Month: November 2018

• Apple now owns 7,376 acres of land

  In 2011, Apple owned 584 acres of land.

  As of this year, and according to the Financial Times, the company now owns about 7,376 acres. 

  

  Apple uses its “facilities and land for corporate functions, R&D and data centres.” The latter would include server farms for its various online services, such as iMessage, Apple Music, and the App Store.

  It can be easy to think of “the cloud” and the online services we use every day as existing only in some ethereal world up in the sky or in a distant land.

  But the reality is that these services have very real physical space requirements. The above chart begins to speak to that.

  2018.11.10

• City-states and superstar cities

  During the recent election here in Toronto, mayoral candidate Jennifer Keesmaat raised the idea of this city region, maybe, becoming its own province. It wasn’t the first time this idea has been floated, but it once again didn’t stick.

  Earlier this week, Richard Florida spoke at the Urban Land Institute’s Toronto symposium and he brought up a similar issue: Toronto is a ‘city state’ and needs to start acting like it. Here is an excerpt from a recent Star article about his talk:

  He also noted that in terms of total economic output, the GTA [Greater Toronto Area] — he included the Golden Horseshoe — is responsible for about “$700 billion” (U.S) in economic output.

  “Which means our … region is equivalent to that of Sweden. So we are a city state, a mega region.”

  He later added: “we are a powerful global city with lots of assets to build on,” he said.

  But he went on to say that despite all of these successes there’s a “sense that something is amiss, something is wrong.”

  I have long supported the notion that city regions need to see and think of themselves as one united and contiguous economic landscape. In our case, it is not about, for instance, Hamilton vs. Toronto. This is about our entire region vs. New York or Singapore (a city-state) or the Pearl River Delta megalopolis.

  The headlines coming out of Amazon’s recent announcement are clear: In Superstar Cities, the Rich Get Richer, and They Get Amazon. This is winner-take-all urbanism where you need to be a “superstar” in order to compete. 

  2018.11.08

• Forever

  About a month ago, I said on the blog that we had partnered with two local artists for our Junction House project. The first was Leeay Aikawa and the second was a surprise. 

  Well the second one is no longer a surprise. It is Ben Johnston and he started work on his mural this evening. Here is a photo (courtesy of Shanique Small – thank you!):

  

  It should be completed this week if you’d like to stop by 2720 Dundas Street West. I am planning to be there this Saturday to take some photos and generally just hang out in the Junction. 

  Stay tuned for more surprises. 

  2018.11.08

• HQ2 isn’t coming to Toronto

  So I was wrong. Amazon didn’t pick Toronto for HQ2. It instead picked Crystal City, Virginia (Washington) and Long Island City, NY (New York City). More on that, here, in the NY Times. Confession: My prognostication was at least partially about trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

  In any event, it’s interesting to consider the locations that they did pick – as well as the fact that they ended up picking multiple cities. This was not part of their RFP. Though, many have convincingly argued that this process was over before it even began. HQ2 was always going to end up on the east coast, near one of Bezos’ homes.

  Nevertheless, urbanists such as Aaron Renn took the announcement as a direct repudiation of the American heartland. He believed that Amazon would be far more cost conscious in their decision making and ultimately elect for a lower cost locale in the middle of the country. Instead, the coastal hegemony won out. 

  Joe Cortright of City Observatory correctly predicted that Amazon would, for a few reasons, parlay their HQ2 search into multiple smaller locations (HQ2, HQ3, and so on). One of the reasons for this is that it gives the company more leverage when it comes negotiating subsidies on a go-forward basis. If NYC doesn’t want our next round of hires, we’ll take them to Washington.

  Looking at the locations, one of the first things I noticed is that both are just outside of their respective “downtowns” (across a body of water), as well as adjacent or on the way to an international airport. Crystal City is across the street from DCA and Long Island City is a 15 minute drive from LGA. Both are situated on top of higher order transit. Makes sense to me.

  Now, who wants HQ4?

  2018.11.07

• Tech and the North American office market

  CBRE recently published this report looking at the impact of the “high-tech software/services industry” on the North American office market. 

  Here are a few highlights:

  – Since 2010, tech has created ~1.1 million jobs in the US at an annual growth rate that is 3x the national average.

  – Seattle currently has the fastest tech job growth in North America. This is the first time in 7 years that San Francisco hasn’t been at the top of their list.

  

  – Silicon Valley, Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles all added more than 10,000 tech jobs from 2016 to 2017.

  – The biggest “momentum markets”, relying on 2016 and 2017 data, are Montreal, St. Louis, and Seattle.

  – Over the past two years (Q2-2016 to Q2-2018), Atlanta, Los Angeles, Orange County, Seattle, and Portland have all seen double-digit rent growth.

