Witold Rybczynski’s recent post about the tragic fire at Notre-Dame de Paris provides an interesting summary of cathedral construction techniques over the years: The Paris fire is also a reminder of what a weird hybrid structure Gothic cathedrals really are. The ancient Romans roofed their… Read More
Today, Urbanation released its Q4-2018 market highlights report for the Greater Toronto Area. The general media will pick up these numbers and tell you that there’s been a precipitous decline in the number of new condominium sales. But the reality is that 20,028 units were… Read More
I’m working on integrating an iPad (back) into my workflow as a developer. I used an iPad 2 (c. 2011) while I was completing my MBA. I mainly used it for taking notes and saving money on hard copy textbooks. But after it got old and painfully… Read More
I just finished scrolling through these photos (from the Atlantic) of Beijing Daxing International Airport, which is currently under construction about 46 kilometers south of Tiananmen Square. The first phase is expected to open in the second half of this year. It will be about 7.5… Read More
Here are two images of the unfinished Museum of Image & Sound in Rio de Janeiro by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The building sits across from Copacabana’s famed beach and tiled boardwalk. The street you’re looking at is Avenida Atlântica. The idea behind the architecture… Read More
BuildZoom, which is a tool to help people find local contractors, recently looked at construction costs across the US. Here is their 30-city average index running from 1950 to roughly today: Here is a chart showing the most and least expensive cities (that is, the… Read More
BNN Bloomberg just published this article on the Toronto condo market. It is based on a roundtable discussion that was held at their Toronto office last week with Jim Ritchie of Tridel, Jared Menkes of Menkes Developments, Shamez Virani of CentreCourt, and Jane Renwick of… Read More
Earlier this month, Extell Development Company announced the launch of sales for its Central Park Tower – which it is calling “the definitive New York skyscraper”, as well as the tallest residential building in the world. The project is located on Billionaire’s Row in NYC… Read More
BIG just announced its first project in South America. It is a 33 storey residential building in Quito, Ecuador. When completed, it will be the tallest building in the city. The developer is Uribe and Schwarzkopf. Here are a couple of other images: The building is… Read More
Each year, first-year graduate students at the Yale School of Architecture are tasked with designing and then physically building a new single-family house in an economically depressed neighborhood. Sometimes, like this year, the house may have multiple dwelling units. I have always thought that this… Read More
