International Beginnings
Anthony started his career as a cabinet-maker apprentice in his native Ireland. After a couple of years working in London and several in New York City, he moved to the Bay Area, his wife’s home, in 2018.
Joining AT6 four years ago, Anthony discovered how much he enjoys residential construction. “I had worked in commercial construction, mostly, and there wasn’t the personal aspect of working for homeowners,” he says. Design-build made perfect sense to him. “I was drawn to the idea of everything in one company, under one roof. You can get a disconnect without that.”
“Anthony is so easy to work with. He always has a good attitude and is solutions-oriented. He has a great sense of humor and is genuinely kind. I feel quite lucky to be on the same team as him.”
Team Member, Team Leader
As a superintendent, he divides his time between hands-on carpentry and managing his team. “I like to bring the best out of people. Even more than what they think they’re capable of.” He says he works with a “bunch of very good people,” and is grateful that the entire team is encouraged to contribute ideas throughout the process.
His team feels equally good about working with him. One member says, “Anthony is so easy to work with. He always has a good attitude and is solutions-oriented. He has a great sense of humor and is genuinely kind. I feel quite lucky to be on the same team as him.”
Satisfied Clients and Surprising Outcomes
Working at AT6 supports Anthony’s emphasis on prioritizing the client. Previous employers who were more driven by profit created a conflict for him between what he felt the client deserved and what he was able to offer them. One of his favorite aspects of AT6 is the freedom to make “realistic decisions that put the client first.”
He also enjoys that he is often surprised by the final outcome of a project, which he attributes to Jason’s skill as an architect. “The end product still manages to wow me even though I’ve looked at the drawings for a long time and I could picture it. I’m still taken aback sometimes by how nice it can look.”
For his part, Jason says, “I can’t express how we feel about Anthony better than his former employer did during a reference check. He told me that after Anthony had left his company, he had the opportunity to build a complex project and his first thought was, ‘I wish Anthony were here to run this for me.’ Somewhat quiet and unassuming, Anthony is the model of stability.”
Maestro in the Kitchen and Master of Fish Tales
When you get talking about life outside work, Anthony is full of surprises. At home, he pursues cooking and baking bread with a focus most people reserve for their phones. He is on a mission to cook all the recipes in The New York Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne (there are almost 1,500 of them), and since he received a 60-year-old San Francisco sourdough starter, he’s been on a quest to bake the perfect sourdough loaf.
When the cooking and baking are sorted, Anthony loves nothing more than heading into nature. Hiking, camping, and fishing—a sport he took up at 6 years old with his father—take up much of his free time.
He might have caught his biggest fish at Pyramid Lake in Nevada, but his best fish story took place at age 11 in Ireland, on the first day of salmon season.
“On the second cast, boom!!! I hooked into a giant salmon. All hell broke loose with excitement…”
After begging and pleading with his dad to let him tag along (and ditch school for a day), he was finally allowed to join the adults on the condition that he stay out of their way, as this was serious business. In his own words, “It was a typical salmon-season opener: pouring rain and freezing cold with nobody catching fish.
On the second cast, boom!!! I hooked into a giant salmon. All hell broke loose with excitement, the rod was bent over, and within seconds I was surrounded by all the grownups shouting advice in my ear. I felt like I was king among all the grownups, being ever so careful to land this monster, especially before Dad got back.
Finally, after what felt like hours (probably was seconds), I got my prized salmon two feet from the bank when one of my cheering onlookers grabbed his net and helped me land it, and to everyone’s dismay and my embarrassment, my claim to fame was a section of an old iron bed frame.”
Needless to say, the catches have improved since then. These days, his favorite spots to hike, camp and fish are in the Sierras. To support the places he loves to cast a line, Anthony volunteers for Trout Unlimited and Cal Trout, helping with stream and fish habitat restoration, his caring focus rippling out from his team, clients, and kitchen to wildlife and the environment.
