I was a pretty good artist. Matter of fact I considered myself very good, but I don't know if I was. I went through the school of architecture like, you know, nobody's business. I used to paint and try to do things that required a lot of aesthetic finesse and the ability to amalgamate everything together, color, design, form, shape, and all these things.
I wanted to go to Saint John's₁ because I originally wanted to become a priest, and they were building a church up there, which had this fabulous bell tower. I went there so I could watch them finish the construction, and it was a very temperamental and experimental concrete product. They had Lake Sagatagan in the back yard there, and you’d wander around that. On the other side of that there’d be the girls college. Next, I was at the U of M.
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| Scott (left) poses with his friend in the military |
I was so excited about the school of architecture. That was the thing that really turned me on about the University of Minnesota, the school of architecture. At that point in time, the school of architecture was a brand new building, so we were just, you know, elated. We really got to know all the architects, many of these guys around town, older guys like me. It’s amazing sometimes I can walk down the street and see one of the big buildings that was designed years ago. So, yeah, I consider myself a person who ended up as a builder and a developer but who also had a background as a very sensitive architectural person. The houses that I did reflected that.
“I’m going to go in the airforce and I’ll see what I can do there”
When I was in the military I thought, well geez they didn’t take me in Vietnam, so I said, “I’m going to go in the air force and I’ll see what I can do there.” I went in as a lieutenant came out as a captain. They were going to promote me to a major if I’d stay in. I could have done it. I could have gotten out after twenty years and still have been a builder. I stayed in for five years and I had some really interesting positions, they were construction, construction programer, and construction engineer for a civil engineering group in France, and in Germany, same thing same position little better pay, higher grade. Then, I went to a number of professional school for the airforce I almost stayed in as a career officer, but I just found the excitement of construction on my own really interesting. I adored their architecture. It takes a certain kind of a duck to walk like a duck, quack like a duck, do all those things and I did it. So, I was very proud and if I had to do it over again I would do the same thing, except, develop a little more finesse with the years, so I could have a better product.
“They had a six foot wall around her front yard”
(Scott tells us the story of how he met his wife Christine in France)
We met at a, at a marketplace, that's where we met. I invited her to go to the swimming pool. I was a diver, I almost made the diving team over here but not quite, (laughs). She was there and she had her nephew with her. I thought, “Oh, that’s a pretty young french mother,” and then we got to talking, and she wasn’t a pretty young french mother, she was available. So, I asked her if she wanted to go to the carnival. We went to that.
Her parents were very strict they had a six foot wall around her front yard and it was about this wide (hold hands two feet apart), so I was told where this ladder would be, so I could climb up on it and come in to see if she was ready. We saw each other just a lot, and we got married I think 7 or 8 months later. My wife has always been stuck between two nations kinda. She has one foot on each continent kinda she's uh at the point now where she's fairly content here. She has her own life here. She was my accountant. I taught her how to do the accounting for my company and she was very very good. I mean you couldn’t make her make a mistake. I tried a couple of times. (laughs) She really had it all together, so and now we’re retired.
“I decided to do this and it was striking”
There (Scott points to the picture shown to the right), one of my favorite houses. This is just a sales package, if you guys were building a 700,000 - 3,000,000 dollar house. But, I don’t know if you’re interested in buying that. Yet, anyways. This is a model home. *Scott proceeds to show us a book of model homes he brought* The dining room in the model home had a closed off ensealed 22 foot wall. This is your basic four-season sunroom. Except, these really aren’t basic (laughs). (Flips page) That’s, that’s my house. You know this one’s completely different because the way it worked out. I was a little tired of doing all these tudors₂, and all of these period homes, so I decided to do this, and it was striking. (Points to another picture) I built this for a guy that sold his company for 161 million dollar. (Points to a different house) This is my retirement house that I built and have (laughs). After awhile you get your payoff, you get and have a little notoriety in the builder’s association of the Twin Cities. I did, and I became president of their local homes builder’s association and was one of the important directors of the National Homeowner’s Association. So those were things that were exciting to be apart of.
“The level of construction that I did was very high and very meticulous”
I think the School of Architecture was critical in my development. And then after that it was the question of finding work, and I happened to get a job that helped me greatly. It was with a construction company called PenTon, and I was a salesman for them. To start off for the first time I sold this one project, and I sold 188 townhomes in 18 months. After that, I was out of a job, but eventually found a new one. I worked for a custom homebuilder on the West end of town, so I went to work for him for 9 years.
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| Scott's building company logo |
I learned a lot about construction, on-site construction. I did superintendent, and then… And then it was over for that job, because my boss just had a heart attack. So, I sat around for about 6 months and I decided to build a spec home₃, and I had it sold right away. Then, I bought a lot, and decided to build a house on it. I became a broker and a builder at the same time and a land developer. The level of construction that I did was very high and very meticulous. Architecturally, as stunning as I could make it.
I worked in Arden Hills, North Oaks, Woodbury, St.Paul, New Brighton, most of the stuff was south of that, I did homes in Edina, a lot of them in Edina, some in Minneapolis, some in Burnsville I did thirty of them in Burnsville there were some offsite houses that were ten fifteen miles out. I think I did them just to get away. All of the west suburbs, Eden Prairie, Chanhassen, Chaska, Shakopee, Minnetonka. I would say my primary target area was the south and southwest suburbs. You have to isolate them like that because, you know, it keeps the driving time down.
I wish I had gotten more degrees in architecture, so that I would be more knowledgeable about it. I don't know if that would satisfy my desire to build more or not, but there’s always a craving for something to read, and mine was in there somewhere in the architecture field. In the end though, I’ve never regretted not doing it more. It costs a lot of money, it costs a tremendous amount of money as a builder because you always have to pay very promptly. If you paid quickly, you got good results from your subcontractors and they would also give you a discount if you negotiated that upfront. That’s what has given me a good life.
Most of my homes are in the state of Minnesota. So, I feel like I am a Minnesota product now, and the contributions I have made to the Minnesota society are Minnesotan, are taxed Minnesota dollars and they have benefits that if the project has been really a good one for the state. Good for real estate appreciation values, and I look back on it with a lot of pleasure and a lot of thoughts.
Footnotes:
1. Saint John’s: Small all boys catholic University in St.Joseph Minnesota
2. Tudors: Medieval-type English architecture. Popular in the early to mid 1900’s.
3. Spec Home: Short for speculation home. A home that a home-builder constructs with speculation of what the buyer would want. They are generally already built by the time they go on market.
Story facilitators: Emma Hubbard, Brett Rannow, Sam Johnson
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