“The most important feature of the work we do is to make a house healthy,” says Mark Peritz, 73, a Woodstock builder since 1976.
He doesn’t mean that as a medical term, he says, but as in the health of the people living there.
“In order for the people to be healthy, the house has to be healthy,” he explains. “In order to make a house healthy, it has to have a lot of qualities like attention to condensation, attention to dryness, attention to the sun and how the sun travels across the earth. I studied feng shui principles, so that every house I do is deeply involved in them, especially if I have the opportunity to do a new house.”
Even on older houses he tries to apply these principles, especially if he’s doing changes. These ancient principles have to do with making a house healthy, and also safe and sound. “That’s what it’s all about.”
According to the website thespruce.com, the five elements of feng shui — earth, metal, water, wood, and fire — come from the Taoist tradition.
“Some good examples,” Peritz continues, “are that you want to keep a house safe from inclement weather; you want to keep a house from bad wind, safe from water …. When people lived in caves, how did they live? Only if the cave was protected from the wind, protected from water, protected from animals, protected from enemies, who were there a thousand years ago. Those enemies still exist but on a different level, those pernicious enemies take a different form … the wind, the water, the heat and the cold, and how do you manage those?”
Peritz, a genial, burly guy, first came to Woodstock in the mid-1970s. He left Woodstock in 1980 for five years, apprenticing in California with John DeCuir Sr., perhaps the world’s most famous movie production designer, whom he terms ‘the Leonardo da Vinci of Hollywood.’ Says Peritz, “What a time in my life!”
When Peritz came back, he worked in New York City as a scenic sculptor at Saturday Night Live on winter weekends, and for other productions, building plausible tombstones and staircases and whatever else was needed out of foam so that they could be moved quickly as scenes changed. “The most memorable one was a grand staircase for the Phantom of the Opera traveling road show, that had to be brought on stage in two minutes or less,” he says.
He also was the on-site construction manager for the building of the United Nations Synagogue in the city.
By 1990, his work became more centered in Woodstock. “My kids [he has two daughters] were getting old enough that they needed more attention. That’s when I started building my first homes here.”
He calls his business the J.O.B. Construction Company. Its slogan — The Joy Of Building.
Over the years, among other projects, Peritz has built six homes from scratch, and has done dozens of renovations.
“I’ve developed a niche,” says Peritz. “I’m involved with all kinds of music venues.” We walk through the old West Hurley M.E. Church on Route 28 which he and his crew completely renovated, turning it into a gorgeous studio and headquarters for Radio Woodstock. “He’s like a magician,” says Radio Woodstock’s Richard Fusco about Peritz.
Justin Foy, who’s on the air while we tour the facility, concurs. “There’s state-of-the-art architecture in this place, thanks to this guy,” Foy says.
Peritz reflects on that project. “It’s a whole year out of my life, my whole crew, all the people, plus all the electricians and plumbers. Everybody was deeply involved in it every day for the better part of a year. You can see they really put their love into the project .…”
Then there’s The Local, a new musical venue on John Street in Saugerties that Peritz and crew created from an 1867 Dutch chapel that had become a child-care center, and then had been empty and unused for more than a decade.
“He’s an amazing contractor,” says Danny Melnick, one of the two driving forces behind The Local. “He did incredible work here restoring our church. He’s also a fabulous music lover, attends all our concerts, buys his own tickets. We love him for that, too.”
Peritz is excited about an upcoming project at the Maverick Concerts. “I’m going to be building a new green room [a preparatory room for performers to relax before going onstage] after all the years struggling with the inadequate green room they have now,” he says. “It’s going to be a green room that really satisfies the needs of players of all types who need a more comfortable place before, during and after.”
Peritz is in the process of renovating a house up on Grog Kill, an addition and bathroom. His construction of a rehabilitation flight cage for bald eagles at Ravensbeard Wildlife Center in Saugerties gives you an idea of his range of his work.
“And my project here, my own house, is a really big project I’ve been working on a long time,” he adds. “I’m really waiting for the spring now to do some outside work. We’ve been working indoors over the winter, though this was an easy winter.”
But the years have taken their toll.
“I’m kind of tired of building massive projects,” he confesses. “Not really tired, what has happened is I’ve had so many orthopedic injuries over the years that I’ve really kind of given up the actual physical work myself. I do almost none of that anymore because I really can’t climb, I can’t kneel on my knees, I can’t work off a ladder.
“So the joy I used to experience from doing the physical work is gone. The opportunities I have now to guide my crew, I like that to an extent, but I really miss the physical work myself. That’s been tough for me.
“But I have a wonderful crew, great reliable people. I have four or five people working year around. In the summer I add a few people.”
The conversation comes full circle.
“Feng shui means the art of placement,” he says. “It’s all about how that place that you live is placed in the environment. Is it kept up off the ground, how does it relate to the sun, to the wind, the cold and heat, how does it relate to people who come to visit your house, how does it relate to traffic patterns? What does a welcoming house look like? That’s an important consideration that we pay attention to. Does your house become a welcoming environment for everyone that lives there? Only a healthy house creates a welcoming environment. And in order to create that, you have to pay attention to the orientation of the house, how bright and cheerful that house is.
“A good example of that, if you look at most houses there’s not a lot of protection over the entryway. If you have protection over the entryway to your house, that’s an attractive feature. It makes the people walking in more comfortable as you enter the house. Having the opportunity to have a protected and welcoming entrance is a good way to start to see what a house is all about. So very often I’ll tell the people, let’s take a look at the entrance to your house. What can we do to make it more accessible, happier and freer.”
Safe from water, safe from wind, protected from cold and heat. Welcome home.
For more about Mark Peritz and J.O.B. Construction, see joyofbuilding.com.
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