Background
When I started designing and building on spec in the mid-seventies, I believed that I had found my niche. Real estate development, in the form of individual houses and custom home subdivisions, fit both my creative and financial needs. Family obligations brought me back to Chicago in '81. At that time the development market was in shambles (astronomical interest rates), and I discovered that the Midwest homeowner had the same aesthetic tastes as his or her grandmother. Clearly, this was not a place for me to set up a successful design practice. So, I looked for other things:
* First, I thought that with Chicago's cold winters and hot summers there would be a strong market for energy conservative design: solar, earth integration, moveable insulation.... Wrong! Nobody cared, especially the design community. Energy was cheap, and the incorporation of energy conservation or anything innovative into the dinosaur-like housing was incomprehensible to both designers and clients.
* Second, based upon an earlier life programming computers for the aerospace industry, I thought that CAD/CAM technology could be effectively integrated into the field of architecture. So, I joined a computer aided design and drafting company to take the tools to the market. An uphill battle at first, it evolved into the mainstream in a mere decade. After three years with a national company, I created a startup. My efforts during the period were aimed at customizing the systems and teaching professionals how to effectively utilize the technology in their practices.
* Next, by '92, I had become convinced that trying to tell others how to use the systems was not as productive as showing them. I began using the CAD system to design bagel stores for Big Apple Bagel throughout the country. By customizing the software, I was able to reach extremely high levels of productivity allowing me to provide rapid turnaround and low cost. I also began to construct some of the bagel stores as the general contractor. The design/build concept fit very well: it was like the "good old days." Things went too well, and the bagel folks concluded that they wanted me to work in-house.
* So, fourth, having received an "offer" that I couldn't refuse, I became an employee of BAB Systems, Inc. There I performed the design work for hundreds of stores, managed the construction of the corporate stores, coordinated construction for the franchisee stores, ran the IT (information technology) department, assumed the role of facility manager, and did a zillion other things along the way. Fun, but it took me away from the creative and building work that I have always loved.
* Fifth, in '99, I went back to the design/build concept. While continuing to design bagel stores, coffee houses, and other franchised concepts as a consultant, I looked for opportunities to design and build. While I wanted to do spec building, the Chicago suburbian North Shore market seemed to reward those who offered a product that was big, bulky, and appealed (still) to your grandmother - but while on an acid trip. Given that I was so out-of-step with the community, I figured that the only way that I could enjoy my work was to do small remodel jobs with clients that I really liked. Over the period of the next six years I performed a ton of smaller design/build jobs with the nicest bunch of people as clients that one could imagine. It was wonderful. But, I missed the new construction from both design and build perspectives.
I had always wanted to live in a warm (read tropical) climate near a large body of water. Places like Hawaii, the Caribbean, Costa Rica, Cancun, Cabo San Lucas, etc. have been the objects of my focus. Way back in '73, I visited Vieques, then 70% taken over by the Navy. It was gorgeous, and I felt that if the Navy left, I would consider it as an option for a second home. The Navy departed in 2003, and I fell in love with it all over again.
I have finally reached the point where time and place have met, and I am here. I have always wanted to develop energy conscious homes. Over the years, I've come to realize that attaching or clustering homes, while preserving large areas of open space, is much more efficient and better use of the land than carving it up into little pieces destroying all of the open space. So, my orientation is toward building small, sustainable neighborhoods, not just individual houses.
While the "green" movement throughout the world represents more lip service than actual substance (it isn't easy being green), the core intent of the movement is absolutely right on. I have to say that I am green. Vieques is green. I believe that there is an opportunity to demonstrate attractive and effective green architecture that could set an example for others. Helping to rationally develop Vieques is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I am part of. Certainly there are major obstacles to any well intended venture, but I'm walking the walk.
I live in Vieques full time, but visit family on the mainland a couple of times per year. In addition to opening an office for the purposes of designing and building houses and condos, I am also finding suitable properties for real estate investors who wish to either "buy and hold" or develop with me.
The great thing about PR is that it is a part of the US. No problem working here and no complications of status. No US taxes on money earned in PR as a Puerto Rican resident. PR state taxes are less than US federal, but higher than state. US products are available through many sources including Costco, Sam's, Sears and Home Depot.