May 12, 2025 • 50 mins
Matt Arnold, founder of architectural firm ArnoldAnd, has two decades working as an architect in greater Boston, most notably in a senior leader role.
Matt has earned a reputation for masterfully blending modern design and sustainability features within historic homes and buildings. Modern Luxury Interiors Magazine recently named Matt one of its “Ones to Watch” class of 2025.
He is a member of the BSA’s Residential Design Committee, the Boston Preservation Alliance and LevelUp Mastermind.
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Matt has earned a reputation for masterfully blending modern design and sustainability features within historic homes and buildings. Modern Luxury Interiors Magazine recently named Matt one of its “Ones to Watch” class of 2025.
He is a member of the BSA’s Residential Design Committee, the Boston Preservation Alliance and LevelUp Mastermind.
Winning Business Radio is broadcast live Mondays at 4PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Winning Business Radio is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Winning Business Radio Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/winning-business-radio--3075598/support.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:20):
choosing W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Churchill said, those who fail to learn from history are
condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helenan believes that certainly applies
to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W
four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com and
now your host, Kevin Helena.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Thanks for joining in again today.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
I am Kevin Halenan, and welcome back to another episode
of Winning Business TV and Radio. We're on W four
cy dot com, we're streaming live on talk for tv
dot com, and of course we're on Facebook and that's
at Winning Business Radio. And you can find us after
the live show on every platform where you find your
(01:14):
favorite podcasts, YouTube, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, et cetera. The mission
of Winning Business radio and TV, as regular viewers and
listeners know, is to offer insights and advice to help
people avoid the mistakes of others, to learn best practices.
That's the how tos, the what toos, the what not tos,
and I hope to be challenged and hopefully to be
(01:36):
inspired by the successes of others. Those are consultants, coaches, advisors, authors,
founders and owners. Today's a founder and owner, entrepreneurs, people
with expertise. But you know, virtually every successful person I've
ever had a chance to talk to us had some
form of failure in their lives and careers. I said,
every week, we all have to get our knees skinned
(01:56):
once in a while, so I'm driven to keep those
scrapes from need major surgery. Let's endeavor to learn from
history so we don't repeat it. I've spent the better
part of my career equipping businesses to grow from solopreneurs
to to excuse me, small and medium sized businesses all
the way up to the fortune fifty. I've seen some
of those companies wan, and to varying degrees. I've seen
some fail I've had the opportunity to rub ebols with
(02:19):
some of the highest performing people around and with some
who probably should have found other professions. In my own businesses,
I've had lots of success, but some failures too, and
I like to think I've learned a lot from those experiences.
So you're going to hear from me my opinions and insights,
but more importantly, you're going to hear from our experts,
and today is no exception. Today my guest is Matthew Arnold,
(02:42):
founder of architectural architectural firm Arnold, and here's his bio.
Matt Arnold has worked as an architect in the city
of Boston and surrounding areas for the past two decades,
most notably in a senior leader role. I hope I
said this correctly. Matt at Hasten in Boston's South End.
During that time, he earned a reputation for work that
(03:02):
masterfully blended modern design and sustainability features within historic homes
and buildings, both throughout the city and Greater Boston. So
much show that when he launched Arnold, and at the
end of twenty twenty four, Modern Luxury Interiors magazine named
Matt as part of its ones to Watch Class of
twenty twenty five, Matt says at Arnold and our mission
(03:23):
is to create a design with our clients that elevates
their life, enhances the community, and truly reflects their vision,
with MABI being the instrument that makes it happen. How
we get there is through a close collaborative process and
a real attention to detail, understanding what matters in the
day to day lives of our clients. Matt's work emphasizes
(03:43):
a seamless balance between client vision and architectural integrity. He
places a strong emphasis on collaboration and creativity while ensuring
that every project meets the highest standards of quality, budget alignment,
and timely delivery. His approach foster's trust and clear community,
resulting in spaces that resonate deeply with clients and end
(04:03):
users alike. Matt's portfolio include successful projects in Boston and
across New England, where he's brought his understanding of both
architecture and real estate to life. From conceptual design to
construction and post docupancy. He guides clients through every stage
of the process with meticulous attention to detail and an
unwavering commitment to sustainability.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
And innovation.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
This ethos drives his work and his interactions with clients
and the broader community. Outside of work, Matt thrives on
creativity and inspiration. You can often find him biking through
the city exploring new design ideas, or as any events
that fuel his passion for architecture and growth. He's a
member of the BSA's Residential Design Committee, the Boston Preservation Alliance,
(04:46):
and Level Up Mastermind. Matt received his undergraduate degree from
New England Institute I Can Say That Institute of Technology
in Warwick, Rhode Island, and a master's degree from Northeastern.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
He and his wife Hope live with their.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Son Aidan in the Jamaica Plane section of Boston. As
it turns out, we're neighbors by only about a few
miles away. Matt, Welcome to Winning Business Radio.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Thank you so much for having me. Kevin super excited
to be here today.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Very cool, Very cool. I'm excited too. So let's start
in with some questions. Tell us about Hope and Aiden.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Well. I met my wife, Hope at Northeastern. She is
also she was trained as an architect. She works at
an architecture firm, but she is actually not a practicing architect.
She works for a very interesting architecture firm in the
South End called Mass Design Group, who's a nonprofit architecture firm,
and she works in their communications and philanthropy team, if
(05:40):
I can say that. So it's kind of cool because
you know, we both speak the same lingo, we both
speak the same language, but she operates in a very
different architectural world than I do on a day to
day basis. So I find that pretty intriguing. You know,
we met at Northeastern, We've been together for quite a
long time, and Aiden is our son. Aiden is twelve
(06:03):
weeks old.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Wow wow.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
Become to our first child into the world on February
fifteenth of this year. So you know, this has been
a year of change from my big time change.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Well, very exciting. What's your best part of being a
dad so far?
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Oh? Man? I mean, like he is literally, you know,
this week last week, starting to react when I when
he sees me, when I walk into the room, when
I pop into his face, the smile, the reaction is
all new. So he's actually acknowledging me. So I got
to say, you know, the first few weeks, you're just
keeping the baby alive. Right, I mean, everybody whose parents knows.
(06:45):
But the moment, you know, to see the personality start
to kind of sparkle in his eyes and come out
has been pretty wild. And I just assume this is
going to, you know, exponentially grow as he gets older
and older.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
So, in the words of ron bergend coming a pretty
big deal at least at least as far as he's concerned.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Yeah, exactly, I'm half his world, right.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
That's right? All right?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
So you and I are neighbors, not by very far.
But it gets even better because I grew up in Midfield,
which is the next town two towns away from Yeah,
two towns away, two towns from Medway, where you grew up.
Tell us about Medway and what it was like to
grow up there Medway.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
You know, grew up in Medway, small town, had a
lot of fun there, had a great community of friends
and people around us. You know, we lived on a
small street, had a couple of friends right on the street.
You know, I spent my life on two wheels really,
whether it was a bicycle, I guess, like eight wheels
because of roller blades, or a dirt bike. And you know,
(07:46):
I my dad would say, like you would leave at
the crack of dawn and I would tell you be
home by dark, and you know, around dark, you know,
dusk time. He'd be out up Matthew and he'd hear
me off of the distance, kind of responding back, and
he said, I've come back, skinned head to toe with dirt, scrapes, bumps,
but loving life. You know, I love being on two wheels,
(08:09):
the bicycle and the dirt bike. You know. It was again,
it was a very small community. You know. We lived
in an old house that we fixed up. Throughout my
kind of entire childhood, it was always a working progress
with my dad. He let me do a lot of
the work as well, and I just it was a
good place to grow up. And I was always connected
(08:29):
to Boston and close to Boston, so Boston was always
like the draw. Oh my god, Boston. We would take
the commuter rail in from Franklin with our bikes and
ride around for the entire day in the city and
then take the commuter at home, and that, you know,
that was about the coolest thing ever. So, you know,
I was always really really attracted to the city. I
(08:50):
you know, I kind of assumed I would end up
here one day. And you know I have, which is
which is kind of exciting for me.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
So I'm gonna get into the Lego story in a second.
But would you be drawn to that architecture even then?
Speaker 5 (09:00):
I think so. I was always like very intrigued by
the kind of urban environment. You know. Again, Midway was
very nice, very pretty. You know, I had great neighborhoods.
But you know, it didn't it didn't spark the interest
like the city. It didn't absorb or kind of heighten
all of my senses like a city did. When we
got off that train in South Stasian or back Bay,
(09:21):
like I felt very at home, it felt very cool.
I was very interested, and I really just never wanted
to lead it. You know. It was really something that
drew me to towards it.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
So I understand that at a very young age, I
don't know exactly the age you'll tell us, but that
you were into design and architecture, even if you didn't
call it that, because you were into legos and you
built a lot of things. Tell us about that and
include your Lego city in the story.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
Yeah, my Lego city, yeh. From a very young age,
and I was attracted to legos. I you know. Honestly,
I don't even know how I got connected to Legos.
I must have been through my father, and my dad says,
you know, every year all I wanted was legos, just
legos for Christmas, Legos for my birthday. And I would
(10:09):
build the legos to the thing on the box and
then you know, kind of dismantle it and repurpose the
pieces for my own city. Now, we lived in this
older home in Medway, had a lot of rooms and stuff.
So I had my bedroom and then I had a
Lego room, which I don't know if he gave me
this room or I just like took it over, or
we didn't have a ton of stuff in this house,
(10:30):
so those space and I just slowly, over the years
started to amass the city. And again I never thought
anything of it as a kid. My dad really didn't
think anything of it until people, his friends and stuff
literally would say like, what is this kid doing here?
