get this promotion or when you get this opportunity. It's knock out your job today and then ask for more responsibilities. Design that toilet room to the best of your ability if you want to design a house.

Stefano Basso 22:43

And no shade to anybody whose goal is to design toilet rooms. That's a noble profession.

Rens Hayes 22:48

Yeah. Hey, everybody loves something that you don't want to do, right? Quick break from the show. Thanks for tuning in to design development. We're trying to help as many people as possible. So if you could subscribe and leave a review on today's episode on whatever platform you're listening, it would be a great help. It's the only way we're going to reach more people. Let's get back to the show. What was the opportunity that you kind of saw as a young architect?

Stefano Basso 23:15

I so I switched over from residential onto the commercial team as our commercial and multifamily team was growing. Just interested in the complexity of project types and different types of construction. I broke out into a lot of tenant fit outs. So once I'd mastered the toilet room, move over to somebody's yoga studio, 500,000 square foot vanilla box, right? So how do we lay this thing out? Did a bunch of restaurants, did like a series of Pilates studios for a long time. And the interesting part of that work, even though it wasn't the most complex type of project, was that I got to meet a lot of different clients and a lot of people from different backgrounds. And a lot of them were very entrepreneurial. And there were folks who had never done this before, they'd never done a construction project, they'd never even done the business that they were starting. So they were learning out. I owned my skills in terms of trying to teach clients and explain things. And even if sometimes you think you explain it and they say, Yes, I understand, you're like, Well, I'm gonna go back and I'm really gonna make sure we're all on the same page here, right? Because some folks don't some people say, Tell me like I'm five. What are we doing here? And you're like, All right, I'll go through it. And other people say, No, I've done this, I understand it.

Rens Hayes 24:29

I love that bridge. It honestly connects to that curiosity you mentioned, like in working with your father and that opportunity and seeing the pain point. It's like I I look at an architect in the single family, especially ultra high net worth single family, as like a very difficult job because you're designing a home, something somebody deeply cares about that is unfamiliar with the design and construction process. So it's it's constantly educating your client. And then here you are transitioning to commercial, but again, your customer is uneducated in design and construction. So you have to honestly have a really good exploratory process and ask the right questions and guide them.

Stefano Basso 25:07

Right. On a razor thin budget.

Rens Hayes 25:09

On a razor thin budget, exactly. That makes it very difficult, but it's cool to hear you transition like part of your growth and architecture was actually client communication.

Stefano Basso 25:19

Yeah. I feel like I'm naturally a very poor communicator, so I try really hard to communicate well. But yeah, meeting different people and having different experiences is the best way that you can learn what works, what doesn't. What are we gonna do better next time?

Rens Hayes 25:33

I would say in in today's world with the ever rapidly growing technology and AI, I think communication and judgment is gonna be of far greater value the further and further we go because we're gonna be able to use technology to leverage production, but that communication piece with your customer isn't going away.

Stefano Basso 25:53

And still gotta figure out a way to understand what they actually need from you. Because sometimes what they say they need isn't what they actually need. So always trying to find the alignment. Because if I understand what you want, we can pull in the same direction, right? And I got the industry knowledge, I know the process, right? But if I don't know what you're trying to do, we're not gonna be moving forward as effectively as we could.

Rens Hayes 26:16

Yeah, if I use even just our business as an example there, if we're hyper focused on the cost of the buildings we designed so that we're constantly we're managing those and communicating to our client transparently. If we forgot to ask them what's important and we're trying to save them 20 or 30 grand by these design decisions at a certain phase, but they have a five million dollar risk if we don't have this deadline or hit this by we have to ask what's actually important in driving the decisions because we would never want to have this bigger, greater financial risk to save pr seemingly pennies compared to what's actually important to them.

Stefano Basso 26:52

And you have to go through it because what's important, everything's important. The budget's always important, but like really, what's the most important? What's the critical factor for this job?

