In yesterday's post I wrote about happiness vs. satisfaction (among a bunch of other things). And I mentioned that I derive deep satisfaction from the work that I do, which is real estate development. On the back of this post, I received a question from a reader this morning that more or less asked me if I think about the impact of my work on other people's happiness / satisfaction. Part of the point that was being made was that while it may be a positive endeavor for me, I may be completely destroying the satisfaction, happiness, and lives of others. Do I give this any thought? Lastly, a point was made that very few developers seem to live in their own housing projects, which should tell you something.
I thought these were all very good points/questions and so I'd like to respond to them publicly:
I do think carefully about the happiness and satisfaction of others. In fact, part of the reason this work is satisfying is that, in my opinion, it is both challenging and important work. Growing cities require new housing and the reality is that almost all of this housing comes from private developers.
This may sound cheesy, but I also care deeply about beauty. This is something that is of course in the eye of the beholder. But I do want things to be beautiful. I want our cities to be more beautiful. And I don't think we talk about this enough. I mean, just look at
In yesterday's post I wrote about happiness vs. satisfaction (among a bunch of other things). And I mentioned that I derive deep satisfaction from the work that I do, which is real estate development. On the back of this post, I received a question from a reader this morning that more or less asked me if I think about the impact of my work on other people's happiness / satisfaction. Part of the point that was being made was that while it may be a positive endeavor for me, I may be completely destroying the satisfaction, happiness, and lives of others. Do I give this any thought? Lastly, a point was made that very few developers seem to live in their own housing projects, which should tell you something.
I thought these were all very good points/questions and so I'd like to respond to them publicly:
I do think carefully about the happiness and satisfaction of others. In fact, part of the reason this work is satisfying is that, in my opinion, it is both challenging and important work. Growing cities require new housing and the reality is that almost all of this housing comes from private developers.
This may sound cheesy, but I also care deeply about beauty. This is something that is of course in the eye of the beholder. But I do want things to be beautiful. I want our cities to be more beautiful. And I don't think we talk about this enough. I mean, just look at
Some people may not like or appreciate the form that development usually takes in cities such as Toronto, but the housing needs to go somewhere. As a result of restricting development in most areas of the city, we are now forced to highly concentrate development in relatively few areas. Many are reacting to this.
There will almost certainly be tensions between incumbents and new entrants when it comes to city building. That's part of what makes this work so challenging and rewarding. Everyone involved in the building of our cities has to constantly problem solve and manage competing interests. It's not easy.
I am in fact moving into one of our projects (Junction House). I am doing this because (1) I think our team is creating an awesome and beautiful project and (2) I believe that living in multi-family buildings in walkable neighborhoods is a more sustainable (and enjoyable) way to live. I want to practice what I preach.
Some people may not like or appreciate the form that development usually takes in cities such as Toronto, but the housing needs to go somewhere. As a result of restricting development in most areas of the city, we are now forced to highly concentrate development in relatively few areas. Many are reacting to this.
There will almost certainly be tensions between incumbents and new entrants when it comes to city building. That's part of what makes this work so challenging and rewarding. Everyone involved in the building of our cities has to constantly problem solve and manage competing interests. It's not easy.
I am in fact moving into one of our projects (Junction House). I am doing this because (1) I think our team is creating an awesome and beautiful project and (2) I believe that living in multi-family buildings in walkable neighborhoods is a more sustainable (and enjoyable) way to live. I want to practice what I preach.
The development team at Slate is hiring once again for our Toronto office. We are looking for a coordinator/analyst to join the team and work on all aspects of our projects (which span the full lifecycle of development and are pretty cool if you ask me). If you've read some of my past hiring posts (examples here and here), there isn't a lot more that I can say about our company, our culture, and our approach to development.
But what I would emphasize is that our culture is paramount. I am biased, but I think we have a great team that works well together and that cares deeply about what we do. All of this is important, which is why in the past I have encouraged candidates to go beyond their resume and share something else like their online presence or a link to something that would help us get to know them a little better.
