The New York Times recently featured a very cool stone and glass cottage on the island of Guernsey (off the coast near Normandy, France). What’s special about it is the opposition of old (15th century stone) and new (glass). Preserving the past while embracing the future always makes for interesting architecture.
The double height room with glass railing (pictured above) is also a great space and we’re currently designing a similar setup for one of our properties.
Images: Ed Alcock for New York Times
According to the New York Times, home construction in the U.S. dropped 5% in June (from a month earlier) to 549,000 units.
“The rate of home building is still up about 15 percent from the bottom in April 2009, though it is down 76 percent from the last decade’s peak in January 2006.”
This impacts the economy in the following way:
“Each new home built creates, on average, the equivalent of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes paid to local and federal authorities, according to the builders’ trade group. The impact appears in multiple industries, from makers of faucets and kitchen appliances to lumber yards.”
Image: Flickr
Detroit Skyline
Lately there has been a lot of talk about reinventing Detroit. And for good reason, it needs to be reinvented. Over-reliance on a single industry is dangerous. The population of Detroit now sits at roughly half of its peak. It’s amazing to think that Detroit, at one point, was one of the largest cities in the US and a real economic powerhouse.
One solution, here, that appears to be gaining momentum (and being implemented in some cities) is to just accept that former manufacturing powerhouses, like Detroit, are now smaller cities and bulldoze their unused buildings (“shrink to survive”). It sounds harsh, but this would “cleanse” the city of its liabilities (public services) and free up the land for green/public spaces. The idea would be to transform Detroit into a series of smaller urban areas surrounded by green space. And presumably, all of this would reposition the city for future economic growth.
Here is another proposal. Toby Barlow — an Op-Ed Contributor for the New York Times — suggests that Motown shift its attention over to bicycles:
“Our abandoned landscape suggests an opportunity that alternative-transportation proponents should consider: instead of raging against their cities’ internal combustion machines, they might consider a tactical retreat to the city that cars have pretty much abandoned.”
Would we then be able to call it Bitown? I’m sure we could work that into common parlance.
“So, who knows, maybe the bike will follow the car. After all, it’s happened before. In 1896, when Charles B. King steered Detroit’s first automobile across its cobbled streets, following King’s progress with a keen and intelligent interest was Henry Ford, riding on a bicycle.”
US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive [Telegraph]
Bike Among the Ruins [New York Times Op-Ed]
Image from Flickr by Jodelli
New York Sunset
Vornado Realty Trust — a New York-based REIT and one of the largest in the US — is preparing to launch a private equity fund in order to buy “high quality assets at distressed prices” in New York and Washington says the WSJ. Vornado is looking to raise $1B in private money and will seed the fund with $200M of its own cash, but is avoiding the public markets.
Vornado Makes Big Bet on Distressed Properties [Wall Street Journal]
Vornado to launch private equity fund: report [Crain's New York Business]
Vornado Said to Raise Private Equity Fund [New York Times]
Photo from Flickr by Ferguson Photography
The New York Times has an incredibly interesting piece on the Four Seasons Hotel company. Like the larger hospitality industry, Four Seasons is feeling the pinch from this downturn:
“Our results are going to be seriously impacted,” Mr. Sharp says. “Now is the time that management skills will be tested.”
Read more…