Sarah Lawson S+H Construction

Who are your great influences?

The company founders of S+H, Doug and Al, have to be my greatest influence. They ran a great business with heart, drive, and honesty. I’m also really inspired by Tatte Bakery— the whole experience, including the design, is done just perfectly. They’ve made really good choices and have managed to keep that quality going for a long time. It’s not a construction company, but it represents excellence in a tangible way. Lastly, a friend of mine, who runs a financial company in Australia, because she moves forward, making decisions and taking action in a courageous, logical way. It’s inspiring to watch.

What design period do you find most engaging?

I can’t choose! I love modern because the idea is to elevate the environment for everyone and allow for more open, modern living. That being said, I was in Louisville, Kentucky, recently, and their architecture was like a centurylong party (the nineteenth century). Cylindrical towers applied to the sides of buildings with cone-shaped roofs, “grotesques” (scary faces) coming out of the sides of buildings, dormers with brick details like the top of the queen’s crown. You can feel their exuberance, which I found so interesting and inspiring.

What is your design philosophy?

S+H Construction, one of the Greater Boston area’s premier, award-winning residential construction firms, collaborates with architects and other design professionals to offer distinctive renovation, historical restoration, custom building, and site work services. Owner and company president Sarah Lawson, along with a dedicated team of professionals, shares a commitment to providing an exceptional customer experience, building technically-correct, beautiful spaces in a well-managed, controlled way. Sarah is always striving to make her company the best it can be, as she believes good design changes lives, and she loves bringing it to people.

I worship at the altar of design. It has the transformational power to literally change lives. How does it feel to get up in the morning and walk into a balanced, open space, with just the perfect number of objects in the room and the right amount of light? Fabulous! It makes people happy, relationships better, and productivity goes up! Of course, the opposite is true too—badly designed spaces dampen the human experience.