And you know, my dad started to take My dad
was big into videoographer VHS tapes, so he started to
(10:54):
take video of me taking him on an architectural tour
of my Lego city. Now was totally instinctual. I had
no clue what I was doing. And you know, at
some point my dad recognized this through his friends and
so forth, kind of bringing it up, and so I
think he leaned into it a bit by videotaping me
and asking me to tell him what was going on. So,
(11:18):
you know, I don't think it was fully aware of
what he was doing, but he was subconsciously aware of
like bringing out a skill that I had that I
didn't even know I had, and I really loved it.
I mean, I still actually have the legos today. I
have a huge tub of legos in the basement that
I mean, some of these legos are probably from you know,
(11:39):
the early eighties, and I don't even know honestly what
legos are like today, but I know for me, those
those were like the building blocks, literal building blocks of
my life. In any ways, you know a.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Lot of young adults are into legos. They build these
massive projects. Our twenty eight year old has built the
London It's a big ben, right, She's built some Star
Wars stuff, some Harry Potter stuff. It's really intricate. I mean,
it takes a lot interesting and she has a process.
(12:13):
She spreads it all out into different containers, you know,
But uh, so I can see it.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
I can see it.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
So you worked even when you were young, I don't
know how old again, but on small projects during school
breaks with your general contractor stepdad, right, tell us about that.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
That's correct. Yeah, my stepfather ran a kind of a
small kind of contracted company did like a lot of painting.
Was the company was sale painting actually now that they
think of it. But he was in we were living
in Bellingham at the time. My mother and my stepfather
lived in Bellingham. My father had the house in Medway
(12:53):
and I just happened to kind of go to the
Medway schools. But yeah, you know my stepfather, I needed
a job, you know, and he he somehow, some ways
said hey, you know, come work with me. I'll give
you some work. And then he started to kind of
like lend me out to his friends in a way like, Hey,
you know this guy, Bob, he's building this thing. He
(13:13):
needs some help, want to go work.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
What you should know is he was paying you whatever
ten bucks an hours building you out at twenty probably right.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
Yeah, he was entrepreneur in his own way. Right. So
I ended up just kind of going through a whole
bunch of different trades from painting to framing to tile work,
working in people's homes, bathrooms, commercial spaces. I ended up
getting a lot of different perspective of the construction world.
And it was really just because, you know, somebody would
(13:43):
have something and I would want to the next person
and the next person. So there was no rhyme or
reason to it all. But you know, in hindsight, it
just kind of gave me this. I touched a bunch
of different things, right, and it gave me some literal
knowledge about Like I could speak to subcontractors and say, Okay,
you know, I might not be an expert in what
you do because you're the subcontractor, but I've kind of
(14:05):
done this at one point in my life, so I
have a different communication structure with you. I have a
different level of respect with you than somebody who, you know,
maybe hasn't had the opportunity to do this.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
When did you know that you wanted to actually be
an architect? Oh?
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Man, I you know, I think I went all through
high school and everything and a guidance counsel. It was
coming to the end of high school. I really did
not know what to do. So many people, you know,
knew what they're going to do, knew where they were
going to go to college. It was kind of all
mapped out. I thought I was just going to work
in the trades. But my parents, you know, my stepfather
(14:43):
and my father and my mother, you know, they all
encouraged me to, you know, not do something so physical.
You know, my stepfather had a lot of physical issues,
I think because of some of the work, and a
lot of his friends had back knee pain. You know,
they they knew that I should do something behind a
desk because our body couldn't do this for forty years.
(15:04):
So I really had a high school guidance counselor that
kind of made the recommendation. And that was the start
of it.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
All right, we're going to take our first break, so
we'll be back Matt and everybody in about one minute.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
With Matt Arnold.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
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Speaker 2 (16:12):
And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene,
presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again
is Kevin Helene.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
We're back with Matthew Arnold, founder and principal architect of
Arnold and we'll get to that name in a moment.
When did you decide you wanted to attend New England
Institute of Technology.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
So the guidance counselor who had given me some recommendations
on hey, you should really think about architecture. I believe
he went to New England Tech and so he kind
of turned me on to the school. You know, I went.
I went and toward a few other schools, but there
was something about their approach, their program. It was a
(17:07):
little bit more technical in nature. It was kind of
an architectural engineering degree in many ways, and I kind
of gravitated towards that kind of tectonic nature of it.
Like we took some structures classes, we did more engineering things,
and I think a lot of architecture schools do, and
so I just kind of gravitated toward that because it
(17:28):
felt I think, more connected to you know, the trades,
which is where I had come from. So I think
that's yeah, it kind of drew me in and ended
up I ended up getting there really loving it right
from the get go, doing very well, winning a lot
of awards, and just getting a very high GPA. And
it was very very clear, very early on, like this
(17:51):
was it. It just clicked. It just clicked way more
than high school ever clicked for me. You know, I
was an okay student high school, but it wasn't I
wasn't an inspiring student. And the minute I found architecture,
I think, you know, after that first semester, I was like, Okay,
this is it. I'm in. I like this and I
just haven't looked back, you know.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
And it wasn't much later, but a little later when
you decided to get your masters. That was behind that decision.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
Yeah, So I mean I graduated from New England Tech.
You know, I in order to become a registered architect,
you needed a master's degree from accredited school. You know.
I didn't really realize that when I went into undergraduate
and so I started saying, Okay, well I think I
want to do this. I you know, I need to
be an architect. I want to be registered. So I
(18:39):
decided to go back to grad school. And where better
to go than my favorite city, Boston, And you know,
found Northeastern. They had a very early program for me,
and I just I went, I said, this is it.
I love it, and I dove in there head first,
kind of the same thing, did really well and have
(19:01):
been in the community ever since.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
So and it's a Master in architecture, correct.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
Yes, Masters in architecture. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
So during I know there's some overlap, but you've had
multiple internships from about four to twenty ten, some of
which again overlapped with the career or professional positions. Tell
us about some of those and maybe some of the
lessons you learned along the way.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
Well, one of the earlier on internships I had was
working at an engineering firm and I thought, you know,
maybe I wanted to be an engineer. Actually I kind
of deviated from my dream a little bit. You know,
I knew I wanted to be an architect young on,
and I said, okay, well maybe I go this engineering route. Well,
I worked at an engineering firm, you know, good firm,
(19:48):
local firm, great people. But I was there for about
six months and I was like, this is not for me.
It was you know, I wanted that it wasn't scratching
my creative itch, right. I liked the technical aspect of
the engineering, but it didn't have the creativity driving the results, right.
It was more you know, the mathematical aspects of driving
(20:10):
results in the engineering. So that was definitely an early
lesson like, hey, don't deviate, make sure you stick with
your dream, make sure this internship fits in where you
want to go. And then after that, I worked at
a small architecture firm, and you know, immediately again knew, okay,
this is yes, this is more akin to what I want.
(20:34):
And as I worked my way through different firms, I
definitely learned different aspects. You know. I worked at some
firms that kind of focused more on institutional work, and
then I got to work at some firms that focused
a little bit more on the residential hospitality side, and
I think you know, early on I realized like I'm
more of a kind of residential hospitality architect than an
(20:56):
institutional you know, campus architect, which I mean the fantastic
architects and they're very well needed, but me personally, I
connected with the more kind of domestic nature of architecture
and that could be residential or hospitality.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
So your first professional position, it seems, was at MDA
Design Center. We had that role for about seven years.
Tell us about that role and some of the key
lessons learned there.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
So that was actually my own side hustle.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Yes, DA Lighting, I could have seen that, Okay, yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Yes, yes, so I you know, again when I am.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Big national, international firm then right.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
On many competitions because of my stepfather and his community
of friends. Okay, at very young age, I started my
own business in a way.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
That makes sense with the timeline that I saw.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
Okay, yes, moonlighting. You know, as under the umbrella of MDA,
I probably did about one hundred and fifty projects over
the course of however many years. But you know, as
friends would come to me and say, hey, I have
a I have a deck. An addition, I have a kitchen.
Do you want to design? Sure? You know, I was
kind of bullish about it. I just took chances that,
(22:07):
you know, in hindsight, maybe a little bit risky in
terms of not knowing what I was really doing. But
I learned a ton. I did make some mistakes. Luckily
they were I was working with people who were understanding
and they all had you know, I was working for
folks who had a personal interest in me succeeding, so
they weren't going to bury me if I did something wrong.
(22:28):
And I definitely remember a few phone calls that were like,
don't do that again, kid, you know, but you know,
you learn, you got to learn from your mistakes, and
there's no better way, and you know, you want to
make sure you do it people that care about you
and who have an interest in seeing you succeed. But yeah,
(22:49):
I think there's no better lesson than doing right.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
So as an architect and to be licensed, yes, and
we're back those years.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
No, I was not. So I was under a certain
threshold of sizeive project you do not need to be licensed.
So I operated underneath that threshold and then you know,
I got licensed much later in life. But yeah, I
kind of found that little bit of a loophole.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Okay, then hasten, Am I saying that correctly?
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Hasseine? Yes, it's an off and no, people say Haysten
a lot.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Okay, good, at least I'm not alone.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
How did you get that role?
Speaker 3 (23:29):
I think I would answer, but I want people to hear.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
David Hassen, the founding principal and still principal there today,
was my professor in school at Northeastern. He was a
professor of housing. Him and I just connected and clicked.
I really loved his class, did well in his class.
We just we just hit it off. And at the
end of it, we were going into a summer and
(23:52):
he said, hey, do you want to do an internship.
I was like, yes, I do. And I went there
and you know, the summer of two thousand nine, and
I just like kind of never left, you know, two
thousand and nine. It wasn't a ton going on in
the architecture building worlds, you know. But yeah, I was
very lucky to have that position, and I found myself there.
(24:16):
When I graduated school, he kind of came back and said, hey,
you know, would you like to come and you know,
work here as a full time professional? And I said absolutely.
