Paul Reidt and Karla Monkevich Discuss B/A/D Talks, Music, and Bliss

After attending the November 2025 B/A/D Talk, we were curious about its origin story. So we invited Paul Reidt (President) and Karla Monkevich (CEO) of Kochman Reidt + Haigh Cabinetmakers to join us in the Boiler Room to tell us more about this long-form discussion series, including the power of drawing, storytelling, travel, bliss—there was so much!B/A/D Talks (Building, Architecture and Design) are the first of their kind in the Boston build-design community, established back in 2014. For a boombox or mixtape story, Karla gave us the Desert Island Music Collection, which is music to listen to if stuck on a desert island, a list she’s been working on for years. Starting with Billy Bragg and Wilco’s “Mermaid Avenue,” the list also included Marvin Gaye, and then a series of "first" albums by the likes of Sinead, REM, and the Beastie Boys.Paul’s music experience was extraordinarily exotic, as he shared the time he had to argue for music to be played, at all, in their mill shop. This ended up involving a consultant, interviews with many of their trade partners, staff, a psychologist, and a retreat to the Cape!