Brandon Donnelly

Daily insights for city builders, delivered every morning at 6 AM ET. I’m Brandon Donnelly — a Toronto-based real estate developer and founder of Globizen. I’ve been writing here since 2013.

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Tag: ski

  • 10 days in the mountains

    I’m off this evening to Banff (and then Revelstoke) for a 10 day snowboarding trip. If you’ve been reading Architect This City since this time last year, you’ll know that this is an annual tradition that I started with a group of close friends from grad school. It’s our annual retreat to the mountains and it’s our 6th year doing. I hope we never stop.

    So what happens to ATC?

    Regular scheduled programming will continue as usual. But don’t be surprised if I change things up and make the content a bit more personal on some of the days. I’ve also decided to try out something new and video blog throughout the trip using Snapchat Stories. If you’d like to follow along, my username is donnelly_b. There will also be a more traditional video to follow.

    Finally, if you happen to know Banff and/or Revelstoke well, or happen to be from out west, I’d love to hear from you. It’s always great to get local insights.

    Image: Revelstoke via Flickr

  • I left my heart in Jackson Hole [Video]

    I am back from Jackson Hole, but missing it. I fell in love with that town this past week. It’s a small one, but a special one. It’s filled with great food and 10,000 of some of the friendliest (and most fit) people I’ve ever met. Everyone seems to be living for the next big snow storm.

    I read somewhere before that all cities speak to us in some way. Each one has a pervasive belief system that influences us.

    Boston tells us to be smarter. New York tell us to make more money. And D.C. tells us to be more powerful. If Jackson Hole were to have a message for us, it would most certainly be to get out there and shred more powder. And there’s something to be said about that.

    It was sad to leave that kind of place, especially with 24”of snow expected this weekend. But I’m sure I’ll be back. Here’s the video we made of the trip. I hope you like it. We had far too much fun making it.

    In case you like the music, the first song is “There’s A Beast And We All Feed It” by Jake Bugg. And the second is “Fitzpleasure” by alt-J. We loved these songs so much that we played them in our gondola rides up the mountain.

  • The powder clause

    Jackson Hole has been on the top of my list of places to visit for a number of years now. And having just snowboarded it for the first time, I can honestly say that it lives up to the hype. It’s by far the most aggressive mountain I’ve ever had the pleasure of riding on. We also got lucky with 9” of fresh powder.

    But in addition to some great riding, I also learned of something new today: the “powder clause”. And from what we’ve heard from the locals, lots of employers in the region offer it. What it means is that if there’s a fresh dumping of snow, you’re allowed to take the morning off work so that you can go ski “the pow.” I think this is brilliant.

    If you’re from a big city (or you don’t ski), this may seem a bit absurd. But I think the “powder clause” underscores a growing trend happening in a lot of cities around the world. We’re seeing the rise of the consumer city. Historically, cities were all about agglomeration economies. But today, amenities matter. People choose first where they want to live and then look for a job (or start their own company).

    Some places are blessed with natural amenities. But for the rest of us, we have to work at creating our own. That’s where city building comes into play.

  • The Penn Annual

    I spent this morning booking the last leg of my flights for my annual ski and snowboarding trip this February. It’s a tradition that a few of us started during grad school at Penn. We call it the “Penn Annual” and we’re now into our fifth year. This year we’re going to Jackson Hole, which has been on the top of my list of places to snowboard for a number of years now.

    We started the Annual because we obviously love to ski and snowboard, but we also did it as a way to reconnect at least once a year. It’s a forced reunion. We pick a spot and all convene. The core group is about 4-5 people. But depending on where we go, it often expands as local friends and family join in. 

    Interestingly enough, we’re apparently a defined target market known as the “brocation” segment. Or at least this is what a marketing guy told us during the Third Annual in Lake Tahoe. So far we’ve been to Tremblant, Stowe, Lake Tahoe and Whistler. We usually alternate between Canada and the US. Next year we’re already thinking it’ll be Banff.

    One of the things we’ve talked about doing since the beginning is turning the The Annual into a larger Penn alumni reunion and networking event. In fact, we’ve parked pennannual.com. If we did this, we could bring down the per person costs, as well as create a much larger pull for participants. I love the idea of staying connected and meeting new Quakers (as well as others).

    Of course this is one of those ideas that usually loses air once the trip is over. But this year I thought I’d put it out there on my blog, and also send the idea over to Penn Alumni. So if you’d like to join us in Jackson Hole, drop me a line.