  One figure that also stood out for me was this one here showing the relationship between US venture capital investment and the average asking rent for office space in San Francisco.

  

  If you’d like to download the full report, click here. You’ll need to sign up for an account with CBRE, but it’s free to do that.

  2018.11.06

• BREAKFAST unveils Brixel Mirror

  BREAKFAST, a design and engineering studio out of Brooklyn, recently unveiled something that they call Brixels. 

  A Brixel is a variable-sized brick that is controlled by software and can act as a pixel in artwork, building facades, and other kinds of installations. 

  Below is a video of their first installation, called Brixel Mirror. It is a 19 foot wide by 6 foot tall installation compromised of 540 Brixels. If you can’t see it below, click here.

  [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-5cVpWhp30&w=560&h=315]

  While extremely cool, you may be wondering how applicable this might be to real world uses. But kinetic architecture isn’t a foreign concept and I am sure we’ll be seeing more of it.

  2018.11.04

• Project Profile: New Central Library, Calgary

  

  The City of Calgary opened up its New Central Library this past week on November 1st, 2018, after a five-year construction process. 

  Designed by Snøhetta (design architect) with Dialog (architect of record) and Entuitive (structural engineer), the building was previously named one of “the 12 most anticipated buildings of 2018″ and one that will surely serve as a landmark for the city.

  One of the most interesting things about this project, for me, is how it both gives back and integrates with the broader urban fabric. 

  

  It is both a library and public plaza, and it sits atop the city’s busiest LRT line. About 40% of the site area is taken up by tracks (and probably setback), which means that the structural system of the building was forced into 12m (~40 foot) clear spans (done in concrete). It is the first time in the city’s history that an active LRT line has ever been encased and built over.

  

  It is a magnificent building and reason enough to visit Calgary, if you aren’t already there. I am hoping to get out there and photograph this project sometime soon.

  Images: Snøhetta and Entuitive 

  2018.11.03

• Flights per day

  I recently wrote about this visual essay – showing the world’s population – from The Pudding.

  They have some great essays. So I went exploring today. 

  Here is one that looks at the phenomenon of “poor-country urbanization” by way of the number of flights per day from a city.

  

  The argument is that a low number of daily flights means that the city, despite perhaps having a large number of people, is actually quite disconnected from the global economy.

  Typically, people moving from rural areas to urban areas has tended to translate into rising incomes. It has lifted people out of poverty.

  But today we’re seeing examples of poor urbanization, where the migration is less about opportunity and more about necessity.

  While maybe crude, this measuring stick of flights per day piqued my curiosity. So here are some preliminary figures from the Airports Council International for 2017:

  

  The primary example mentioned in the essay is that of Kinshasa, which is the capital of the DRC. 

  It has a population of around 13 million people, but only 13 departing flights per day. (I’m assuming its “total movements” would be higher.)

  Based on the above list, ATL has ~2,461 total movements per day (defined as an aircraft either landing or taking-off). And YYZ has ~1,275 movements per day.

  2018.11.03

• San Francisco’s tax for the homeless

  Proposition C will be on San Francisco’s ballots this November 6th, 2018. 

  If approved by voters, the following additional taxes would be levied on businesses in order to create a dedicated fund to both support and prevent homelessness in the city:

  For businesses that pay a gross receipts tax, an additional tax of 0.175 percent to 0.690 percent on those gross revenues in San Francisco over $50 million;

  For businesses that pay the administrative office tax, an additional tax of 1.5 percent of their payroll expense in San Francisco.

  Marc Benioff – the founder of Salesforce (which happens to be the city’s largest employer) – has emerged as the lead supporter of Prop C. Between personal and corporate funds, he has contributed almost $8 million to getting this passed.

  But other billionaires in the Bay Area, such as Jack Dorsey of Twitter, have taken a different position, instead siding with Mayor London Breed, who does not support Prop C. 

  If you’re interested in this topic, the New Yorker has a piece called, The Battle of the Big-Tech Titans Over San Francisco’s Tax for the Homeless

  2018.11.02

• World’s most diverse city-region

  For those of you who aren’t going to be in Toronto next week, you can stop reading now and check back tomorrow. For the rest of you, next week is The Future Cities Canada Summit, which will be taking place from November 7 – 9. Full schedule, here.

  Day 1 equals the Urban Land Institute Symposium 2018, which is all about Toronto urbanism. The tagline is: “Explore the urban frontiers of North America’s fastest growing, and the world’s most diverse city-region.” 

  A big part of day 1 will be bus tours around the city. And one of those tours is going to be focused on Toronto’s laneways. I am a speaker on that tour and the bus will be stopping at Junction House to talk about the laneway houses that we plan to release as part of the project.

  But there’s much more to this summit than just laneway housing.

  2018.11.01