Paul Bass Photo
Jorge Astudillo was upgrading the entrances inside an historic New Haven building — while opening a new door in his own journey of opportunity.
Astudillo formed a new company with his cousin one month ago called ATA Carpenters.
They were working on one of their first gigs Wednesday at the Plymouth Medical Building at the corner of Sherman Avenue and Chapel Street across from the Yale New Haven Hospital St. Raphael Campus. The Romanesque Revival building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; it opened in 1901 as the home of Plymouth Congregational Church, served as the home of the Keser Israel Jewish congregation from 1949 through 1968, then became a medical office building. Yale New Haven Health bought the building in 2016 for the same use and renovated it.
As part of ongoing upgrades, Astudillo and his cousin had the task Wednesday of replacing interior doors by stairwells and office entrances.
“The old doors we’re taking off and putting in the garbage, and putting in new wood doors,” which are heavier and fire-rated, Astudillo said while retrieving a box of Assa Abloy finishers, in a parking-lot conversation with the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz LoveTalk” program. “It looks awesome inside.”
Astudillo, who is 36, moved to the U.S. 13 years ago from Ecuador with his father. They came looking for “opportunity,” he said.
Astudillo began working in warehouses in New Jersey. A cousin in Connecticut taught him the carpentry trade and helped him land work up here eight years ago. Astudillo became a “finish carpenter” — someone who does the “fancy stuff inside” like molding and baseboards and doors rather than a “rough carpenter” who works on framing a building’s structure.
Along the way, Astudillo started a family. He and his wife, who works at Yale, have two children, aged 6 and 13. They commute from a home in Wallingford. “I like that the electricity’s cheap,” Astudillo said of the town, which runs its own public energy utility. The family was able to take a trip to Cancun in September to celebrate Astudillo’s wife’s birthday.
A contractor for whom Astudillo used to work helped Astudillo’s new company land the Plymouth medical building gig.
“You keep looking for more opportunities,” he said of his decision to advance from employee to business owner.
By 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jorge Astudillo had completed five doors. He said he was confident the next 10 would be in place by the time he drove home for the evening.
Click on the video to watch the conversation with Jorge Astudillo on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz LoveTalk” program.
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