From Marketing to Managing: Second-Generation Sonoma Valley Builder Returns to His Roots

Builder in 5 is our five-question series with the leaders behind standout custom homes.

Up Next: Aaron Tudisco, second-generation builder and co-founder of Sonoma, Calif.-based custom design build firm Ridge Design + Build. While previously working in retail marketing, Tudisco has a long history in custom building, having spent much of his youth at his father’s job sites. In 2018, Tudisco made the decision to return to the trade in a bigger way, co-founding Ridge Design + Build alongside his father, sister, and wife.

Today, that family business lives on with Tudisco as operations leader for the firm. Together, he and his co-owners Allegra Diggins and Sena Tudisco work to create luxury homes that capture the California lifestyle.

1. What’s one decision you’ve made that defines how you build?

Aaron Tudisco: A decision that defines how we build is a decision that we make almost everyday. It comes from us constantly asking ourselves, “what’s jumping out and what do we do about it?” With only three managing partners at Ridge, our strength is in our small size and our ability to quickly assess opportunities and act on them.

We walk the jobs constantly, looking at details, finished and in-process. And if something sticks out, either a subjective design moment that doesn’t feel like it’s working or a structural detail that isn’t hitting the mark, as a team we quickly huddle and decide how to make it right.

We learned very early on, if something sticks out and doesn’t feel right, it doesn’t go away on its own. It’s better to remedy the issue, as painful and expensive as it may be, than to have to worry about and fix it later. That way, when the job is complete we can hold hands and say we did our absolute best in trying to achieve the design vision and highest quality execution.

2. Tell us about a time you took a risk on a project and it paid off.

Aaron Tudisco: During the construction of our last project, Ventana Sonoma, we were obsessive about pushing the design in a way that felt new and unexpected in the area, while making sure that it blended with the surrounding environment and didn’t feel out of place.

This involved taking a risk on the shape and blocking of the exterior architecture, with large glass paneled walls, flat rooflines with soffitted overhangs, etc. We then balanced these unique elements by wrapping the exterior and interior in materials that felt like they were from the surrounding environment: natural clay-like brick, earthen colored stucco, hand applied plaster and lime paint. The end result achieved what we had hoped: a home that feels unique and original, but very much a part of its wine country surrounding.

3. What’s a detail you obsess over that clients never notice?

Aaron Tudisco: As a team, we obsess over seamless transitions on ceilings, walls and flooring. This starts during the rough framing stage, knowing the material and dimensions of the surfaces that follow, and ends with the careful balancing of elements that get applied in the finishing stages, e.g. door and window trim—or lack thereof—wood and tile flooring, cladding, etc.

While a client may not specifically notice the seamless connections of all these many moments, we hear all the time how our projects exude quality craftsmanship and detail, and we know what they’re referring to. 

4. How would you say your years of work in marketing and campaign management have helped you succeed in luxury custom building?

Aaron Tudisco: My strengths and opportunities from my past experiences in retail marketing are the same as in my current role as the lead project manager at Ridge. I carefully manage the merging of the creative and operational sides of the business to make sure everyone’s voice is heard. It’s a balance of protecting the design integrity of what Allegra and Sena, our design leads, are passionate about achieving, while making sure those that execute that vision, our endless list of construction partners, also leave their mark and are proud of the work they’ve done.

I’m always asking for input from task-specific partners on-site, certain that they may have mastered a nuance on how to achieve a certain detail, so that we collectively achieve the best results. A successful project for us is when our design and execution team, which ends up being hundreds of people, can walk around and point to details proudly and say, “We did that!” 

5. As someone with years of experience and a family history in custom home building, what’s one piece of advice you would give others looking to begin their own design build firm?

Aaron Tudisco: Always be curious! My father, a self made architect-builder, was never shy about walking right up to someone and insisting on understanding how something was done. He’d drag us to projects all over town (and anytime we were traveling), and go right up to any of the tradespeople on the job and ask what they were doing and why they were doing it the way they were.

Everyone loved his curiosity and enthusiasm and always freely shared the details of the work they were performing. He’d compare their methods to his own, and looked to evolve his approach in order to make it better. This came from his passion for what he was doing and always wanting to improve the end result. I approach our projects the same way, leaning on the expertise of our partners to tell me what we’re missing and curious how we can make it better. This is also how we, as a family business, honor our father, by carrying forth his approach.