My construction partner sent me an email last week that said: "Check out Kongo Gumi. Search them. Pretty cool history." So I flagged the email and made a mental note to come back to it over the weekend when I had more time. I finally looked them up this morning and, he was right, it is a pretty cool history.
It turns out that they are/were the oldest continuously operated company in the world. Founded in 578 to build Japan's first Buddhist temple, the construction company was active for over 1,400 years. They eventually became insolvent in the mid-2000s and the company was then purchased by Takamatsu Construction Group; but before that they had successfully operated across 40 generations.
That is something that doesn't happen very often.
Supposedly, there were two important ingredients contributing to this long run: (1) They forced sons-in-law to take the family name. This ensured that the line continued even when there were generations of only daughters. And (2), they were in the business of building Buddhist temples. So as long as there were millions of Buddhist followers in the world, they were ensured work.
I'm not sure what happened to make the company insolvent in 2005-2006, but imagine the pressure facing each subsequent generation. I know I wouldn't want to be the generation that ultimately took down the 1,400+ year old family business.
For more on the history of the company, click here.
At the end of 2020, I wrote about a cross-laminated timber apartment building that Joanne and Fred Wilson were building in Brooklyn at 383 Greene Street.
Well, that project is now complete and stabilized, and it turns out that it was the first CLT apartment building ever built in NYC, which is quite an accomplishment.
On her blog, Joanne describes the project as being a "labor of love", and that certainly sounds right. But they are now also onto their next CLT apartment building at 122 Waverly Avenue (called Frame 122).
This would suggest that whatever their development model is, it is working for them. My assumption is that they want to both make our cities more sustainable and own high-quality rental assets for the long-term (possibly forever).
If you'd like to see how 122 Waverly was assembled, here's a short video that Joanne recently posted on her blog:
https://youtu.be/h4uVl9d4iPg?si=bwl5Y7LeKNU99YO3
My construction partner sent me an email last week that said: "Check out Kongo Gumi. Search them. Pretty cool history." So I flagged the email and made a mental note to come back to it over the weekend when I had more time. I finally looked them up this morning and, he was right, it is a pretty cool history.
It turns out that they are/were the oldest continuously operated company in the world. Founded in 578 to build Japan's first Buddhist temple, the construction company was active for over 1,400 years. They eventually became insolvent in the mid-2000s and the company was then purchased by Takamatsu Construction Group; but before that they had successfully operated across 40 generations.
That is something that doesn't happen very often.
Supposedly, there were two important ingredients contributing to this long run: (1) They forced sons-in-law to take the family name. This ensured that the line continued even when there were generations of only daughters. And (2), they were in the business of building Buddhist temples. So as long as there were millions of Buddhist followers in the world, they were ensured work.
I'm not sure what happened to make the company insolvent in 2005-2006, but imagine the pressure facing each subsequent generation. I know I wouldn't want to be the generation that ultimately took down the 1,400+ year old family business.
For more on the history of the company, click here.
At the end of 2020, I wrote about a cross-laminated timber apartment building that Joanne and Fred Wilson were building in Brooklyn at 383 Greene Street.
Well, that project is now complete and stabilized, and it turns out that it was the first CLT apartment building ever built in NYC, which is quite an accomplishment.
On her blog, Joanne describes the project as being a "labor of love", and that certainly sounds right. But they are now also onto their next CLT apartment building at 122 Waverly Avenue (called Frame 122).
This would suggest that whatever their development model is, it is working for them. My assumption is that they want to both make our cities more sustainable and own high-quality rental assets for the long-term (possibly forever).
If you'd like to see how 122 Waverly was assembled, here's a short video that Joanne recently posted on her blog:
https://youtu.be/h4uVl9d4iPg?si=bwl5Y7LeKNU99YO3
Lots of cities around the world, including Toronto, have (at least partially) what is called a combined sewer system. If the sewer system was built prior to the 1940s and it hasn't been replaced, there's a good chance that it could be a combined system. About a quarter of Toronto and about 60% of New York City still run on combined systems.
What this means is that both stormwater and sewage run in the same pipes. Most of the time this is fine, but if there's a heavy precipitation event and the system backs up, then you have poop getting diverted into rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water. In Toronto, this happens in places like the Don River and the inner harbor, and in Paris it happens in places like the Seine.
I was recently reading something suggesting that sewage generally gets dumped into the Seine about 12x per year as result of major rain events. This is why it's such a difficult and expensive task to make these bodies of water swimmable, which is something that Paris wants to do before it hosts the Olympics next year.
Thankfully, Toronto also wants to do the same. And in 2018, it started construction on the largest stormwater management program in the city's history. The overall budget is about $3 billion. Once complete, it should more or less eliminate combined sewer overflows, meaning our waters will become a lot cleaner and more swimmable.
This certainly isn't the sexiest capital project to announce and talk about. It largely happens behind the scenes. But it is going to lead to a significant quality of life upgrade for the cities willing to take it on -- one that will pay dividends well into the future.
Photo by Andre Gaulin on Unsplash
Lots of cities around the world, including Toronto, have (at least partially) what is called a combined sewer system. If the sewer system was built prior to the 1940s and it hasn't been replaced, there's a good chance that it could be a combined system. About a quarter of Toronto and about 60% of New York City still run on combined systems.
What this means is that both stormwater and sewage run in the same pipes. Most of the time this is fine, but if there's a heavy precipitation event and the system backs up, then you have poop getting diverted into rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water. In Toronto, this happens in places like the Don River and the inner harbor, and in Paris it happens in places like the Seine.
I was recently reading something suggesting that sewage generally gets dumped into the Seine about 12x per year as result of major rain events. This is why it's such a difficult and expensive task to make these bodies of water swimmable, which is something that Paris wants to do before it hosts the Olympics next year.
Thankfully, Toronto also wants to do the same. And in 2018, it started construction on the largest stormwater management program in the city's history. The overall budget is about $3 billion. Once complete, it should more or less eliminate combined sewer overflows, meaning our waters will become a lot cleaner and more swimmable.
This certainly isn't the sexiest capital project to announce and talk about. It largely happens behind the scenes. But it is going to lead to a significant quality of life upgrade for the cities willing to take it on -- one that will pay dividends well into the future.
Photo by Andre Gaulin on Unsplash
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