If you happen to be in the market for an Art Nouveau building near the center of Brussels, then you may want to check out this listing from Architecture de Collection. Built in 1897 and designed by architect Victor Horta — one of the founders… Read More
This week, a 1913 Beaux-Arts office building at 69 Yonge Street (here in Toronto) was conditionally approved for conversion to residential. The proposal entails preserving the existing 15-storey building, adding 6 storeys on top, and creating a total of 127 new condominium suites (14 studios,… Read More
Amazon unveiled the design for part of its new HQ2 campus in Arlington today. The plan is a cluster of new office and retail buildings that will accommodate some 13,000 employees. When fully built out, its HQ2 is expected to house upwards of 25,000 employees.… Read More
There’s an old saying that we shape our buildings and environments and then they in turn shape us. Here is a fascinating research report about “the influence of physical elevation in buildings on risk preferences.” I discovered it through this MarketWatch article, which my friend John… Read More
When I was in grad school, I used to search around online and make lists of real estate developers that I felt were philosophically aligned with my own view of the world. I didn’t want to work for just any developer, I wanted one that… Read More
Dutch architecture firm MVRDV recently converted an old industrial building in Hong Kong into new office space. The overall project size is roughly 200,000 sf. What’s unique about the project is the obsessive focus on transparency and glass. Here’s what the interior looks like: And… Read More
When you build a new office building, the typical strategy is to pre-lease a certain portion of it. That is, you sign leases with a tenant or a few tenants so that you know for sure that X% of the building will be occupied upon… Read More
Some people believe that cities are all about bricks and mortar. While other people believe that they are first and foremost about people. Though I wholeheartedly believe that our built environment has a profound affect on our lives, I am in the latter camp. Real… Read More
BRANDON DONNELLY 