I was very happy that he kind of asked me
to do that.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
So your license coincided with the role it has seen.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
Yeah, I got license a few years after I started
has seen. You have to go through you know, some
you have to do a certain amount of hours in
a firm and a document, all of that right under
the IDP and then you sit for six exams, which
is a bit it's treacherous. You know, it's not an
easy process. So I did that. Well, it has seen.
(24:58):
You know, the firm was David in the firm were
proponents of it. They were very much encouraging of doing it.
There was you know, financial reimbursement through it because the
tests are they're not cheap. But they were very much
encouraging me, like, hey, if you want to be a
practitioner in this world, you should carry a license, whether
you use it or not, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
And what are some of the I was going to
qualify it. I won't. I won't qualify it. What are
some of the projects you worked on.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
At hassine So I did a number. I worked a
lot in their hospitality world. Hasscene has been responsible for
a number of restaurants in retail establishments around the South
End including like Sure Leave restaurant, Black Lamb Glasshouse did
(25:47):
some of the early flower bakeries for Joe and Chang
in the South End, and so I got the pleasure
of working on a lot of those projects at Hassin.
I also everybody that has seen kind of works on
private residential in some way or another because it's a
little bit of their bread and butter. And so I
(26:07):
also had the opportunity to do some very nice private
residential projects in the city.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
So, because this audience is at least nationwide, there are
some out of the country listeners and viewers as well.
Tell describe the South End in terms of its architecture.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Ah, So the South End is a good point. South
End is a great neighborhood in the city of Boston
that is all brownstones. It's four or five story buildings.
It's a grid and it's created of these bow front
brick brownstones that create all of these great streets, and
in different parts the buildings pull back to create these
squares with fountains. It's a really really fun place. If
(26:46):
anybody knows Back Bay in Boston, South End is kind
of like the hipper version of Back Bay, a little smaller,
little more grungy, not quite as ordinate, but very very
kind of cool and hip. It's a really beautiful and
a very classic Boston neighborhood. Yeah, it's really fun being
able to work there.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
If you see not the gritty movie like gon Girl
or you know, I think that's the one, you know,
Met and Ben, but if you see movies that are
built in the neighborhoods, that's what you're going to see,
right that iconic. As you said, the bow Front, I
didn't know what to call it that, but it makes sense.
The bow Front Brownstones. Yeah, so you'd work on a
(27:29):
lot of those, and a lot of those were residences. Yes,
yea in a what would look like a multi family
unit but it's or building, but they're really residences exactly.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
Yeah. Some were multi family where we did two or
three units in them, and some were you know, five
floor townhouses that were one resident. I mean, pretty spectacular
projects that we were able to do for some really
fantastic clients in the city. I mean, it was it
was really kind of a privilege to do some of
that work.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Were some of the other than storic aspect, We'll get
to that in a minute too, But what were some
of the challenges or are some of the challenges in
working with a building like.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
That, Oh man, I mean construction wise, some of those
buildings were in some massive disrepair. We would have to
kind of hollow out the inside of the building and
you'd leave the brickshell and frame, you know, new floor
systems in there. I mean sometimes we'd walk in and
you could look up, you know, forty feet into the air.
It was quite wild. And the contractors that did that
(28:28):
kind of work were literally surgeons. You know.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
There were lots of stairways, right, lots of staircases, sometimes elevators,
I imagine.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
Most of the time. I think almost every private residential
project we did at some sort of elevator. Yeah, but
the stairs become this really beautiful element within the home.
And it's not a staircase like you think. Like, these
were really heavily designed, beautiful elements that connected multiple floors.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
I've been in a couple, not many, but the couple
that I've been in were just gorgeous. It was clear
that people invested a lot.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
You know, yes, yes, a lot of time and energy.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
All Right, it is almost the bottom of the hour,
So we'll take our break right here. We'll be back
in another minute with Matthew Arnold.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on
W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com.
Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up
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Or if your car breaks down, you can use the
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Speaker 2 (30:08):
And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene,
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mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again
is Kevin Helenett.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
We're back with Matthew Arnold, founder and principal architect of
Arnold and Okay. Now the big question, and I think
the I mean, I love this stuff. But the more
fun of the interview is when and why did you
decide to go on your own.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
That's a great question. So I technically started my own
business June first of twenty twenty four. So my business
is coming up on a one year anniversary in about
a couple of weeks, two weeks. That week's thank you.
I'm very excited. You know. I started my own practice
because I had the realization that I needed to live
(31:02):
out my own dream. And I had, you know, from
the childhood I had growing up, I had always thought
I would be my own boss, that I would open
my own firm, that I would be a kind of
principal architect in many ways.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Well, you were with Lego City.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
I mean I was with Lego City, and I was
with NDA as well. You know, it was kind of
already running my own show on the side, and and
I loved the kind of business aspect. I loved the
kind of thrill of running a firm, right. You know,
I've had people say to me, oh, man, you must
like have you know, so much anxiety about what's coming next.
I actually feel more calm now that I'm on my
(31:40):
own than I actually did working for somebody else. I
feel actually less anxiety and surprisingly enough, all.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Right, so I'm gonna have a phone with this question
in spite of the fact that we're not questioned, but
you're you know where I'm going right?
Speaker 5 (31:52):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (31:53):
All right?
Speaker 4 (31:53):
So you came home and said I'm starting a firm,
and she said, well guess what.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
Yes, that did happened. I gave my notice on a
Thursday Saturday night. She came home and said I need
to talk to you. I was like, okay, and she
handed me a pregnancy test, and.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
So there's some risk there. There's maybe a little bit
of fear. But tell us about it.
Speaker 5 (32:15):
Oh man, Yeah, I mean she said, we're not changing
any of your plans. You know, obviously we knew this
was possible. We had been talking about starting a family
for a while. We knew it was possible. And you know,
she honestly said, are you freaking out? And I could
honestly say to her, no, I really didn't feel like
I was freaking out. And you know, I think, yeah,
(32:38):
first might have a lot of things might have rans
in my head, but this past year actually being my
own boss in many ways, working out of the house.
Having flexibility has been the one of the greatest gifts
I've had in a long time. I didn't even realize
how much flexibility would work in my favor right now
with doctor's appointments prior to the birth, and now I'm
(33:00):
home every day and I get to interact with them,
you know, in little moments throughout the day that I
just I couldn't imagine having to report to an office
from nine to five right now and miss all the
things that I see throughout the day. That's really it's
like one of those It's just something I just wasn't
thinking about and wasn't aware of. But it's been a
(33:20):
gift to be home and to be available and have
the flexibility to you know, be with and help my
family in ways that I didn't even know I was
going to need to. So it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
How big is your workspace and what kind of setup
do you need?
Speaker 5 (33:35):
So you're looking at the workspace. My wife's workspace is
kind of behind us, although right now that's a little
on hold. She's not doing a who lot of work
from home. She has a full time job, which is
slightly different. But I really just work at my desk here.
I have a couple of monitors. I have my laptop,
and you know, through mediums like this and Zoom and
(33:57):
Google Drive. And it's amazing how I can run a
practice with so little infrastructure. Right, Like, it's I don't
have to have clients in my house. I travel to
their house. I get samples shipped to me into them.
I mean, the post COVID the world, it was like
it was set up for me to do this, and
(34:18):
I didn't know all of that until I fumbled my
way into all this to say, Okay, well I have
to do this. How am I going to do this?
I used to do it this way, but now I can't.
So now I'm going to do it this way. And
I have found my way through every single little challenge
there has been. It's just all sitting right in front
of me. It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Well, I understand you're still really connected to the firm,
to the old firm, and you're still family.
Speaker 5 (34:40):
I do. Yeah, Oh, they're always going to be my family.
I was with them last week. We go for beers,
I go for lunch with David, like I spent fifteen
years with these people. I mean, you don't just turn
that off, right, They some of them are a number
of them are JP residents live. Well, I'll see about
(35:01):
the whole foods or yeah, we're walking to get ice
cream or something.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
So yeah, JP licks by the way to say that.
Speaker 5 (35:09):
Yes, absolutely shot, Yes, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
It's some mad revenue for that. Shout up. You still
use paper and table or is it all digital?
Speaker 5 (35:19):
It's all digital? Yeah I was. I never had the
strongest hand in terms of hand sketching. Like some of
the you know gentlemen in the office, the older gentleman
in the office, they came from that they can sit
down with a piece of paper and create on a
on a piece of paper that I just could never do.
And now you know, everything is shared digitally, PDFs, zoom, meetings.
(35:43):
People want that digital kind of footprint on everything. So yeah,
I'll do some sketching by hand when I'm really trying
to think through a problem. But most everything is kind
of digital these days.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
Is there a tool you use other than zoom and
PDFs to collaborate?
Speaker 5 (36:01):
A Google Drive and all the Google suites is a
very helpful one between the Google docs and all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
I didn't know if there was a proprietary, like industry
specific tool.
Speaker 5 (36:11):
No, nope, nope, No, it's you know, communication, email and
zoom is pretty much how it goes. Yeah, it works
very well.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
So tell us what was behind the Arnold and name.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
Yeah, so, you know, when I first started thinking about
what I was going to call, this actually operated from
June until like the beginning of this year with no name.
People were like, what's your company name? I was like,
I don't know, I don't even have one. I was
still getting business, I was still doing work. I was
cranking away, and it gave me a little bit of
time to kind of reflect on what do I want?
(36:44):
What do I want this to be. So many people
when I started this said what's your five bear plan?
And I said, my five year plan is to not
have a five year plan because I didn't know right,
I needed some time to digest. So, you know, it
seemed obvious at first, like okay, I let's call it
Matt Arnold Architects. But you know, I really think of
myself as more than an architect. I really didn't want to,
(37:08):
you know, prescribe my future before it had even begun.
