Under renovation

Unless you’re into cross-country skiing or frostbite, winter in Cleveland is a good time to stay inside.

With the craziness of the holidays in the rearview mirror and the arrival of any semblance of warmth still a good month or two away, I’ve been trying to take advantage of the season accordingly by catching up on all those books and TV shows I put off in the warmer months.

One of the shows I finally got around to starting is “The Sopranos.”

In the pilot episode, Tony Soprano (the New Jersey-rooted mob boss, for the uninitiated) takes his daughter, Meadow, to a church his grandfather helped build some 80 years prior, pointing out the intricate craftsmanship and careful detail the cathedral-like building exhibits.

“Your great-grandfather and his brother Frank—they built this place,” Soprano says with pride. “They were two guys on a crew of laborers. They didn’t design it, but they knew how to build it.”

In this issue’s cover story, “A different vantage point,” we profile how Scott Knightly helped build EnviroVantage, Epping, New Hampshire, into a leading historical renovation contractor. The company specializes in refurbishing these types of properties throughout New England.

Just like the construction of these buildings, renovating years-old properties takes focus and patience that is unique to these types of projects and the personnel required.

As Knightly says, “You have to find people who are methodical about what they do—slower is better in this line of work.”

The role of the contractor on these types of jobs is not so much to redo the work of past generations; it’s to update, revise and refresh those aspects that need a facelift.

If you’re a regular reader of Construction & Demolition Recycling, or even if you just check in with us from time to time, you may have noticed that we’ve done a bit of renovation of our own. Featuring a new cover design, logo and refreshed layout, we’ve kept the same content you’ve come to expect in the magazine, but simply updated its appearance.

Truth be told, we considered some pretty dramatic changes during the redesign process. But, in the end, we opted for something subtler.

In the world of magazine publishing as in the demolition and renovation space, sometimes it pays to know what’s worth preserving.