Brandon Donnelly
Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
Brandon Donnelly
Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
I couldn’t sleep last night, so I got up and pulled out an old issue of Monocle magazine from my nightstand. I then stumbled upon the following article by Taras Grescoe.
What really stood out for me was this line:
“Thickets of haphazardly planned condo towers, compacted amid neighbourhoods of single-family houses, have led to congestion nightmares in Toronto and notoriously out-of-hand housing costs in Vancouver.”
It bothered me for a few reasons:
- The frame of reference is the single-family house. It perpetuates the cultural bias that what matters most in cities, like Toronto and Vancouver, is low-rise housing.
- I don’t get the “haphazardly planned” comment. New tower development has been heavily concentrated in the downtown core, growth centers, along the Yonge subway corridor, and so on. Their built form is also significantly influenced by their relationship to these low-rise “Neighbourhoods.”
- I believe that building up, as opposed to out, is the way to address congestion nightmares. Though I will concede that our ability to plan and execute on transit in this city is positively deplorable.
- How did thickets of condos create an affordability problem in Vancouver? Many factors at play in this city, including a powerful geographic supply constraint.
Those are just a few of my thoughts from early this morning. What are yours?
The Urban Land Institute recently published an interesting case study for a project in Seattle called Chophouse Row.
It is the last phase in a series of projects that the developer, Liz Dunn, has been involved with in the neighborhood over the last 16 years.
This particular project has 25,317 sf of office, 6,379 sf of retail, and 4,795 sf of residential (3 penthouses). It also incorporates a heritage building. Good example of fine-grained urban infill.
Here is the video (click here if you can’t see it below):
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PmAMsWEv98?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
On a related note, ULI’s 2017 Toronto Symposium is coming up later this month (April 24 - 25, 2017). Here is the program. 80+ speakers. If you’d like to register, you can do that there.
I couldn’t sleep last night, so I got up and pulled out an old issue of Monocle magazine from my nightstand. I then stumbled upon the following article by Taras Grescoe.
What really stood out for me was this line:
“Thickets of haphazardly planned condo towers, compacted amid neighbourhoods of single-family houses, have led to congestion nightmares in Toronto and notoriously out-of-hand housing costs in Vancouver.”
It bothered me for a few reasons:
- The frame of reference is the single-family house. It perpetuates the cultural bias that what matters most in cities, like Toronto and Vancouver, is low-rise housing.
- I don’t get the “haphazardly planned” comment. New tower development has been heavily concentrated in the downtown core, growth centers, along the Yonge subway corridor, and so on. Their built form is also significantly influenced by their relationship to these low-rise “Neighbourhoods.”
- I believe that building up, as opposed to out, is the way to address congestion nightmares. Though I will concede that our ability to plan and execute on transit in this city is positively deplorable.
- How did thickets of condos create an affordability problem in Vancouver? Many factors at play in this city, including a powerful geographic supply constraint.
Those are just a few of my thoughts from early this morning. What are yours?
The Urban Land Institute recently published an interesting case study for a project in Seattle called Chophouse Row.
It is the last phase in a series of projects that the developer, Liz Dunn, has been involved with in the neighborhood over the last 16 years.
This particular project has 25,317 sf of office, 6,379 sf of retail, and 4,795 sf of residential (3 penthouses). It also incorporates a heritage building. Good example of fine-grained urban infill.
Here is the video (click here if you can’t see it below):
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PmAMsWEv98?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
On a related note, ULI’s 2017 Toronto Symposium is coming up later this month (April 24 - 25, 2017). Here is the program. 80+ speakers. If you’d like to register, you can do that there.
The interiors were done by the Toronto and New York-based Yabu Pushelberg. If you haven’t been, here and here are some photos of the hotel. Before EDITION, the building housed the Seville Beach Hotel. As should be the case, some of that hotel’s original details were preserved in the renovation.
The interiors were done by the Toronto and New York-based Yabu Pushelberg. If you haven’t been, here and here are some photos of the hotel. Before EDITION, the building housed the Seville Beach Hotel. As should be the case, some of that hotel’s original details were preserved in the renovation.
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