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Over the weekend I attended the wedding of a high school friend—her second marriage and his first. While she has had other attractive proposals during the 10+ years since her divorce, this suitor was different. He shared her life-long dream of leaving the suburbs for an authentically rustic lifestyle in Vermont. We all know people who despise the hustle and bustle of city living. Hopefully there will always be a choice that suits them. Demographers predict that by 2050 as much as 70 percent of the earth’s population will be living in cities. Click here for a fanciful look at…

New York City is flooded with some major events this week: the U.N. General Assembly, the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative and Climate Week N.Y.C., which falls just a few months before the international climate meeting slated to take place in Copenhagen this winter. At a meeting at the U.N. on Tuesday, President Barack Obama, addressing world dignitaries, noted that though some progress has been made in the fight to combat climate change, there is much more work to be done. The President called on all nations to work together to face the global crisis. “Difficulty is no…

The past few months have seen a flurry of activities to do with the possible restructuring of Fannie and Freddie. Industry observers emphasize, however, that we are only at a very early stage of the process of reassessing the future structures, and roles etc., of the two Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs). Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now under conservatorship, under the control of the government. At this point, the government has to support the two organizations to keep them afloat. The thinking is that a better solution has to be found for the two mortgage financing organizations, long-term. “The…

How many times in the past year have I found myself saying, “You know, when the next recession comes along, doggone it, I’m going to have a hundred grand laying around so I can take advantage of these dang fire sales that are constantly tempting me.” Wishful thinking only? Well, perhaps, but let me explain the latest observation to spark this ambition. Over the last few weeks, I’ve had a couple of occasions to enrich my in-depth appreciation of the City of Angels. First was a downtown walking tour, sponsored by the LA Conservancy, of the locations that were central…

 Does it matter how green your buildings are if the people responsible for their daily operations don’t know how to properly maintain their sustainable lifestyle? In New York City, Urban Green (the city’s chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council) and 32BJ, a building service workers union, have launched a plan to train 1,000 green building superintendents this year. According to the program’s website, the group of managers currently undergoing training (within the first two courses) represent 55 buildings, or 4,600 apartments throughout the city, ranging in age from one to 120 years old. The program is designed to prioritize…

So I was sitting in a ULI professional conference on “Developing Green” several months ago and made a small note to myself. “What a good idea it might be to consider the adaptive re-use of shuttered automobile dealerships.” Well, imagine my ironic delight as I read in Globe St. this morning about a new arm of a well-known brokerage firm that had been set up to deal in “work-outs” for closing car lots. Hmmm. Should have registered my idea somewhere, I guess. Anyway, I still find the notion quite compelling. Naturally, there are as many variants in the location of…

Today, when uncertainty surrounds us and the world outside seems lost to confusion and chaos, we seek, almost by instinct, sanctuary and communal comfort, much like our ancestors once did around an open fire.  Reaching into our collective past, to a time when all family, community and social activates took place deep within the heart of the castle, we find the “Hearth”, a place where life, feasting, entertainment and communal gatherings centered. Today’s hearth, the modern kitchen has evolved far from its original function of food preparation to that of “the social hub of the home”.  In the modern kitchen,…

According to McKinsey & Co.’s recent report, “Unlocking Energy Efficiency in the U.S. Economy,” investing in energy-efficient buildings now will lead to $1.2 trillion in savings, as well as reduce the nation’s energy consumption by 23 percent, by 2020. “Green building can stimulate the economy at a level one and a half times larger than the federal stimulus bill,” says Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chairman of the USGBC, one of the 12 sponsors of the report.  “By leveraging existing green building approaches, like LEED, which is rooted in holistic and integrated design, we have the ability and capacity…

There will be a shortage of apartments in 2013. That is the prediction of Trammell Crow Residential’s (TCR) 2009 Outlook for the U.S. Multifamily Market. Many have been projecting that given the current constriction of apartment supply, apartment demand will outstrip supply shortly. This study puts a date on it. The study’s introduction was co-signed by Charles R. Brindell Jr., TCR President and CEO, and J. Ronald Terwilliger, TCR chairman. (Terwilliger was, incidentally, just honored in June with the Housing Person of the Year by the National Housing Conference.) The authors noted that we will see “strong rent growth beginning…