Four years into his architecture career, Stefano Basso returned to school for a Master's in Construction Management.

Not to change professions.

To better understand how contractors think, what they need from architects, and where friction between the two begins.

This decision reflects how Stefano has approached much of his work at SV Design: with curiosity about the full project process, not just the architect's role. Today, he is a Principal and Partner, leading the firm's commercial and multifamily practice with a strong focus on affordable housing.

Stefano has spent nearly his entire career at SV Design, growing with the firm from Intern to Principal. He began in single-family residential design, where his work required close client communication, careful detailing, and an understanding of how design decisions shape the way people live.

As the firm expanded, Stefano moved into commercial, mixed-use, and multifamily design, where tighter budgets, first-time clients, and a wider variety of project types sharpened his communication skills and exposed him to the competing priorities behind every development. Today, Stefano applies his construction-informed perspective to projects across Massachusetts, from affordable and mixed-use housing to shelters, supportive housing, and other mission-driven work.

Inside this week's episode:

• Massachusetts's housing shortage, why Stefano traces it to zoning, and what rent control does to the development pipeline
• What SV Design's affordable housing portfolio looks like, and why the timelines that come with it are rarely short
• What Stefano took from his Master's in Construction Management, and the significance of a course in negotiation
• What it means to become a Partner, and how SV Design's ownership is structured today
• How AI is already shifting the architectural environment, and what's still waiting to change

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Our goal is to help people like you identify opportunities for growth by sharing the journey of industry leaders. There is no one path. Success isn't a straight line. There is something to learn from everyone's story. Let's go!

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Addie Grady has built her career at the intersection of housing, sustainability, and urban development. Today, her expertise is focused on a very specific location: Bunker Hill.

As Senior Vice President and Partner at Leggat McCall Properties, a Boston-based real estate firm with more than $3B in assets developed as principal and an active pipeline of $1.5B, Addie serves as Executive Director of the Bunker Hill Housing Redevelopment - the largest public housing redevelopment in Boston’s history.

Addie began her real estate career in sustainability consulting before joining Leggat McCall as a Development Manager in 2004. After earning her MBA, she spent more than seven years at Wood Partners, deepening her ground-up development expertise across ten residential projects totaling more than 1,800 units and over $500M in development cost. At Pritzker Realty Group, she expanded her portfolio by leading $370M of ground-up development, including 30 Dalton, a 28-story high-rise in Boston’s Back Bay.

Since returning to Leggat McCall in 2019, Addie has led the firm’s multifamily and mixed-use investments. For the past five years, she's been focused on Bunker Hill, leading the massive project into construction and continuing to guide it through future phases.

Inside this week's episode:

• Replacing 1,100 affordable homes without depleting housing subsidies, keeping residents on-site while construction progresses around them, and making building-mix decisions
• Putting up a building shell in four months with prefabricated wall panels, CLT floors, and precast cores, and delivering a nine-story passive house in Boston in roughly half the time it would normally take
• Pivoting from the pre-med path to architecture, and the value discipline built over seven years at Wood Partners
• Managing a project from an owner's perspective, reducing risk, and creating opportunities rather than chasing deals
• Why Boston's multifamily market is under pressure, how construction costs here got so far ahead of the rest of the country, and why rent control would deepen the housing crisis it claims to solve

Thank you for joining the Design Development community. Subscribe to capture insight from the latest episodes dropping every Wednesday.

Our goal is to help people like you identify opportunities for growth by sharing the journey of industry leaders. There is no one path. Success isn't a straight line. There is something to learn from everyone's story. Let's go!

Leave your thoughts in the comments and reach out if you want to be a valuable guest on the show!

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Nick Pasquenza has spent more than 25 years in commercial real estate, leading complex projects and the teams behind them across design, construction, and delivery. Throughout his roles, he has developed a deep expertise in the full arc of urban development, establishing a clear conviction: if you don't understand how buildings are valued, you don't truly understand the impact of the decisions you make.

Today, Nick serves as the Senior Vice President, Development and Construction at LCOR, a nearly 50-year-old integrated development and investment management firm. He leads their design, engineering, and construction teams across LCOR’s large-scale mixed-use and mixed-income developments, drawing on a career of over 4,000 apartments delivered.

Nick joins Rens on Design Development to walk through the behind-the-scenes of consistent development success: on their last seven projects, LCOR delivered on time with contingency remaining. The two discuss entitlement risk, preconstruction, contingency discipline, and what 25 years of weaving through roles as a contractor and developer have taught Nick.

Inside this week’s episode:

• Why slowing down during design can lead to better construction outcomes
• How LCOR structures preconstruction partnerships with general contractors
• Why a firm's delivery track record has become increasingly important in today’s capital market
• How BIM review, schedule analytics, and 3D site capture help catch costly problems earlier
• Entitlement risk, and the importance of a clear approval path

Thank you for joining the Design Development community. Subscribe to capture insight from the latest episodes dropping every Wednesday.

Our goal is to help people like you identify opportunities for growth by sharing the journey of industry leaders. There is no one path. Success isn't a straight line. There is something to learn from everyone's story. Let's go!

Leave your thoughts in the comments and reach out if you want to be a valuable guest on the show!

Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram & YouTube

Find out more at https://h-o.engineering/podcasts/