Rens Hayes 27:00

Correct. Absolutely. If you don't, if you can't, I do this with employees too, is we want to understand on an employee like what are your career goals? What do you hope to be doing in a year, in three years, and five years? And I don't ask that from a sense of criticizing what they do, but if they don't know what they want, how am I supposed to help them get there? And so to me, it's almost like encouraging them to have the habit of reflecting to make sure that they're thinking about what they actually want in life so that we can help them get there because otherwise you're gonna have friction because how can we be successful in that relationship?

Stefano Basso 27:32

Some folks make it easy on you. They say, I want to be a project manager, I want to be client-facing, or I love exterior detailing and structural coordination. So I want to work, you're like, great, I can I try to match you up on the project, I'll put you with the mentor on the team and you can just grow in that role. And then for some other folks, you don't really get as much feedback. How do you help to get that feedback out of people who aren't as forthcoming or maybe don't have an idea of what they want to do?

Rens Hayes 27:59

Of what they want to do. I think you have to encourage them to think about what they like now. So if I'm looking ahead six or 12 months, you got to have an idea on what you want to explore. It doesn't, it's not a life decision, but you have to have a plan so that you can execute towards that goal so that you can learn. So set a short, if you don't know what you want in three to five years, like what do you want this year? And then commit to exploring that desire, and then you can reevaluate. You went back four years as an architect, and then you embarked on a master's in construction management at Wentworth. What caused you to want to go get a degree in another profession adjacent to the profession you were actually?

Stefano Basso 28:37

I have a lot of friends who are contractors, so I think I can say this. I was annoyed by contractors at the in slow. I wanted to better understand that world. And so the program was a really good one at Wentworth. We're all trying to move forward with our specific professional responsibilities. We all know our own standard of care, our obligations and everything. But between different trades and different roles within the process, we have different responsibilities and I view the same issue or phase through a different lens. So it was really valuable for me was getting the construction manager's perspective and really understanding what their goals are and how they might approach a situation or what the protocol is. Probably the most interesting course I took was not even construction related. It was a negotiation class, which sounded crazy, but it was really interesting. And that basically you could sum it up by saying if you're trying to work through something, either it's not a contract or there's a dispute, or it could be anything, not even confrontational. How do you find the alignment between the two parties? Because if you can get all the involved parties to get what they want, people are gonna agree, they're gonna move forward, you can work as a team. So it was really beneficial for me working with not just construction managers but also client, just making sure that you understand I'm the architect, I have my priorities and my concerns and my obligations, and I have to meet the standard of care, but I also have to understand what the other party's goals and concerns are. And so, how do I operate in a way that I can meet them at their needs and then also deliver based on my responsibilities?

Rens Hayes 30:20

The this entire decision to go get educated in an adjacent profession is so in line with the ethos here with design development. So much of my career growth is because I followed that curiosity and commitment to lifelong learning by studying other businesses, other leaders like yourself, and the industries of my adjacent business partners, whether that's a subcontractor, a manufacturer, an architect, a contractor, the real estate development world. It's like my knowledge of all of those adjacent areas helps improve my judgment and my ability to and you committed to getting a formal education is such a cool lesson to share with the audience here today.

Stefano Basso 30:59

Yeah, and I think the other takeaway, so I got my contractor's license and I can do some side projects or whatever if I got to fix up an apartment. But the reality is I'm not a construction manager and I don't want to be one. And so I think understanding that there are experts in a field, just because you want to gain some education and understand someone else's perspective more doesn't mean that you think all of a sudden you can do their job, right? So I think almost the opposite. It's like I have a little bit more empathy and understanding for where they're coming from. So I'm typically less annoyed now, kind of understand what their goals are, right? And why they're frustrated with me, maybe.

