I have a friend who is a big fan of Tesla. And judging by what’s going on with the company’s stock these days, he is not alone. This morning he sent me this article talking about how Tesla has introduced an entirely new business model… Read More
Monthly archives of “August 2020”
More on the great balcony debate
My super scientific Twitter balcony survey has revealed that most people seem to like balconies and terraces. Out of the 257 people that voted (not a huge number), 77.4% said that if they were in the market to buy or rent a new place, they… Read More
The Canadian Dream
This has become a frequently reported topic, but here’s a recent article from Wired talking about tech workers living out the American Dream — in Canada. The story is pretty simple. Immigrants are smart and work hard. Canada has a system in place that privileges… Read More
A few thoughts about housing supply
Here are a few things to consider. One, the home you live in was likely built by a person or company that was trying to make a profit. Two, when your home was being developed and built, it probably upset a bunch of people. Both… Read More
Our many places
In the world of planning and community building there is a hierarchy of places that is often referred to as first, second, and third places. As many of you probably know, first place is your home. Second place is where you work. And third places… Read More
MAD Architects complete first project in the US
MAD Architects recently completed its first project in the United States at 8600 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. It’s interesting (and beautiful) in that it was designed to resemble a village of gabled residences sitting on top of a green hillside. The green hillside is… Read More
New York City isn’t dead
I was speaking to some friends in New York City over the weekend and they said to me, “you know what Brandon, we don’t really go out at night anymore. It doesn’t feel safe. There are homeless people everywhere and they’ve started to get very… Read More
Photoblog: Humans are social creatures
The above photo was taken on Lake Couchiching (off Lake Simcoe) with a DJI Mavic Mini. Here is the before straight from the drone. And here is the after with my Lightroom edits. I then cropped it to a 4×5 aspect ratio because wide landscape… Read More
How local is local, really?
Real estate, as they say, is a local business. Every market has its local nuances. For example, once of the first things that Studio Gang asked us when we started working together was, “does Toronto do PT?” What they were referring to was post-tensioned concrete… Read More
Preferred method of communication
I was “on site” this morning for the installation of the helical piers for my laneway suite (that will be the topic of a separate post). More often than not, I’m in the office. But I like going on site because, well, building things is… Read More