Rainmakers of Remodeling

When the staff at Professional Remodeler magazine compiled a list of the people who most influenced the remodeling industry, Fred Case, founder of Bethesda-based Case Design/Remodeling, was an obvious choice, said Jonathan Sweet, senior editor at the trade magazine.

"We were trying to find the people who shaped the industry today," Sweet said in an interview. Case Design is "a model for other companies across the country."

The article described Case as "one of the pioneers of the design/build process, which revolutionized residential remodeling."

The rest of the list, and why they were chosen:

¿ Kermit Baker. The chief economist for the American Institute of Architects and director of the Remodeling Futures Program at Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies "has elevated the image of remodelers and demonstrated that remodeling is a separate industry from home building," the magazine said.

¿ Alan Greenspan. Under Greenspan, the Federal Reserve Board's management of interest rates in the late 1990s and early part of this decade "made money readily available for many homeowners. As mortgage rates dropped, home values increased, leading to more home equity that could be pulled out for remodeling projects and other spending."

¿ Neil Kelly. The founder of the Neil Kelly Co. in Oregon was chosen for his efforts to "regulate remodeling and clean up the industry," according to Professional Remodeler. Kelly was also credited as being "a pioneer in bringing women into construction. From the early 1970s, he had women working in sales, design and other nontraditional roles."

¿ William Levitt. When Levitt applied assembly-line production to housing after World War II, he opened up affordable homeownership to a larger segment of the population and simultaneously created the modern remodeling market, the magazine said. "After all, where would remodelers be without production homes to improve, upgrade and repair?"