So working with my design partner, Agency Bell, you know,
we started to think about, well, how how do we
build something that can evolve as I evolve as a
as a person and a professional. And so it was,
you know, originally thinking of like Arnold and architecture instead
(37:30):
of like Arnold Architects. It's about Matthew Arnold and his
relationship to architecture. And but the more we thought about it,
we thought, well, what if we dropped the architecture which
is Arnold and and the and becomes like the open
ended book for and architecture and development and design and living.
And you know, it created this ability to allow Arnold
(37:54):
and to be what it needed to be when it
needed to be it right, and and the and could
be a client, it could be a collaborator, it could
be a different project type that I'm not even thinking
of yet. And you know, the thing that excites me
the most right now is like the unknown. I love
the fact that I'm building a brand and a business
(38:16):
that is adaptable to this crazy world we live in.
Right And of course I still am an architect, and
I will be an architect forever, but that doesn't mean
I need to practice architecture the same way I have
for the last fifteen years, Right, the built environment is
evolving at such a different pace that I think architects
(38:37):
need to be more open minded about how we interact
with the world. And I'm very interested in like educating
the world about architecture. One of my big pet peeves
about myself an architects is that everybody like interacts with
the built environment everywhere every single day, but so you.
(38:57):
But most of the public knows so little about architecture
because architects are not good about talking about architecture, right, Like,
it's up to architects to educate the world and tell
them why do things look the way they do? Why
do we interact with things the way they do? You know?
I mean it's like it's on us. Let's educate the world. Guys,
(39:18):
Like I want to get out there, I want to
educate people. I want to have fun with it. Right,
The process for me is just as important as the product.
Like if I'm not having fun with my clients, there's
no point. Right. So again, kind of back to the brand,
Like the brand is really meant to be able to
(39:38):
evolve as I evolve, as I grow as a professional.
I will always be a feed for service architect in
many ways, but I really really hope to do a
whole lot more, as you know, my next twenty thirty
years roll on, And I think that's very exciting.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
Yeah, all right, quick shout out to Laura Souder, who
spent a guest on the show Way Agency Bell should
just work. But here's a point that I think you
want to highlight. You design really for the way people live, right,
not just so what does that look like?
Speaker 3 (40:10):
What does that? How does that play out?
Speaker 5 (40:12):
So it's a good question. Yeah, you know, some today
is such a complicated world with homes, right, there are
so many older style homes that we all try to
force our life into. But if you hire an architect,
and you know, you work with somebody like myself, you
actually get to reimagine, like how can I manipulate this
(40:35):
current home to better my life, to enhance my life.
So really understanding how somebody wants to live compared to
how they are living is a really important thing, right,
Like just because you get up every day and you
have this routine in your current home doesn't mean you
need to have that same routine in a new home.
(40:56):
So like, put some imagination together, put some imagination goggles.
Let's think about what would your ideal day look like,
how would that feel? How would that function? How would
you move through the home? What's the first thing you're
going to interact with you wake up? Where do you
want your bedroom? How do you want your kitchen to
be placed in the home. So, you know, I'm really
able to kind of go down this exploratory phase with
(41:19):
my clients and really dream with them a little bit.
And through the process of design and three D visualization
tools we have now, I can really show clients like, hey,
this is what it could feel like to be in
this home. Does this feel like something that interests you?
And you know, through an iterative process, it takes time.
It's not a one and done thing. It takes months sometimes,
(41:41):
but we really together kind of get to explore how
one could live in a home or a space and
make that space enhance your life on a daily basis
compared to being a hindrance. You know, I mean there's
so many there's so much built environment that was built
in the fifties and sixties. I don't live the same
way we did it in the fifties and sixties. You know,
(42:03):
let's update that and that doesn't have to mean tearing
down every single home, but especially in New England. Here
the building stock is fantastic, Great Bones has such an
ability to transform, and through that transformation you could transform
your life. I live in a space that I designed myself,
and it has transformed my life because I got to
make the decisions. I really think. You know something David
(42:26):
has seen you say, like every architect should live in
a space they designed for themselves, and boys, he right.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
Is it a single family?
Speaker 5 (42:35):
It is a I live on the top floor of
a triple decker JP. Yep. And so we bought this place.
It was not in good shape, and I gutted it
and just redid the whole thing. It was quite a process.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Another thing that's pretty foreign to people outside of New England.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
What was the year of.
Speaker 5 (42:56):
Construction nineteen oh two?
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Yeah, our house in Rosendale built in nineteen thirty five.
So yeah, yeah, well farther outbound than you, you know. Yes,
so it's a difference.
Speaker 5 (43:09):
Yep, that's true. That's very true.
Speaker 3 (43:10):
All right.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
Talk about one of your what you would call your
signature one of your signature Arnold and projects, and that's
the Charles Cove House in Dover, mass which is one
town over from where I grew up Midfield and where
my mother taught high school for many years. But that
house was built in I think eighteen sixty eight, right.
It's undergone a number of additions and changes over the years.
(43:32):
I think the most recent was in the sixties. Tell
us about that project and why it's a it's an
Arnold and signature project.
Speaker 5 (43:41):
So, I mean that project is a very cool project. It's,
like you said, the eighteen sixties, so it has a
lot of history and in New England, context and history
is very important. So you know, through that project, we
the clients, you know, one of the clients. Things clients
said to me early on is like, we want to
be good shepherds of this house. We need to Yeah,
(44:02):
very cool. We need to undo some of the things
that they did in the sixties because they don't jibe
with how we live today. But still we need to
be respectful of this eighteen sixties house because it needs
to stand as it did all the way back then.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
So is it a sorry quick place direction?
Speaker 4 (44:17):
Is it a listed historical property?
Speaker 5 (44:21):
It's technically not registered, although it does have its plaque
on it. But yeah, it's actually not on the historic register.
I think because it had the additions later, and it's leway.
It does, Yes, it does. But luckily these clients, you know,
saying they want to be good stewarts from the get
go that was a goal. We were able to preserve
the kind of colonial symmetrical nature of the home while
(44:45):
the kind of additions kind of chart on on the side.
And so from the street it still looks like a
fairly kind of smallish, modest home. And as you kind
of go around it, you can see how we've added
on in a very respectful way. You know, it's it's
a really interesting project because you're we're taking this modern
family off, husband and wife, two kids, two boys. You know,
(45:09):
they like sports, they like activities, and they want to
live a kind of modern lifestyle in this historic home.
So again, how do you do that in the historic home.
We've kind of preserved some of the more cellular natures
of the home with like a smaller living room, a
reading room, an office compared to the addition, which is
(45:31):
more of an open living dining space, right, a larger
space for the family to commune on a daily basis,
but preserve the smaller spaces in the existing home for
the more kind of reflective moments of life.
Speaker 3 (45:43):
Do you have some of these images on this on
the website?
Speaker 5 (45:46):
I do, yes, Yes, there is a rendering of the
house on the website. I believe it's the splash page.
Speaker 4 (45:52):
But yeah, everybody just will get there again, but that's
Arnold ann dot com ahead.
Speaker 5 (45:56):
Yes please, So yeah, it was kind of a you know,
a good charge and a challenge how to make a
modern facing home but yet respects the kind of historical
nature of its context. And as you know, Dover has
a lot of older kind of contextual homes, New England homes,
so the home needed to exude New England but yet
(46:18):
still have its kind of modern flare to it, kind
of representing this kind of modern family.
Speaker 4 (46:22):
Right, all right, what are your I have two last questions.
Believe it or not, we're almost done. What are your
plans for the future of the firm? You know it
consistent with what you said earlier, you don't want to
prescribe in the next five years. But still, what are
you thinking in terms of the future of the firm.
Speaker 5 (46:41):
Well, I mean where the firm is growing, projects are
coming in. I have some folks helping me part time.
I'm you know, actively trying to figure that out. You know,
I think there's a there's a real question for me
whether I go down the traditional nature off I get
a physical space, I open an office, I hire people.
That be a very real trajectory for me. But one
(47:02):
of the things that I've really cherished about this last
year is I get to rethink everything I did in
the past. So I am actively challenging that assumption on
whether I should go down that traditional path. And so
I'm just like literally asking myself day to day, do
I want to do this? Is this the right thing
for me and my practice and my brand. I'm trying
(47:23):
to figure out what is going to pull the best
parts of me out and allow them to flourish right
and not just go down the road of opening a
physical space and doing all the things we all always
did because that seems like it's the right thing. So
that's been pretty fun and exciting. And you know, now
that I have a child and stuff, I have a
(47:45):
different perspective on the world. So it's been kind of
cool to look at all that in a very different way.
Speaker 4 (47:52):
But it is twenty twenty five and there are a
lot of possibilities. So I mean, there are firms that
are founded as virtual that have you know, fifty to
one hundred employees, So it doesn't always have to be
like I have one client I work with who they've
got the head of physical presence now they work out
of like a workspace or shared workspace really when they
(48:13):
you know, when they need it.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
Everybody else is virtual, so it's quite possible.
Speaker 5 (48:17):
Definitely exploring, all right.
Speaker 4 (48:18):
He is Matthew Arnold. His website is Arnold and dot com.
His email is Matthew at Arnold and dot com. Matt,
this has been fun for me. I really appreciate you
being here.
Speaker 5 (48:30):
Yeah, thank you so much. I very much appreciate you
having me here.
Speaker 4 (48:33):
Well, thanks again, and thank you everybody for watching and listening.
As most of you know, this is a show about
business and business challenges. If you've got concerns about the
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team is you or really small or really large, feel
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(48:54):
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Our company is Winning Incorporated. We're part of sand their training.
We develop sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders
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Thank you, as always to one our producer and engineer
for another job well done. I appreciate you one. Be
(49:16):
sure to join us again next week Monday, May twelfth,
We'll do it all over again. Until then, this is
Kevin Helenin.
