Columbia Contracting Corporation

Columbia Contracting has been building in Greater Boston since 1980, and for a company that old it keeps a remarkably quiet public profile. The Better Business Bureau dates it to 1980, lists 21 employees, and names Arthur Massaro as founder with Kate Durrane as principal; its own site says Durrane stepped into the leadership role in 2020, continuing a family legacy, and acts as the single point of contact on every job. Its Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration, number 121477, is active. The work it shows is high-end residential: architecturally designed new homes, historic renovations that keep the original character, and additions, with the company making a point of handling zoning and permitting itself. Its Houzz galleries back that up — eight project sets, including houses in Brookline, Milton, Wellesley and Manchester-by-the-Sea. What is missing is customers talking. One review sits on Houzz, from June 2017, written by someone who had used the company twice: they praised the work and, more usefully, the willingness to take problems on and solve them. In a March 2021 r/boston thread about design-build firms, a commenter listed Columbia Contracting among eight Greater Boston outfits worth considering, with no detail attached. So the record here is one of tenure and portfolio rather than of testimony. For a large renovation or a custom build where you want the principal on the job and the permitting handled, this is a reasonable firm to interview — and the thing to ask for is what the internet cannot give you: two or three recent clients you can call, and the address of a job finished in the last year.