I can get lost on Google Maps for hours on end. I love looking at maps and I love using Street View to virtually explore cities. This morning I’m honed in on Cincinnati, Ohio (a city I’ve never been to) while I listen to this… Read More
One of Alphabet’s subsidiaries is a company by the name of Sidewalk Labs. Some of you, I’m sure, have been following it. The goal of the company is to leverage technology in order to solve some of our biggest urban challenges. Initially, they were fairly… Read More
Parag Khanna recently published an article in the New York Times calling for a new map for America. Here’s why: “The problem is that while the economic reality goes one way, the 50-state model means that federal and state resources are concentrated in a state… Read More
“It is difficult to design a space that will not attract people. What is remarkable is how often this has been accomplished.” -William Whyte In 1980, the sociologist and urbanist William Whyte published a revolutionary book called The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. The… Read More
Toronto can’t make up its mind right now as to whether it would like to invest in additional cycling infrastructure. Of course, we have a history of vacillating on topics like this. And I think it’s because we’re at a tricky inflection point. We are… Read More
I have a bit of an obsession with my calendar, lists, and goals. On the home screen of my phone I have Wunderlist, Evernote, Google Drive, and 2 calendar apps (more on that in a second). This obsession is probably one of the reasons I… Read More
One of the things you’ll often hear people deride at cocktail parties is the trend toward smaller urban dwellings. They get called “shoeboxes” and “cubby holes in the sky.” So let’s unpack that a bit today and try and better understand the economics behind it all.… Read More
Throughout history, real estate has been a tremendous source of wealth for a lot of people. Many family dynasties were created by accumulating property, holding it, and then riding the valuation wave. Here in Toronto, there was the Reichmann family. At one point they had… Read More
In grad school, I was fortunate enough to be a teaching assistant for a class called Urban Real Estate Economics, which was taught by Dr. Richard Voith. It was one of my favorite classes. So if you ever find yourself at the Wharton School, I… Read More
I was recently introduced to the work and writing of Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. One concept that he writes about that I really like is the idea of nest vs. cave. The way Fujimoto describes a cave is that it’s a naturally occurring and pre-existing… Read More
BRANDON DONNELLY 