Rens Hayes 31:36

Understand empathy is a good word, right? Life is often our perception of it. So if we seek to understand, we might perceive the situation a little differently. In our world as architects and engineers, how often has there been an issue on site where you get this very brief, direct, frustrating email that's hey, we have a problem. I need everybody out on site tomorrow. And it's at face value, like no one's even described the problem. Why are we being asked to come to the site? I we shouldn't have to do it. Or if you can't, if you can't communicate, you might say, Oh, I gotta go there for the customer. And then you go out there to find out that it was something you could have solved on a phone call and you just wasted six hours going to site and back and having these other conversations. So it's that can be really frustrating. But if we lead with empathy and curiosity, we realize that site super isn't really aware of all the things that are going on in the design profession, no idea of the contractual obligations on that side. And 99% of the challenges that they face day to day are solved on site because that's their office. They're just simply asking somebody to solve a problem in the way that they see every other problem solved. They're not doing that necessarily to create a burden to their partners, it's just an unawareness. So you can have that communication and honestly, I think get through a lot of friction a lot easier and help that contractor be more successful.

Stefano Basso 32:55

We send a lot of emails, right? But there's it's a tool. And just like the drawing set is a communication tool, the email is a communication tool. And a lot of times it's just how should I respond to this lengthy email? It shouldn't be with an email, right? It should be a phone call set up, go meet them somewhere. And usually you can resolve issues better face to face. I think just talk talking about something than going back and forth with the message.

Rens Hayes 33:20

How have passive house requirements impacted your design process or your designs themselves?

Stefano Basso 33:26

Passive house has been good. We work with a few really good consultants that kind of manage the process. We also have one certified passive house consultant on our architectural team. So he's a great resource for us. Yeah, I think it's more so the uh the energy code changes that have come out the last few years. When I started out, we'd pretty much read the chart. You knew how much insulation to put in to wall, roof, or it was prescriptive.

Rens Hayes 33:52

You had like guidelines on what you needed to hit.

Stefano Basso 33:54

It felt very simple. And today we get into so much complexity. You have a project with a new addition, but there's an existing building, and part of it isn't being touched, and part of it's being gut renoed, and then you have the addition and you have different uses. What's the energy code requirement? You're like well, we we lean on these consultants a lot. So for us to do a passive house project isn't that much heavier of a lift, honestly, because we're going through a lot of complex scenarios on almost every job. So I kind of like the passive house projects because you know you're hitting that top tier, and you know we gotta have high performance windows, we gotta have the good installation package, the building's gotta be tight, efficient, HKC equipment, ERVs, everything. So it's a little bit easier, honestly, to design to that standard, having all that support.

Rens Hayes 34:39

How large was SV design when you joined as an intern to the 50 employees that you are today?

Stefano Basso 34:45

16 folks in Beverly at the time.

Rens Hayes 34:47

Wow. So you've really been there through some some different stages of growth. What's probably the biggest organizational or operational change that the team's made while you've been growing?

Stefano Basso 34:58

The opening up of the first satellite office on the Cape was a big change because it just went from everybody who worked here was in the same building every day to now we got folks a couple hours away. So just kind of shifting how we worked, and then probably through COVID, everyone's gotten so much more used to remote work now. It doesn't even seem like a hassle to have a satellite office, right? And then yeah, we opened the office in Winchester a couple of years ago, and that seems relatively easy. I wasn't involved in opening the office, but the fact that we have two satellite offices, it's just kind of yeah, we're we're a group, we're all doing the same thing, just in some different locations.

Rens Hayes 35:36

So resources are shared between offices, it's one cohesive team, they just have different we're all working together, yeah. And how far is the Winchester office from Beverly? I don't think that's too far.

Stefano Basso 35:46

Depends on the time of day with traffic, you get there in 20 minutes, or it could be three hours.

Rens Hayes 35:55

Is that what prompted opening that office? Is because the trap you had enough work in that area that the traffic from Beverly through that part of the North Shore was worth a new office.

Stefano Basso 36:07

So my partner Tobin Shulman heads up the Winchester office and he lives closer to that area, and so he he observes basically Route 93 forms like this natural barrier where a lot of things don't cross left to right past 93.