Speaker 2 (49:24):
You've been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host
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(49:48):
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(00:20):
choosing W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Churchill said, those who fail to learn from history are
condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helenan believes that certainly applies
to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W
four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com and
now your host, Kevin Helena.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Thanks for joining in again today.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
I am Kevin Halenan, and welcome back to another episode
of Winning Business TV and Radio. We're on W four
cy dot com, we're streaming live on talk for tv
dot com, and of course we're on Facebook and that's
at Winning Business Radio. And you can find us after
the live show on every platform where you find your
(01:14):
favorite podcasts, YouTube, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, et cetera. The mission
of Winning Business radio and TV, as regular viewers and
listeners know, is to offer insights and advice to help
people avoid the mistakes of others, to learn best practices.
That's the how tos, the what toos, the what not tos,
and I hope to be challenged and hopefully to be
(01:36):
inspired by the successes of others. Those are consultants, coaches, advisors, authors,
founders and owners. Today's a founder and owner, entrepreneurs, people
with expertise. But you know, virtually every successful person I've
ever had a chance to talk to us had some
form of failure in their lives and careers. I said,
every week, we all have to get our knees skinned
(01:56):
once in a while, so I'm driven to keep those
scrapes from need major surgery. Let's endeavor to learn from
history so we don't repeat it. I've spent the better
part of my career equipping businesses to grow from solopreneurs
to to excuse me, small and medium sized businesses all
the way up to the fortune fifty. I've seen some
of those companies wan, and to varying degrees. I've seen
some fail I've had the opportunity to rub ebols with
(02:19):
some of the highest performing people around and with some
who probably should have found other professions. In my own businesses,
I've had lots of success, but some failures too, and
I like to think I've learned a lot from those experiences.
So you're going to hear from me my opinions and insights,
but more importantly, you're going to hear from our experts,
and today is no exception. Today my guest is Matthew Arnold,
(02:42):
founder of architectural architectural firm Arnold, and here's his bio.
Matt Arnold has worked as an architect in the city
of Boston and surrounding areas for the past two decades,
most notably in a senior leader role. I hope I
said this correctly. Matt at Hasten in Boston's South End.
During that time, he earned a reputation for work that
(03:02):
masterfully blended modern design and sustainability features within historic homes
and buildings, both throughout the city and Greater Boston. So
much show that when he launched Arnold, and at the
end of twenty twenty four, Modern Luxury Interiors magazine named
Matt as part of its ones to Watch Class of
twenty twenty five, Matt says at Arnold and our mission
(03:23):
is to create a design with our clients that elevates
their life, enhances the community, and truly reflects their vision,
with MABI being the instrument that makes it happen. How
we get there is through a close collaborative process and
a real attention to detail, understanding what matters in the
day to day lives of our clients. Matt's work emphasizes
(03:43):
a seamless balance between client vision and architectural integrity. He
places a strong emphasis on collaboration and creativity while ensuring
that every project meets the highest standards of quality, budget alignment,
and timely delivery. His approach foster's trust and clear community,
resulting in spaces that resonate deeply with clients and end
(04:03):
users alike. Matt's portfolio include successful projects in Boston and
across New England, where he's brought his understanding of both
architecture and real estate to life. From conceptual design to
construction and post docupancy. He guides clients through every stage
of the process with meticulous attention to detail and an
unwavering commitment to sustainability.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
And innovation.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
This ethos drives his work and his interactions with clients
and the broader community. Outside of work, Matt thrives on
creativity and inspiration. You can often find him biking through
the city exploring new design ideas, or as any events
that fuel his passion for architecture and growth. He's a
member of the BSA's Residential Design Committee, the Boston Preservation Alliance,
(04:46):
and Level Up Mastermind. Matt received his undergraduate degree from
New England Institute I Can Say That Institute of Technology
in Warwick, Rhode Island, and a master's degree from Northeastern.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
He and his wife Hope live with their.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Son Aidan in the Jamaica Plane section of Boston. As
it turns out, we're neighbors by only about a few
miles away. Matt, Welcome to Winning Business Radio.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Thank you so much for having me. Kevin super excited
to be here today.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Very cool, Very cool. I'm excited too. So let's start
in with some questions. Tell us about Hope and Aiden.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Well. I met my wife, Hope at Northeastern. She is
also she was trained as an architect. She works at
an architecture firm, but she is actually not a practicing architect.
She works for a very interesting architecture firm in the
South End called Mass Design Group, who's a nonprofit architecture firm,
and she works in their communications and philanthropy team, if
(05:40):
I can say that. So it's kind of cool because
you know, we both speak the same lingo, we both
speak the same language, but she operates in a very
different architectural world than I do on a day to
day basis. So I find that pretty intriguing. You know,
we met at Northeastern, We've been together for quite a
long time, and Aiden is our son. Aiden is twelve
(06:03):
weeks old.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Wow wow.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
Become to our first child into the world on February
fifteenth of this year. So you know, this has been
a year of change from my big time change.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Well, very exciting. What's your best part of being a
dad so far?
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Oh? Man? I mean, like he is literally, you know,
this week last week, starting to react when I when
he sees me, when I walk into the room, when
I pop into his face, the smile, the reaction is
all new. So he's actually acknowledging me. So I got
to say, you know, the first few weeks, you're just
keeping the baby alive. Right, I mean, everybody whose parents knows.
(06:45):
But the moment, you know, to see the personality start
to kind of sparkle in his eyes and come out
has been pretty wild. And I just assume this is
going to, you know, exponentially grow as he gets older
and older.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
So, in the words of ron bergend coming a pretty
big deal at least at least as far as he's concerned.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Yeah, exactly, I'm half his world, right.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
That's right? All right?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
So you and I are neighbors, not by very far.
But it gets even better because I grew up in Midfield,
which is the next town two towns away from Yeah,
two towns away, two towns from Medway, where you grew up.
Tell us about Medway and what it was like to
grow up there Medway.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
You know, grew up in Medway, small town, had a
lot of fun there, had a great community of friends
and people around us. You know, we lived on a
small street, had a couple of friends right on the street.
You know, I spent my life on two wheels really,
whether it was a bicycle, I guess, like eight wheels
because of roller blades, or a dirt bike. And you know,
(07:46):
I my dad would say, like you would leave at
the crack of dawn and I would tell you be
home by dark, and you know, around dark, you know,
dusk time. He'd be out up Matthew and he'd hear
me off of the distance, kind of responding back, and
he said, I've come back, skinned head to toe with dirt, scrapes, bumps,
but loving life. You know, I love being on two wheels,
(08:09):
the bicycle and the dirt bike. You know. It was again,
it was a very small community. You know. We lived
in an old house that we fixed up. Throughout my
kind of entire childhood, it was always a working progress
with my dad. He let me do a lot of
the work as well, and I just it was a
good place to grow up. And I was always connected
(08:29):
to Boston and close to Boston, so Boston was always
like the draw. Oh my god, Boston. We would take
the commuter rail in from Franklin with our bikes and
ride around for the entire day in the city and
then take the commuter at home, and that, you know,
that was about the coolest thing ever. So, you know,
I was always really really attracted to the city. I
(08:50):
you know, I kind of assumed I would end up
here one day. And you know I have, which is
which is kind of exciting for me.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
So I'm gonna get into the Lego story in a second.
But would you be drawn to that architecture even then?
Speaker 5 (09:00):
I think so. I was always like very intrigued by
the kind of urban environment. You know. Again, Midway was
very nice, very pretty. You know, I had great neighborhoods.
But you know, it didn't it didn't spark the interest
like the city. It didn't absorb or kind of heighten
all of my senses like a city did. When we
got off that train in South Stasian or back Bay,
(09:21):
like I felt very at home, it felt very cool.
I was very interested, and I really just never wanted
to lead it. You know. It was really something that
drew me to towards it.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
So I understand that at a very young age, I
don't know exactly the age you'll tell us, but that
you were into design and architecture, even if you didn't
call it that, because you were into legos and you
built a lot of things. Tell us about that and
include your Lego city in the story.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
Yeah, my Lego city, yeh. From a very young age,
and I was attracted to legos. I you know. Honestly,
I don't even know how I got connected to Legos.
I must have been through my father, and my dad says,
you know, every year all I wanted was legos, just
legos for Christmas, Legos for my birthday. And I would
(10:09):
build the legos to the thing on the box and
then you know, kind of dismantle it and repurpose the
pieces for my own city. Now, we lived in this
older home in Medway, had a lot of rooms and stuff.
So I had my bedroom and then I had a
Lego room, which I don't know if he gave me
this room or I just like took it over, or
we didn't have a ton of stuff in this house,
(10:30):
so those space and I just slowly, over the years
started to amass the city. And again I never thought
anything of it as a kid. My dad really didn't
think anything of it until people, his friends and stuff
literally would say like, what is this kid doing here?
And you know, my dad started to take My dad
was big into videoographer VHS tapes, so he started to
(10:54):
take video of me taking him on an architectural tour
of my Lego city. Now was totally instinctual. I had
no clue what I was doing. And you know, at
some point my dad recognized this through his friends and
so forth, kind of bringing it up, and so I
think he leaned into it a bit by videotaping me
and asking me to tell him what was going on. So,
(11:18):
you know, I don't think it was fully aware of
what he was doing, but he was subconsciously aware of
like bringing out a skill that I had that I
didn't even know I had, and I really loved it.
I mean, I still actually have the legos today. I
have a huge tub of legos in the basement that
I mean, some of these legos are probably from you know,
(11:39):
the early eighties, and I don't even know honestly what
legos are like today, but I know for me, those
those were like the building blocks, literal building blocks of
my life. In any ways, you know a.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Lot of young adults are into legos. They build these
massive projects. Our twenty eight year old has built the
London It's a big ben, right, She's built some Star
Wars stuff, some Harry Potter stuff. It's really intricate. I mean,
it takes a lot interesting and she has a process.