If you would like to learn more about the position and/or apply, please do that over here on LinkedIn. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter.
In the world of development, there is something known as a floor space index (FSI). Some places call it a floor area ratio (FAR), but they mean the same thing. It is one measure of density. To calculate it, you simply divide the total building area by the site area. For example, if you had a 25,000 square foot piece of land and you were to build a single storey building that occupied every bit of the site (also 25,000 sf), you would have an FSI or FAR of 1.0. If you built a two storey building on only half of the site, you would similarly have an FSI or FAR of 1.0. The area didn't change, you just moved things around. That's how FSI's work.
A ratio like this tells you how intensely you may be using a piece of land, but it doesn't tell you everything or necessarily give you the full picture. Which is why I find it silly when too much emphasis is placed on this singular number. I don't think anyone in the history of the world has ever traveled to a city -- let's take Paris -- and remarked how beautiful it is because of its floor space indices. Nobody thinks like this. It's way too esoteric. What guides our experiences is built form, the ground plane, relationships to streets, materiality, light, context, and many other important things.
To give a specific example, let's take One Delisle. This project was in effect approved twice. After it was approved by City Council in July 2020 an adjacent land parcel was acquired. It wasn't absolutely necessary to do this, but we felt it made for better city building and so we did it. (We wanted to look back knowing we did the right thing.) That meant that we needed to go back to Council to revise our approvals, which ended up happening at the beginning of this year (public staff report, here). There was no change to the tower and and no change to any of the key setbacks or stepbacks. But the overall FSI did go down!
Will anyone notice or care about this lower ratio? I doubt it. Which is why I think it's silly to try and plan our cities around them. It feels like design by spreadsheet. Thankfully, I think many people recognize this.
The development team at Slate is hiring once again for our Toronto office. We are looking for a coordinator/analyst to join the team and work on all aspects of our projects (which span the full lifecycle of development and are pretty cool if you ask me). If you've read some of my past hiring posts (examples here and here), there isn't a lot more that I can say about our company, our culture, and our approach to development.
But what I would emphasize is that our culture is paramount. I am biased, but I think we have a great team that works well together and that cares deeply about what we do. All of this is important, which is why in the past I have encouraged candidates to go beyond their resume and share something else like their online presence or a link to something that would help us get to know them a little better.
If you would like to learn more about the position and/or apply, please do that over here on LinkedIn. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter.
In the world of development, there is something known as a floor space index (FSI). Some places call it a floor area ratio (FAR), but they mean the same thing. It is one measure of density. To calculate it, you simply divide the total building area by the site area. For example, if you had a 25,000 square foot piece of land and you were to build a single storey building that occupied every bit of the site (also 25,000 sf), you would have an FSI or FAR of 1.0. If you built a two storey building on only half of the site, you would similarly have an FSI or FAR of 1.0. The area didn't change, you just moved things around. That's how FSI's work.
A ratio like this tells you how intensely you may be using a piece of land, but it doesn't tell you everything or necessarily give you the full picture. Which is why I find it silly when too much emphasis is placed on this singular number. I don't think anyone in the history of the world has ever traveled to a city -- let's take Paris -- and remarked how beautiful it is because of its floor space indices. Nobody thinks like this. It's way too esoteric. What guides our experiences is built form, the ground plane, relationships to streets, materiality, light, context, and many other important things.
To give a specific example, let's take One Delisle. This project was in effect approved twice. After it was approved by City Council in July 2020 an adjacent land parcel was acquired. It wasn't absolutely necessary to do this, but we felt it made for better city building and so we did it. (We wanted to look back knowing we did the right thing.) That meant that we needed to go back to Council to revise our approvals, which ended up happening at the beginning of this year (public staff report, here). There was no change to the tower and and no change to any of the key setbacks or stepbacks. But the overall FSI did go down!
Will anyone notice or care about this lower ratio? I doubt it. Which is why I think it's silly to try and plan our cities around them. It feels like design by spreadsheet. Thankfully, I think many people recognize this.
