Dan and Renee Plummer turned “a cow pasture with no future” into one of the most successful military base redevelopment projects in the country

‘I’ve been very fortunate, to be able to travel quite extensively around the world, truly through the arts … I try to stress that with our students: Don’t close any doors, you never know where things will take you,’ says NHIA President Kent Devereaux.

‘The really cool thing is seeing people come together in a true sense of community,’ says architect Jonathan Halle, co-chair of Building on Hope, which is raising funds for its next ‘extreme makeover’ – the Manchester Police Athletic League facility in Manchester.

‘There is a lot of risk involved in these projects, and you need to have a high tolerance for uncertainty,’ says Eric Chinburg, founder of Chinburg Properties, the Newmarket-based property development and management firm, in front of one of his projects – the restoration of the Newmarket Mills in Newmarket.

‘We are finding that if you diversify you do more than just survive, you can also thrive,’ says John Tabor, president of Seacoast Media Group, owner of the Portsmouth Herald and Foster’s Daily Democrat, among other newspaper properties.

Widening Interstate 93 ‘as soon as heavenly possible’ is a ‘no-brainer,’ says Darren Benoit of McFarland Johnson Inc., recently named Outstanding Civil Engineer Advocate of the Year by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The main challenge of being a municipal assessor is knowing ‘you’re not going to make everybody happy,’ says Rex Norman, who retired last December after 15 years as the town of Windham’s assessor.