(12:13):
She spreads it all out into different containers, you know,
But uh, so I can see it.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
I can see it.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
So you worked even when you were young, I don't
know how old again, but on small projects during school
breaks with your general contractor stepdad, right, tell us about that.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
That's correct. Yeah, my stepfather ran a kind of a
small kind of contracted company did like a lot of painting.
Was the company was sale painting actually now that they
think of it. But he was in we were living
in Bellingham at the time. My mother and my stepfather
lived in Bellingham. My father had the house in Medway
(12:53):
and I just happened to kind of go to the
Medway schools. But yeah, you know my stepfather, I needed
a job, you know, and he he somehow, some ways
said hey, you know, come work with me. I'll give
you some work. And then he started to kind of
like lend me out to his friends in a way like, Hey,
you know this guy, Bob, he's building this thing. He
(13:13):
needs some help, want to go work.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
What you should know is he was paying you whatever
ten bucks an hours building you out at twenty probably right.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
Yeah, he was entrepreneur in his own way. Right. So
I ended up just kind of going through a whole
bunch of different trades from painting to framing to tile work,
working in people's homes, bathrooms, commercial spaces. I ended up
getting a lot of different perspective of the construction world.
And it was really just because, you know, somebody would
(13:43):
have something and I would want to the next person
and the next person. So there was no rhyme or
reason to it all. But you know, in hindsight, it
just kind of gave me this. I touched a bunch
of different things, right, and it gave me some literal
knowledge about Like I could speak to subcontractors and say, Okay,
you know, I might not be an expert in what
you do because you're the subcontractor, but I've kind of
(14:05):
done this at one point in my life, so I
have a different communication structure with you. I have a
different level of respect with you than somebody who, you know,
maybe hasn't had the opportunity to do this.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
When did you know that you wanted to actually be
an architect? Oh?
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Man, I you know, I think I went all through
high school and everything and a guidance counsel. It was
coming to the end of high school. I really did
not know what to do. So many people, you know,
knew what they're going to do, knew where they were
going to go to college. It was kind of all
mapped out. I thought I was just going to work
in the trades. But my parents, you know, my stepfather
(14:43):
and my father and my mother, you know, they all
encouraged me to, you know, not do something so physical.
You know, my stepfather had a lot of physical issues,
I think because of some of the work, and a
lot of his friends had back knee pain. You know,
they they knew that I should do something behind a
desk because our body couldn't do this for forty years.
(15:04):
So I really had a high school guidance counselor that
kind of made the recommendation. And that was the start
of it.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
All right, we're going to take our first break, so
we'll be back Matt and everybody in about one minute.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
With Matt Arnold.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenet on
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Speaker 2 (16:12):
And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene,
presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again
is Kevin Helene.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
We're back with Matthew Arnold, founder and principal architect of
Arnold and we'll get to that name in a moment.
When did you decide you wanted to attend New England
Institute of Technology.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
So the guidance counselor who had given me some recommendations
on hey, you should really think about architecture. I believe
he went to New England Tech and so he kind
of turned me on to the school. You know, I went.
I went and toward a few other schools, but there
was something about their approach, their program. It was a
(17:07):
little bit more technical in nature. It was kind of
an architectural engineering degree in many ways, and I kind
of gravitated towards that kind of tectonic nature of it.
Like we took some structures classes, we did more engineering things,
and I think a lot of architecture schools do, and
so I just kind of gravitated toward that because it
(17:28):
felt I think, more connected to you know, the trades,
which is where I had come from. So I think
that's yeah, it kind of drew me in and ended
up I ended up getting there really loving it right
from the get go, doing very well, winning a lot
of awards, and just getting a very high GPA. And
it was very very clear, very early on, like this
(17:51):
was it. It just clicked. It just clicked way more
than high school ever clicked for me. You know, I
was an okay student high school, but it wasn't I
wasn't an inspiring student. And the minute I found architecture,
I think, you know, after that first semester, I was like, Okay,
this is it. I'm in. I like this and I
just haven't looked back, you know.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
And it wasn't much later, but a little later when
you decided to get your masters. That was behind that decision.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
Yeah, So I mean I graduated from New England Tech.
You know, I in order to become a registered architect,
you needed a master's degree from accredited school. You know.
I didn't really realize that when I went into undergraduate
and so I started saying, Okay, well I think I
want to do this. I you know, I need to
be an architect. I want to be registered. So I
(18:39):
decided to go back to grad school. And where better
to go than my favorite city, Boston, And you know,
found Northeastern. They had a very early program for me,
and I just I went, I said, this is it.
I love it, and I dove in there head first,
kind of the same thing, did really well and have
(19:01):
been in the community ever since.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
So and it's a Master in architecture, correct.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
Yes, Masters in architecture. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
So during I know there's some overlap, but you've had
multiple internships from about four to twenty ten, some of
which again overlapped with the career or professional positions. Tell
us about some of those and maybe some of the
lessons you learned along the way.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
Well, one of the earlier on internships I had was
working at an engineering firm and I thought, you know,
maybe I wanted to be an engineer. Actually I kind
of deviated from my dream a little bit. You know,
I knew I wanted to be an architect young on,
and I said, okay, well maybe I go this engineering route. Well,
I worked at an engineering firm, you know, good firm,
(19:48):
local firm, great people. But I was there for about
six months and I was like, this is not for me.
It was you know, I wanted that it wasn't scratching
my creative itch, right. I liked the technical aspect of
the engineering, but it didn't have the creativity driving the results, right.
It was more you know, the mathematical aspects of driving
(20:10):
results in the engineering. So that was definitely an early
lesson like, hey, don't deviate, make sure you stick with
your dream, make sure this internship fits in where you
want to go. And then after that, I worked at
a small architecture firm, and you know, immediately again knew, okay,
this is yes, this is more akin to what I want.
(20:34):
And as I worked my way through different firms, I
definitely learned different aspects. You know. I worked at some
firms that kind of focused more on institutional work, and
then I got to work at some firms that focused
a little bit more on the residential hospitality side, and
I think you know, early on I realized like I'm
more of a kind of residential hospitality architect than an
(20:56):
institutional you know, campus architect, which I mean the fantastic
architects and they're very well needed, but me personally, I
connected with the more kind of domestic nature of architecture
and that could be residential or hospitality.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
So your first professional position, it seems, was at MDA
Design Center. We had that role for about seven years.
Tell us about that role and some of the key
lessons learned there.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
So that was actually my own side hustle.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Yes, DA Lighting, I could have seen that, Okay, yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Yes, yes, so I you know, again when I am.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Big national, international firm then right.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
On many competitions because of my stepfather and his community
of friends. Okay, at very young age, I started my
own business in a way.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
That makes sense with the timeline that I saw.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
Okay, yes, moonlighting. You know, as under the umbrella of MDA,
I probably did about one hundred and fifty projects over
the course of however many years. But you know, as
friends would come to me and say, hey, I have
a I have a deck. An addition, I have a kitchen.
Do you want to design? Sure? You know, I was
kind of bullish about it. I just took chances that,
(22:07):
you know, in hindsight, maybe a little bit risky in
terms of not knowing what I was really doing. But
I learned a ton. I did make some mistakes. Luckily
they were I was working with people who were understanding
and they all had you know, I was working for
folks who had a personal interest in me succeeding, so
they weren't going to bury me if I did something wrong.
(22:28):
And I definitely remember a few phone calls that were like,
don't do that again, kid, you know, but you know,
you learn, you got to learn from your mistakes, and
there's no better way, and you know, you want to
make sure you do it people that care about you
and who have an interest in seeing you succeed. But yeah,
(22:49):
I think there's no better lesson than doing right.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
So as an architect and to be licensed, yes, and
we're back those years.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
No, I was not. So I was under a certain
threshold of sizeive project you do not need to be licensed.
So I operated underneath that threshold and then you know,
I got licensed much later in life. But yeah, I
kind of found that little bit of a loophole.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Okay, then hasten, Am I saying that correctly?
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Hasseine? Yes, it's an off and no, people say Haysten
a lot.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Okay, good, at least I'm not alone.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
How did you get that role?
Speaker 3 (23:29):
I think I would answer, but I want people to hear.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
David Hassen, the founding principal and still principal there today,
was my professor in school at Northeastern. He was a
professor of housing. Him and I just connected and clicked.
I really loved his class, did well in his class.
We just we just hit it off. And at the
end of it, we were going into a summer and
(23:52):
he said, hey, do you want to do an internship.
I was like, yes, I do. And I went there
and you know, the summer of two thousand nine, and
I just like kind of never left, you know, two
thousand and nine. It wasn't a ton going on in
the architecture building worlds, you know. But yeah, I was
very lucky to have that position, and I found myself there.
(24:16):
When I graduated school, he kind of came back and said, hey,
you know, would you like to come and you know,
work here as a full time professional? And I said absolutely.
I was very happy that he kind of asked me
to do that.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
So your license coincided with the role it has seen.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
Yeah, I got license a few years after I started
has seen. You have to go through you know, some
you have to do a certain amount of hours in
a firm and a document, all of that right under
the IDP and then you sit for six exams, which
is a bit it's treacherous. You know, it's not an
easy process. So I did that. Well, it has seen.
(24:58):
You know, the firm was David in the firm were
proponents of it. They were very much encouraging of doing it.
