Boy, time sure does melt away when you’re writing a daily blog and trying to build buildings. It’s hard to believe that it has already been 7-8 years since I was writing incessantly about the merits of Toronto removing the eastern portion of its elevated… Read More
Monthly archives of “October 2022”
Community living rooms in New York City
This is a great collection of third places or “community living rooms” in New York City. Simply speaking, a third place is any space where people hang out that isn’t their home and isn’t their place of work. Hence the third moniker. The most typical… Read More
Real estate marketplaces are not like NFT marketplaces
A lot less people are buying NFTs today compared to last year. But that’s okay, everything will be fine. So let’s talk about some of the characteristics of NFT marketplaces and how they differ from real estate marketplaces today: In some real estate markets, it’s… Read More
Consuming architecture
Is this a true or false statement? “It is through media, of course, that we primarily consume architecture.” Witold Rybczynski recently spoke about this on his blog. Initially he thought it was a preposterous statement. But then he begrudgingly accepts that it is actually the… Read More
Dismantling the capital of neon
You probably already know this about Hong Kong: Neon signs exploded in popularity in Hong Kong after World War II, when the city’s economy started to take off led by its manufacturing industry. As consumerism grew, neon signboards became the go-to format of advertising for… Read More
TikTok wants to open warehouses
Last week, Axios revealed that TikTok is looking to hire a bunch of people that can help the company build out fulfillment warehouses and an entire e-commerce supply chain system for its users. All of this was discovered through various job listings that the company… Read More
How 20% affordable can impact development pro formas
This Twitter thread by Richard Wittstock of Domus Homes (developer out in Vancouver) is a timely follow-on to yesterday’s post about housing supply, land-use regulations, and specific policies such as inclusionary zoning. What Richard clearly describes in his thread is the economic impact of a… Read More
Housing supply in low-cost and high-cost municipalities
Here is a housing study that looked at housing supply — in the US from 2000 to 2020 — relative to median housing values. And here is the key takeaway: What this chart is saying is that new housing is rarely added in cities with… Read More
Repurposed parking space patios brought in $181 million for Toronto restaurants
So here’s the thing. Given the option, and assuming the weather is favorable, I think that most people would rather eat outside than inside. I know that I certainly would. And that is why one of the great silver linings of the pandemic has been… Read More
Development approval timelines in the Greater Toronto Area
Altus Group recently completed a study for BILD (Building Industry and Land Development Association) that looked at the various factors that might be contributing to housing affordability and supply issues here in the Greater Toronto Area. One area that they looked at was development approval… Read More