Rens Hayes 36:23

You're absolutely right.

Stefano Basso 36:26

He saw if we open an office on the left side, even though it's not that far away, it's a completely different market for us. Like geographically, it's a little funny to think of. But yeah, we're doing a lot of work in Winchester and different Metro West communities through there. It was similar to the Cape, it just seemed like there was an opportunity to come in and provide the type of design services we provide. And it's been it's been really going really well to start for two years in. I don't know what the numbers are, but we're doing a lot more project in that geography than we used to.

Rens Hayes 36:56

Amazing. It's great to see when you have a vision and a strategy for growth and then teams able to go execute. Congrats on being promoted to partner in 2024. Could you tell us a little bit about the ownership structure? I know Thad founded the company, I think, in the late 1980s. And then so obviously there's an ownership transition happening. So if could you share us a little bit about the ownership team today?

Stefano Basso 37:19

Yeah, so Thad still runs the show, and then there's four of us additional partners that are working together as well. So we're divided a little bit by project type and geography. So we have Paul Muldoon on the Cape, Tobin's in Winchester, and then my partner Jen Hawkerman and I are running the commercial and multifamily team from here in Beverly. Between her and I is pretty much everything that's not a single family house we're doing.

Rens Hayes 37:44

Very cool. How has has this been a longtime goal of yours? Was becoming partner or owning a part of a firm something you were in pursuit of?

Stefano Basso 37:53

Definitely not. I wasn't even sure if I really wanted to be an architect or not. I just liked being here and coming in every day. It was enjoyable to me. So I kept going. But when the opportunity came up, I really had to step back and do some deep thinking because it's a huge commitment. You're really signing on for this is like a permanent Yeah, you're not an employee at will anymore.

Rens Hayes 38:15

This is yep, this is what I want to do for the long haul.

Stefano Basso 38:18

Yeah, and you feel like now you're responsible, like you're the one who has to bring in the work. You got to make sure things are getting drawn up right, like everybody's happy. Everything just becomes your responsibility. And it's not just on me. We have a great management team, right? But it's something you don't take lightly. It's a different kind of deal. It's kind of like getting married almost.

Rens Hayes 38:39

You got it is a second marriage, there's no doubt.

Stefano Basso 38:42

Partners that you're tied to. So I I spoke with a lot of people, got a lot of great opinions from folks that I respect. And at the end of the day, it was like, if you like coming here and you like what you do and you have no plans to leave and do something else, why why wouldn't you sign on to stay? I've been pretty happy with it.

Rens Hayes 38:58

That's awesome. What's the best piece of advice you've received on partnership?

Stefano Basso 39:02

Making sure, similarly to clients, that you and your partners are aligned. So we meet once a week to go through anything that comes up, but we talk a lot of business development and staffing, and then we get together four times a year to talk long-term strategic planning. But I think it's important to get together for lunch or for drinks and just to like really build a relationship. And I think it's more helpful than office meetings, right? In terms of are we on the same page? And if we're not, what's the reason for that? Are we looking at an issue or an opportunity through a different lens or a different concern? Because if my partner wants to do something and I'm not sure about it, they're probably thinking about it completely differently than I am. I think just having that really personal relationship helps us to have open and honest communication. I don't mind if I say something stupid in front of my partners, right? I'd rather say something stupid than not say anything and be very professional and make a mistake.

Rens Hayes 40:00

I think some of the lessons I've learned along the way in in partnership is one, assuming positive intent. If you, if you're, you find that you're getting irritated with the people that you're closest to, which you're gonna get close to your business partner that you should be, you start to see their tendencies and you know their strengths and their flaws. And if you let their flaws bother you, that becomes something that you focus on. And then you can let those become problems. But if you can focus on the things that they do well and communicate well and assume positive intent that they're always trying to do what's best for the team, not themselves, that's a really good lens to start. And then we personally have to lead with that same intent, right? You can't expect that of others and then prioritize yourself over your business partnership.

