The most recent episode of The Urbanist is about the role of private developers in shaping public spaces and public life within our cities. How do you balance private and public interests?
Much of the discussion focuses on the redevelopment of King's Cross in London, which is generally considered to be a successful example of large-scale, developer-led, urban regeneration. Andrew Tuck is less complimentary of Hudson Yards in New York.
One point that I found interesting was the remark that modern zoning tends to force buildings apart. It creates more in-between space. The result is that we are losing some of the more intimate public spaces found in older neighborhoods.
To listen to the full 30 minute episode, click here.
Photo by Josh Edgoose on Unsplash (King's Cross, London)
People move to cities for a whole host of reasons, whether it be for more money, more affordable housing, and/or better weather. The fastest growing cities in the US, for example, tend to be in the south where it's warmer and where housing supply is more elastic. However, we also know that "consumer leisure amenities" increasingly factor into this decision. A new research paper by Gerald A. Carlino (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) and Albert Saiz (MIT) has tried to quantify this relationship by looking at the perceived beauty of a place. To do this, they analyzed the number of tourist visits and the number of "crowdsourced picturesque locations" in a metro area. Read: Instagrammable moments. What they found was that beauty, not surprisingly, matters (much like it does in other facets of life). Between 1990-2010, metro areas that were perceived as being "twice as picturesque" experienced greater population growth -- about 10 percentage points higher. These metro areas also attracted a higher percentage of educated individuals and experienced greater housing appreciation. If you'd like to download a copy of Beautiful city: Leisure amenities and urban growth, click here.
The most recent episode of The Urbanist is about the role of private developers in shaping public spaces and public life within our cities. How do you balance private and public interests?
Much of the discussion focuses on the redevelopment of King's Cross in London, which is generally considered to be a successful example of large-scale, developer-led, urban regeneration. Andrew Tuck is less complimentary of Hudson Yards in New York.
One point that I found interesting was the remark that modern zoning tends to force buildings apart. It creates more in-between space. The result is that we are losing some of the more intimate public spaces found in older neighborhoods.
To listen to the full 30 minute episode, click here.
Photo by Josh Edgoose on Unsplash (King's Cross, London)
People move to cities for a whole host of reasons, whether it be for more money, more affordable housing, and/or better weather. The fastest growing cities in the US, for example, tend to be in the south where it's warmer and where housing supply is more elastic. However, we also know that "consumer leisure amenities" increasingly factor into this decision. A new research paper by Gerald A. Carlino (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) and Albert Saiz (MIT) has tried to quantify this relationship by looking at the perceived beauty of a place. To do this, they analyzed the number of tourist visits and the number of "crowdsourced picturesque locations" in a metro area. Read: Instagrammable moments. What they found was that beauty, not surprisingly, matters (much like it does in other facets of life). Between 1990-2010, metro areas that were perceived as being "twice as picturesque" experienced greater population growth -- about 10 percentage points higher. These metro areas also attracted a higher percentage of educated individuals and experienced greater housing appreciation. If you'd like to download a copy of Beautiful city: Leisure amenities and urban growth, click here.
This past weekend I toured my friend's purpose-built rental project in Wynwood, called Midtown 29. It was completed last year and has already been stabilized.
Real estate development is very much a local business. It is that way because so much of it is driven by relationships, but also because every market has its own little idiosyncrasies.
This is always valuable to see. Sometimes we do things in our home market because it makes perfect sense to do so and sometimes we do it just because it's, "the way we've always done it."
One of the most obvious things about development in South Florida is that the parking is always above-grade. No basements. That has the result of bringing down construction costs; though I understand that, with sea level rise, insurance costs are on the rise.
If (or when) this whole autonomous vehicle thing does in fact take hold, it's going to be a hell of lot easier to convert all of that excess parking in Miami than it will be in Toronto.
This past weekend I toured my friend's purpose-built rental project in Wynwood, called Midtown 29. It was completed last year and has already been stabilized.
Real estate development is very much a local business. It is that way because so much of it is driven by relationships, but also because every market has its own little idiosyncrasies.
This is always valuable to see. Sometimes we do things in our home market because it makes perfect sense to do so and sometimes we do it just because it's, "the way we've always done it."
One of the most obvious things about development in South Florida is that the parking is always above-grade. No basements. That has the result of bringing down construction costs; though I understand that, with sea level rise, insurance costs are on the rise.
If (or when) this whole autonomous vehicle thing does in fact take hold, it's going to be a hell of lot easier to convert all of that excess parking in Miami than it will be in Toronto.
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