Builder's Apprentice: A Memoir. This item is unavailable.Builder's Apprentice: A Memoir

In 1986, Andy Hoffman quit an engineering job, declined acceptances for graduate school at Harvard and Berkeley and accepted a carpenter’s job in Nantucket. Unbeknownst to him, he had entered the world of high-end custom building. Within four years, he was supervising the construction of a 29,000 square-foot mansion on a 180-acre estate in Fairfield County Connecticut. This is a book about his personal and professional growth along that journey, from apprentice to builder through the tutelage of a seasoned and hard-nosed builder. It describes how uniquely high-end homes are built for select clients, a glimpse into the lives of the blue-collar workers, architects, engineers and clients that come together to make these projects a reality. At its core, this is a coming-of-age story, a celebration of the pursuit of creative impulses and a story about defying the “rules” and finding a personal calling in life.

Andrew (Andy) Hoffman is the Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan, a position that holds joint appointments at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the School of Natural Resources & Environment. Within this role, Andy also serves as Associate Director of the Frederick A. and Barbara M. Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise. Andy is a leader in using organizational, network and strategic analyses to assess the implications of environment issue for business, and has published seven books and over eighty articles/book chapters on the topic. Prior to academics, Andy worked for the US Environmental Protection Agency (Region 1), Metcalf & Eddy Environmental Consultants, T&T Construction & Design, and the Amoco Corporation.