Gangi, Palermo - Sicily by Claudio Siragusa on 500px
Buy real estate. It always goes up. That’s the mantra, right?
Few things in life are that black and white.
A small town in Sicily called Gangi is in the midst of a novel urban renewal experiment. They are giving away houses for free to people who will agree to renovate them within a 4 year time period.
Here’s the “free houses” notice from the Comune Di Gangi explaining how it works and who to contact. You have to be an Italian or EU citizen to participate.
Free can be a powerful business model, as we see all the time with tech companies. And sometimes cities and towns aren’t all that different.
So if you’re looking for a vacation home or want to move to Sicily, now might be a great time.
As Architect This City continues to grow in readership, I’m starting to get pitched more and more. People email me with something they want promoted and they try and convince me to write about it. Everybody is looking for distribution. I get it.
I have no qualms about people and companies reaching out. In fact, I welcome the suggestions. But the vast majority of these “pitches” don’t make it onto ATC.
When it comes to these sorts of things, I have two simple rules: (1) I have to like it myself. If I don’t think what you’re pitching is interesting or cool, I’m not going to write about it – even if you’re offering up money. (2) I need to be able to be transparent about it. More on this second point in the coming weeks.
Recently I was asked to do a post about the Fashion House Condos in Toronto’s King West neighborhood.
Here’s why I decided to do it:
I like that the existing Silverplate heritage building was preserved and integrated into the base of the condo. It’s now tenanted to The Keg, which has gone into the base of a number of new condo buildings in the city. They’re a successful chain.
Each elevator lobby within the building has a unique mural designed by a different fashion designer – most of which are Canadian. The whole Fashion House theme is meant to speak to the area’s history as Toronto’s Garment District.
Many of the residential suites have red curtains (which are white on the interior). They form a “common element” and have to stay in the condo. It gives the building a dramatic and unique feel, though it means you have to be a fan of curtains.
My good friend designed the Mexican restaurant at the base of the building (Wilbur Mexicana). His firm is called Reflect Architecture.
It’s also an example of cool startup businesses going into the base of a new development. As far as I know, Wilbur Mexicana is the group’s first venture.
There’s a rooftop pool that I’m hoping somebody will invite me to this summer.
And finally, because I think the King West neighborhood is such a great example of urban renewal.
To end off, here are some stats on the project:
Address: 560 King Street West, Toronto
Developer: Freed Developments
Architect: CORE Architects
Project Timeline: 2008-2014
Construction Costs: $60M (estimate)
Site Area: 4,887 square meters / 52,603 square feet
Gross Floor Area: 27,107 square meters / 291,777 square feet
Floors: 11 and 12 storeys
Building Heights: 33m and 39.7m
Residential Suites: 334
And here are the fashion designers responsible for each elevator lobby mural:
2nd Floor – Beckermans
3rd Floor – Dean Davidson
4th Floor – Jeremy Laing
5th Floor – Adrian Wu
6th Floor – Jenny Bird
7th Floor – Ashtiani
8th Floor – Peach Berserk
9th Floor – Smythe
10th Floor – Jay Godfrey
11th Floor – Bustle
Penthouse – Greta Constantine
What do you think of Fashion House?
Images: CORE Architects
Yesterday Adam Radwanski of the Globe and Mail published an interesting article called, Rust Belt revival: Lessons for southwest Ontario from America’s industrial heartland.
The article talks about some of the things that the Rust Belt is doing to revitalize their cities and the lessons that many cities in Ontario – which are facing similar fates – could learn from. It’s worth a read.
I’m not going to summarize his article, other than to say that some of the key points were around tax increment financing, tax incentives, University connections, a DIY/entrepreneurial culture, and the American tradition of philanthropy – which Radwanski points out is probably the least imitable for Canada.
And it’s this last point that I would like to focus on first. The US has a deep history of people getting rich and then giving back – certainly more so than in Canada in my opinion.
If you think about the resurgence of cities such as Detroit, you’d be hard pressed not to think of people like Dan Gilbert. He has become the poster boy for Detroit’s resurgence by moving his companies to downtown and buying up most of the office buildings. If and when Detroit comes back (I think it’s a when), Gilbert will easily be one of the biggest beneficiaries.
Now, you could argue that this is made possible because of greater income inequality, but there’s something to be said about powerful individuals acting on intrinsic passion. Gilbert is investing in Detroit because he personally wants to see his home city come back. And that’s hard to replace.
The second point I would like to focus on has to do with this snippet:
With oil’s current slide, Canada really can’t afford for it to remain a drag – and in fact there is some expectation that Ontario will instead reclaim its old role as the leader of Canada’s economic growth. Its premier, Kathleen Wynne, recently expressed optimism that plummeting oil prices and a sinking dollar will prove a boon to manufacturing. “I don’t wish for low oil prices and a low dollar for Alberta,” she said earlier this month. “But at the same time, we want our manufacturing sector to rebound. So if that [low oil price] helps, then that’s a good thing.”
I don’t know what context this was said in, but I continue to feel strongly that we cannot rely on low oil prices and a low Canadian dollar for Ontario’s competitiveness. That is a terrible business model, and an unsustainable one. We need to figure out ways to create value and grow the economy without relying on currency differentials and other macroeconomic factors. Radwanski is right to point that out in his article.
So let’s hope we don’t let any short term benefits go to our head. There’s lots of exciting work to be done.
Image: Old Detroit auto factory via Flickr