When I was a kid my mother would make me hang flyers in all the buildings of the housing projects where I was raised in Brooklyn. Sometimes every floor of every building. The flyers would be to inform tenants about upcoming meetings. Urging them to come out and get informed about things going on in and around the surrounding community. As the tenant’s association president, she took on the role of not only doing for herself and her family but being the voice for an entire community. She worked alongside congress and assembly men and women. Fought for funding and made sure those funds were allocated properly within the community. She worked with law enforcement to make sure we were protected but not over policed. She made sure that when contractors came to do work that they hired tenants to help with installations. She even made sure that the surrounding businesses whether it was a supermarket, bodega or convenient store pitched in and gave back for our community’s annual family day cookout. By all accounts, she was my earliest and most influential role model. I am the son of a lifelong public servant/organizer and community activist.

Add to that my autodidactic love of designing and building things and you have what I am today. Although I have spent years in a classroom learning about woodworking/carpentry with 6 years of formal training including high school and college. I have worked professionally for just over 20 years now. I cut my teeth on the 22.7 square mile island of Manhattan. From Tribeca and SoHo straight through Hells Kitchen to the Upper West and East Sides of Manhattan. I have enjoyed my lunch while perched on a ladder overlooking some of the most breathtaking views the city has to offer.

In my professional career, I have worked alongside some of the most gifted and talented craftsmen and woman in the tristate area. When you are part of a million dollar sometimes multimillion-dollar renovation you are expected to perform at the highest level. It is like you have made it to the major leagues of your respective craft. I have always found that sort of atmosphere and energy brought out the best in me. In my apprentice years I was like a sponge. Not only in my own craft ,but learning many techniques and tips from other trades as well. Some of my predecessors were extremely encouraging and willing to teach. Others not so much. I learned it all any way.

I am extremely passionate about the process vs the finished product. Solving problems and sharing ideas with like minded people is one of the things that has always brought me great joy, with regards to my approach to building.

Over the years I have taken inventory of my life. I’ve started to view things a little differently. Why am I here at this point in this moment? What are some of the things that did happen and didn’t happen to me that has led me to this point? While there are a few specific moments that have shaped who I am in a very positive way there has always been a voice inside of me that has spoken to me from time to time. Pushing me to strive for more. It would say, “Don’t you want to do a little more with your life?” “Is what you’re doing enough?” “Why do you refuse to believe that you can make a real social impact if you just apply your God given talents properly?” So, although I am extremely proud of the man that I have become, the life that I have, my friends and especially my family. At this point in my life I have come to the realization that I have suppressed that voice for about as long as I can.

What you are about to witness is me giving way to the voice in my head.

BUILD WITH PURPOSE . LIVE WITH PURPOSE