Stefano Basso 40:40

Yeah, I try to find any kind of insecurity or something, and I'll just poke that spot on them as often as I can.

Rens Hayes 40:47

Just poke away at the insecurity.

Stefano Basso 40:48

That's been pretty effective for me. Yeah.

Rens Hayes 40:50

I like that. Well, what has changed? What's been the biggest change in your day-to-day since become a partner?

Stefano Basso 40:57

There hasn't been a ton of change. I think the way that we approach different roles and responsibilities here is that there's not like a really hierarchical setup on our team. And so it's more driven somebody's role on a project day to day is more driven based on their strengths and their interests and their experience level. We don't really do a promotion and your job changes with the promotion. I think we're still small enough or maintain a small enough company mindset that we do whatever is required of us, and if you're doing it well, you can grow in your role and then eventually you get promoted and it's a halfway, you've already been doing it. So I think I was already doing some of the management stuff before I became a partner. So there wasn't a huge shift day to day. But we're still we all try to be working architects, and I think there's enough between five partners that we can divide and conquer some of the management responsibilities and still practice design and lead the team and work with clients. We're still doing all that stuff day to day.

Rens Hayes 42:03

What challenge in architecture do you hope is solved with technology or AI?

Stefano Basso 42:08

Oh man, this isn't my area of expertise. I'd be more curious to hear what you say. But I think there's a ton of really exciting opportunities. There's different areas where you could see efficiencies made. So I think like a lot of paperwork. I think if you're a creative, you don't really want to be bogged down in paperwork. So the meeting notes AI function has been really, I've been impressed with how accurate that is and how it can synthesize through a rambling conversation what the action items are. So I think construction administration is their field reports, submittal review. That seems like an easy one. Maybe some initial drafting work modeling could be automated. I think at least at this point, it seems like you're still gonna need review on everything, right? So there's I think there's still job security in that, but just trying to help leverage the technology so that we can focus more on what we like to do.

Rens Hayes 42:59

100%. Yeah, whenever I think of ways to use technology, I'm trying to automate the mundane, move the busy work, right? And I think what's that absolutely changes over time. If we think of the transition from CAD to BIM, like what a great technology technological advancement that was. But when I sit here today and think about what BIM is a communication tool, but all of our actual work and value that we create is here, and we have to spend a ton of time in BIM to convey that information to other partners, customers, and contractors. The other area of technology that I am really excited for is I think because of how fragmented buildings are, like how many there's dozens and dozens of companies that come together to develop, fund, design, and build a building. And part of that is we're working in multiple softwares to create a BIM tool that creates 2D drawings that goes to all these other companies that then create that and plug it into their software to then create 2D drawings to send back for us to review, right? That whole process seems so antiquated and wasteful. But I do see technology getting to a point where we're going to be able to create construction level drawings instead of design level. That to me, I think, is going to be a massive unlock.

Stefano Basso 44:11

Back when I started, they'd still fax over the submittals, come through the fax machine, and it's still essentially like instead of using Procore, like you're saying, we're producing these 2D drawings and we're sending them back and forth. We could still be faxing each other for the level of technology strong saving.

Rens Hayes 44:28

I like that. What's a book or podcast you'd recommend to the audience?

Stefano Basso 44:32

Uh I'm kind of a nerd, so I read more like the news, keep up with current events and stuff like that. So I'll read morning through in the morning.

Rens Hayes 44:41

Stefano, thanks so much for joining us on design development. It was great to learn more about your career, your perspective, and the lessons you've learned along the way. I wish you, your partners at SP Design, nothing but the best.

Stefano Basso 44:53

Awesome. Appreciate it, everyone. A lot of fun.

Rens Hayes 44:58

Hey everyone, thanks for tuning into Design Development. Real quick before you leave, our goal is to help as many people as possible. We're a growing community and you're a big part of it. So just click that send button, send this episode to a friend to let them get the same insights that you got today. We appreciate you. See you next time.