There was you know, financial reimbursement through it because the
tests are they're not cheap. But they were very much
encouraging me, like, hey, if you want to be a
practitioner in this world, you should carry a license, whether
you use it or not, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
And what are some of the I was going to
qualify it. I won't. I won't qualify it. What are
some of the projects you worked on.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
At hassine So I did a number. I worked a
lot in their hospitality world. Hasscene has been responsible for
a number of restaurants in retail establishments around the South
End including like Sure Leave restaurant, Black Lamb Glasshouse did
(25:47):
some of the early flower bakeries for Joe and Chang
in the South End, and so I got the pleasure
of working on a lot of those projects at Hassin.
I also everybody that has seen kind of works on
private residential in some way or another because it's a
little bit of their bread and butter. And so I
(26:07):
also had the opportunity to do some very nice private
residential projects in the city.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
So, because this audience is at least nationwide, there are
some out of the country listeners and viewers as well.
Tell describe the South End in terms of its architecture.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Ah, So the South End is a good point. South
End is a great neighborhood in the city of Boston
that is all brownstones. It's four or five story buildings.
It's a grid and it's created of these bow front
brick brownstones that create all of these great streets, and
in different parts the buildings pull back to create these
squares with fountains. It's a really really fun place. If
(26:46):
anybody knows Back Bay in Boston, South End is kind
of like the hipper version of Back Bay, a little smaller,
little more grungy, not quite as ordinate, but very very
kind of cool and hip. It's a really beautiful and
a very classic Boston neighborhood. Yeah, it's really fun being
able to work there.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
If you see not the gritty movie like gon Girl
or you know, I think that's the one, you know,
Met and Ben, but if you see movies that are
built in the neighborhoods, that's what you're going to see,
right that iconic. As you said, the bow Front, I
didn't know what to call it that, but it makes sense.
The bow Front Brownstones. Yeah, so you'd work on a
(27:29):
lot of those, and a lot of those were residences. Yes,
yea in a what would look like a multi family
unit but it's or building, but they're really residences exactly.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
Yeah. Some were multi family where we did two or
three units in them, and some were you know, five
floor townhouses that were one resident. I mean, pretty spectacular
projects that we were able to do for some really
fantastic clients in the city. I mean, it was it
was really kind of a privilege to do some of
that work.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Were some of the other than storic aspect, We'll get
to that in a minute too, But what were some
of the challenges or are some of the challenges in
working with a building like.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
That, Oh man, I mean construction wise, some of those
buildings were in some massive disrepair. We would have to
kind of hollow out the inside of the building and
you'd leave the brickshell and frame, you know, new floor
systems in there. I mean sometimes we'd walk in and
you could look up, you know, forty feet into the air.
It was quite wild. And the contractors that did that
(28:28):
kind of work were literally surgeons. You know.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
There were lots of stairways, right, lots of staircases, sometimes elevators,
I imagine.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
Most of the time. I think almost every private residential
project we did at some sort of elevator. Yeah, but
the stairs become this really beautiful element within the home.
And it's not a staircase like you think. Like, these
were really heavily designed, beautiful elements that connected multiple floors.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
I've been in a couple, not many, but the couple
that I've been in were just gorgeous. It was clear
that people invested a lot.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
You know, yes, yes, a lot of time and energy.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
All Right, it is almost the bottom of the hour,
So we'll take our break right here. We'll be back
in another minute with Matthew Arnold.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on
W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com.
Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up
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Speaker 2 (30:08):
And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene,
presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again
is Kevin Helenett.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
We're back with Matthew Arnold, founder and principal architect of
Arnold and Okay. Now the big question, and I think
the I mean, I love this stuff. But the more
fun of the interview is when and why did you
decide to go on your own.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
That's a great question. So I technically started my own
business June first of twenty twenty four. So my business
is coming up on a one year anniversary in about
a couple of weeks, two weeks. That week's thank you.
I'm very excited. You know. I started my own practice
because I had the realization that I needed to live
(31:02):
out my own dream. And I had, you know, from
the childhood I had growing up, I had always thought
I would be my own boss, that I would open
my own firm, that I would be a kind of
principal architect in many ways.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Well, you were with Lego City.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
I mean I was with Lego City, and I was
with NDA as well. You know, it was kind of
already running my own show on the side, and and
I loved the kind of business aspect. I loved the
kind of thrill of running a firm, right. You know,
I've had people say to me, oh, man, you must
like have you know, so much anxiety about what's coming next.
I actually feel more calm now that I'm on my
(31:40):
own than I actually did working for somebody else. I
feel actually less anxiety and surprisingly enough, all.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Right, so I'm gonna have a phone with this question
in spite of the fact that we're not questioned, but
you're you know where I'm going right?
Speaker 5 (31:52):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (31:53):
All right?
Speaker 4 (31:53):
So you came home and said I'm starting a firm,
and she said, well guess what.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
Yes, that did happened. I gave my notice on a
Thursday Saturday night. She came home and said I need
to talk to you. I was like, okay, and she
handed me a pregnancy test, and.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
So there's some risk there. There's maybe a little bit
of fear. But tell us about it.
Speaker 5 (32:15):
Oh man, Yeah, I mean she said, we're not changing
any of your plans. You know, obviously we knew this
was possible. We had been talking about starting a family
for a while. We knew it was possible. And you know,
she honestly said, are you freaking out? And I could
honestly say to her, no, I really didn't feel like
I was freaking out. And you know, I think, yeah,
(32:38):
first might have a lot of things might have rans
in my head, but this past year actually being my
own boss in many ways, working out of the house.
Having flexibility has been the one of the greatest gifts
I've had in a long time. I didn't even realize
how much flexibility would work in my favor right now
with doctor's appointments prior to the birth, and now I'm
(33:00):
home every day and I get to interact with them,
you know, in little moments throughout the day that I
just I couldn't imagine having to report to an office
from nine to five right now and miss all the
things that I see throughout the day. That's really it's
like one of those It's just something I just wasn't
thinking about and wasn't aware of. But it's been a
(33:20):
gift to be home and to be available and have
the flexibility to you know, be with and help my
family in ways that I didn't even know I was
going to need to. So it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
How big is your workspace and what kind of setup
do you need?
Speaker 5 (33:35):
So you're looking at the workspace. My wife's workspace is
kind of behind us, although right now that's a little
on hold. She's not doing a who lot of work
from home. She has a full time job, which is
slightly different. But I really just work at my desk here.
I have a couple of monitors. I have my laptop,
and you know, through mediums like this and Zoom and
(33:57):
Google Drive. And it's amazing how I can run a
practice with so little infrastructure. Right, Like, it's I don't
have to have clients in my house. I travel to
their house. I get samples shipped to me into them.
I mean, the post COVID the world, it was like
it was set up for me to do this, and
(34:18):
I didn't know all of that until I fumbled my
way into all this to say, Okay, well I have
to do this. How am I going to do this?
I used to do it this way, but now I can't.
So now I'm going to do it this way. And
I have found my way through every single little challenge
there has been. It's just all sitting right in front
of me. It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Well, I understand you're still really connected to the firm,
to the old firm, and you're still family.
Speaker 5 (34:40):
I do. Yeah, Oh, they're always going to be my family.
I was with them last week. We go for beers,
I go for lunch with David, like I spent fifteen
years with these people. I mean, you don't just turn
that off, right, They some of them are a number
of them are JP residents live. Well, I'll see about
(35:01):
the whole foods or yeah, we're walking to get ice
cream or something.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
So yeah, JP licks by the way to say that.
Speaker 5 (35:09):
Yes, absolutely shot, Yes, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
It's some mad revenue for that. Shout up. You still
use paper and table or is it all digital?
Speaker 5 (35:19):
It's all digital? Yeah I was. I never had the
strongest hand in terms of hand sketching. Like some of
the you know gentlemen in the office, the older gentleman
in the office, they came from that they can sit
down with a piece of paper and create on a
on a piece of paper that I just could never do.
And now you know, everything is shared digitally, PDFs, zoom, meetings.
(35:43):
People want that digital kind of footprint on everything. So yeah,
I'll do some sketching by hand when I'm really trying
to think through a problem. But most everything is kind
of digital these days.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
Is there a tool you use other than zoom and
PDFs to collaborate?
Speaker 5 (36:01):
A Google Drive and all the Google suites is a
very helpful one between the Google docs and all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
I didn't know if there was a proprietary, like industry
specific tool.
Speaker 5 (36:11):
No, nope, nope, No, it's you know, communication, email and
zoom is pretty much how it goes. Yeah, it works
very well.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
So tell us what was behind the Arnold and name.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
Yeah, so, you know, when I first started thinking about
what I was going to call, this actually operated from
June until like the beginning of this year with no name.
People were like, what's your company name? I was like,
I don't know, I don't even have one. I was
still getting business, I was still doing work. I was
cranking away, and it gave me a little bit of
time to kind of reflect on what do I want?
(36:44):
What do I want this to be. So many people
when I started this said what's your five bear plan?
And I said, my five year plan is to not
have a five year plan because I didn't know right,
I needed some time to digest. So, you know, it
seemed obvious at first, like okay, I let's call it
Matt Arnold Architects. But you know, I really think of
myself as more than an architect. I really didn't want to,
(37:08):
you know, prescribe my future before it had even begun.
So working with my design partner, Agency Bell, you know,
we started to think about, well, how how do we
build something that can evolve as I evolve as a
as a person and a professional. And so it was,
you know, originally thinking of like Arnold and architecture instead
(37:30):
of like Arnold Architects. It's about Matthew Arnold and his
relationship to architecture. And but the more we thought about it,
we thought, well, what if we dropped the architecture which
is Arnold and and the and becomes like the open
ended book for and architecture and development and design and living.
And you know, it created this ability to allow Arnold
(37:54):
and to be what it needed to be when it
needed to be it right, and and the and could
be a client, it could be a collaborator, it could
be a different project type that I'm not even thinking
of yet. And you know, the thing that excites me
the most right now is like the unknown. I love
the fact that I'm building a brand and a business
(38:16):
that is adaptable to this crazy world we live in.
