Last month, we had a chance to do another one of our Team Days. With a very busy summer, we hadn’t had an opportunity to do a Team Day since March, though we did have a great offsite last May.
On other Team Days, we’ve built gingerbread houses, visited some of our favorite local art museums, and gone on great site visits. This time around, we asked Eleftheria to plan a day full of adventures for the whole team – and she kept it under wraps, surprising all of us with the itinerary on the day-of.
Breakfast in Hudson
We started our day by gathering in front of one of our current project, Hudson House. We all assumed that we’d be doing a site visit, but Eleftheria led us around the corner to the offices of Peggy Andersen, the GC for Hudson House. Eleftheria had prepared a delicious homemade granola, while Peggy had graciously supplied us all with some extra morning caffeine.
We were able to have breakfast with Peggy and her team. She shared stories about being a female GC in New York City and upstate and talked about how she runs her business now. We were also lucky enough to hear her talk a bit about the renovation she did on her own home and studio and to get a taste of how historic the town of Hudson is.
Historic Hudson
After our lovely breakfast, we migrated to Hudson Hall, a historic landmarked building that houses New York State’s oldest surviving theater. Through the dedication of local citizens, Hudson Hall was renovated from 1992 to 2017. Formerly a bank and a police station, the building now houses a cultural center that hosts artist exhibits, local gatherings, and large scale productions in its fully renovated Victorian-era theater.
Eleftheria had arranged for us to get a tour from Sage Marie Carter, Hudson Hall’s General Manager. She told us some great stories about Hudson Hall’s history and took us on a tour that included taking a peak into the old bank vaults and into the backstage of the renovated theater. One of our favorite moments was seeing the old piano that has been repurposed as a bar cart by local artist Zoé Bellot – with an amazing operatic shadow box on the back.
We’ll certainly have to come back to Hudson Hall to see one of their upcoming performances – they’re currently working on a production of the Handel opera Rodelinda, which will play at the end of October.
Lunch at SkyHaus
Of course, we love doing site visits on our Team Days. While we all try to visit multiple projects when we are upstate, it is a special treat to be able to see a project as a full team. It gives the PM an opportunity to talk about the project while standing on its site, describe what they’re working on currently, and for the whole team to see any unique details or special considerations that we’ve had to make for the project.
During this Team Day, Eleftheria took us to see SkyHaus, one of the first projects that she worked on after joining Studio MM. We’re currently in the midst of construction on the house and are thrilled to be working with Tim and Rich Larsen on the project. We’re nearly done with framing and are looking forward to windows being installed! Eleftheria showed us around the house, talking about some of the problem solving she’s been doing, as well as all of the mechanical coordination that’s been happening.
We of course had to take an extended visit to the roof deck. The views from this space are simply incredible, and the breeze that comes through washed away any lingering September heat. We can’t wait to see the space finished! Eleftheria had also prepared a scavenger hunt for all of us, printing out some of the details she had drawn for the project. We were paired up and had to find each of the details she had drawn, matching up the two dimensional representation with reality.
After all of us had found our details, we took a break for lunch. Marica had prepared a Greek-style pasta salad in honor of Eleftheria, who had recently returned from a visit home. We of course all had to have seconds!
Wrapping Up at Fermata
Once we were all fed, Eleftheria surprised us by saying that we were next going to stop by Fermata. We had all expected to go see IRIE House, as she’s currently PMing that project, but she decided to put me (Marisa) on the spot and ask me to walk us through Fermata instead.
We headed over and did a walkthru of the house, which now has the bulk of framing and roofing complete. It was my first time seeing the house with the roof on, so it was a really special moment. We spent a good amount of time here, talking about various details – from chimneys to landscaping. It was fun to be able to show the team around and to share more about the project and the story behind the design. Check out our recent Construction Update post for more info!
After our tour, we all headed back home, tired but happy to have been able to see so much and to spend some time together. Team Days are a great way for us to all meet up every once in a while, especially with our team spread between the Hudson Valley, New York City, Connecticut and Boston. Huge thanks to Eleftheria for a very successful day!