Right And of course I still am an architect, and
I will be an architect forever, but that doesn't mean
I need to practice architecture the same way I have
for the last fifteen years, Right, the built environment is
evolving at such a different pace that I think architects
(38:37):
need to be more open minded about how we interact
with the world. And I'm very interested in like educating
the world about architecture. One of my big pet peeves
about myself an architects is that everybody like interacts with
the built environment everywhere every single day, but so you.
(38:57):
But most of the public knows so little about architecture
because architects are not good about talking about architecture, right, Like,
it's up to architects to educate the world and tell
them why do things look the way they do? Why
do we interact with things the way they do? You know?
I mean it's like it's on us. Let's educate the world. Guys,
(39:18):
Like I want to get out there, I want to
educate people. I want to have fun with it. Right,
The process for me is just as important as the product.
Like if I'm not having fun with my clients, there's
no point. Right. So again, kind of back to the brand,
Like the brand is really meant to be able to
(39:38):
evolve as I evolve, as I grow as a professional.
I will always be a feed for service architect in
many ways, but I really really hope to do a
whole lot more, as you know, my next twenty thirty
years roll on, And I think that's very exciting.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
Yeah, all right, quick shout out to Laura Souder, who
spent a guest on the show Way Agency Bell should
just work. But here's a point that I think you
want to highlight. You design really for the way people live, right,
not just so what does that look like?
Speaker 3 (40:10):
What does that? How does that play out?
Speaker 5 (40:12):
So it's a good question. Yeah, you know, some today
is such a complicated world with homes, right, there are
so many older style homes that we all try to
force our life into. But if you hire an architect,
and you know, you work with somebody like myself, you
actually get to reimagine, like how can I manipulate this
(40:35):
current home to better my life, to enhance my life.
So really understanding how somebody wants to live compared to
how they are living is a really important thing, right,
Like just because you get up every day and you
have this routine in your current home doesn't mean you
need to have that same routine in a new home.
(40:56):
So like, put some imagination together, put some imagination goggles.
Let's think about what would your ideal day look like,
how would that feel? How would that function? How would
you move through the home? What's the first thing you're
going to interact with you wake up? Where do you
want your bedroom? How do you want your kitchen to
be placed in the home. So, you know, I'm really
able to kind of go down this exploratory phase with
(41:19):
my clients and really dream with them a little bit.
And through the process of design and three D visualization
tools we have now, I can really show clients like, hey,
this is what it could feel like to be in
this home. Does this feel like something that interests you?
And you know, through an iterative process, it takes time.
It's not a one and done thing. It takes months sometimes,
(41:41):
but we really together kind of get to explore how
one could live in a home or a space and
make that space enhance your life on a daily basis
compared to being a hindrance. You know, I mean there's
so many there's so much built environment that was built
in the fifties and sixties. I don't live the same
way we did it in the fifties and sixties. You know,
(42:03):
let's update that and that doesn't have to mean tearing
down every single home, but especially in New England. Here
the building stock is fantastic, Great Bones has such an
ability to transform, and through that transformation you could transform
your life. I live in a space that I designed myself,
and it has transformed my life because I got to
make the decisions. I really think. You know something David
(42:26):
has seen you say, like every architect should live in
a space they designed for themselves, and boys, he right.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
Is it a single family?
Speaker 5 (42:35):
It is a I live on the top floor of
a triple decker JP. Yep. And so we bought this place.
It was not in good shape, and I gutted it
and just redid the whole thing. It was quite a process.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Another thing that's pretty foreign to people outside of New England.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
What was the year of.
Speaker 5 (42:56):
Construction nineteen oh two?
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Yeah, our house in Rosendale built in nineteen thirty five.
So yeah, yeah, well farther outbound than you, you know. Yes,
so it's a difference.
Speaker 5 (43:09):
Yep, that's true. That's very true.
Speaker 3 (43:10):
All right.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
Talk about one of your what you would call your
signature one of your signature Arnold and projects, and that's
the Charles Cove House in Dover, mass which is one
town over from where I grew up Midfield and where
my mother taught high school for many years. But that
house was built in I think eighteen sixty eight, right.
It's undergone a number of additions and changes over the years.
(43:32):
I think the most recent was in the sixties. Tell
us about that project and why it's a it's an
Arnold and signature project.
Speaker 5 (43:41):
So, I mean that project is a very cool project. It's,
like you said, the eighteen sixties, so it has a
lot of history and in New England, context and history
is very important. So you know, through that project, we
the clients, you know, one of the clients. Things clients
said to me early on is like, we want to
be good shepherds of this house. We need to Yeah,
(44:02):
very cool. We need to undo some of the things
that they did in the sixties because they don't jibe
with how we live today. But still we need to
be respectful of this eighteen sixties house because it needs
to stand as it did all the way back then.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
So is it a sorry quick place direction?
Speaker 4 (44:17):
Is it a listed historical property?
Speaker 5 (44:21):
It's technically not registered, although it does have its plaque
on it. But yeah, it's actually not on the historic register.
I think because it had the additions later, and it's leway.
It does, Yes, it does. But luckily these clients, you know,
saying they want to be good stewarts from the get
go that was a goal. We were able to preserve
the kind of colonial symmetrical nature of the home while
(44:45):
the kind of additions kind of chart on on the side.
And so from the street it still looks like a
fairly kind of smallish, modest home. And as you kind
of go around it, you can see how we've added
on in a very respectful way. You know, it's it's
a really interesting project because you're we're taking this modern
family off, husband and wife, two kids, two boys. You know,
(45:09):
they like sports, they like activities, and they want to
live a kind of modern lifestyle in this historic home.
So again, how do you do that in the historic home.
We've kind of preserved some of the more cellular natures
of the home with like a smaller living room, a
reading room, an office compared to the addition, which is
(45:31):
more of an open living dining space, right, a larger
space for the family to commune on a daily basis,
but preserve the smaller spaces in the existing home for
the more kind of reflective moments of life.
Speaker 3 (45:43):
Do you have some of these images on this on
the website?
Speaker 5 (45:46):
I do, yes, Yes, there is a rendering of the
house on the website. I believe it's the splash page.
Speaker 4 (45:52):
But yeah, everybody just will get there again, but that's
Arnold ann dot com ahead.
Speaker 5 (45:56):
Yes please, So yeah, it was kind of a you know,
a good charge and a challenge how to make a
modern facing home but yet respects the kind of historical
nature of its context. And as you know, Dover has
a lot of older kind of contextual homes, New England homes,
so the home needed to exude New England but yet
(46:18):
still have its kind of modern flare to it, kind
of representing this kind of modern family.
Speaker 4 (46:22):
Right, all right, what are your I have two last questions.
Believe it or not, we're almost done. What are your
plans for the future of the firm? You know it
consistent with what you said earlier, you don't want to
prescribe in the next five years. But still, what are
you thinking in terms of the future of the firm.
Speaker 5 (46:41):
Well, I mean where the firm is growing, projects are
coming in. I have some folks helping me part time.
I'm you know, actively trying to figure that out. You know,
I think there's a there's a real question for me
whether I go down the traditional nature off I get
a physical space, I open an office, I hire people.
That be a very real trajectory for me. But one
(47:02):
of the things that I've really cherished about this last
year is I get to rethink everything I did in
the past. So I am actively challenging that assumption on
whether I should go down that traditional path. And so
I'm just like literally asking myself day to day, do
I want to do this? Is this the right thing
for me and my practice and my brand. I'm trying
(47:23):
to figure out what is going to pull the best
parts of me out and allow them to flourish right
and not just go down the road of opening a
physical space and doing all the things we all always
did because that seems like it's the right thing. So
that's been pretty fun and exciting. And you know, now
that I have a child and stuff, I have a
(47:45):
different perspective on the world. So it's been kind of
cool to look at all that in a very different way.
Speaker 4 (47:52):
But it is twenty twenty five and there are a
lot of possibilities. So I mean, there are firms that
are founded as virtual that have you know, fifty to
one hundred employees, So it doesn't always have to be
like I have one client I work with who they've
got the head of physical presence now they work out
of like a workspace or shared workspace really when they
(48:13):
you know, when they need it.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
Everybody else is virtual, so it's quite possible.
Speaker 5 (48:17):
Definitely exploring, all right.
Speaker 4 (48:18):
He is Matthew Arnold. His website is Arnold and dot com.
His email is Matthew at Arnold and dot com. Matt,
this has been fun for me. I really appreciate you
being here.
Speaker 5 (48:30):
Yeah, thank you so much. I very much appreciate you
having me here.
Speaker 4 (48:33):
Well, thanks again, and thank you everybody for watching and listening.
As most of you know, this is a show about
business and business challenges. If you've got concerns about the
sales effectiveness and growth of your company, whether your sales
team is you or really small or really large, feel
free to reach out to me on Facebook or LinkedIn
and that's at Winning Business Radio, or you can drop
(48:54):
me a note Kevin at Winning Business Radio dot com.
Our company is Winning Incorporated. We're part of sand their training.
We develop sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders
into true coaches and mentors. Listen, We're not a fit
for everybody, but hey, maybe we should have a conversation.
Thank you, as always to one our producer and engineer
for another job well done. I appreciate you one. Be
(49:16):
sure to join us again next week Monday, May twelfth,
We'll do it all over again. Until then, this is
Kevin Helenin.
Speaker 2 (49:24):
You've been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host
Kevin helen In. If you missed any part of this episode,
The podcast is available on top for podcasting and iHeartRadio.
For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio
dot com or check us out on social media. Tune
in again next week and every Monday at four pm
Eastern Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on
(49:48):
W four CY Radio W four cy dot com. Until then,
let's succeed where others have failed and win in business
with Kevin helen In and Winning Business Radio.
Speaker 5 (50:00):
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