Galliard Homes reduced the amount of affordable housing in the project's housing stock from 35 per cent to just 10 per cent, citing increased construction costs and changing building regulations as key factors.
I understood at a very early age how much place matters and how impactful government services can be on one's life. The Mayor's Office of Equity and Racial Justice was really focused on working with agencies to think about how they're addressing inequity, whether it's through budget as a lever or personnel as a lever, procurement, policymaking. But land use is a lever as well.
"We're watching action, reaction, and counterreaction almost daily, and the policy environment is moving incredibly fast," noted Glenn Every, emphasizing the urgency of staying informed.
The construction industry today faces an unavoidable paradox: the urgent need for sustainable solutions for the future of cities collides with the exhaustion of the term 'sustainability' itself, often reduced to a hollow commercial label.
Offsite construction has delivered measurable environmental gains, with a peer-reviewed study showing an average reduction of 78.8% in construction waste compared to conventional methods. Under controlled factory conditions, reductions can reach up to 90%, highlighting significant improvements in sustainability.
Good urbanism should transcend politics. Socialists and capitalists can walk the same neighborhood and agree it's a pleasant place to live. They can each appreciate the tree canopy, the corner café with people spilling onto the sidewalk, the mix of ages on bikes and on foot, the architectural details of older buildings, and so on.
Ginsburg stated that treating builder business as a core pillar rather than a side channel reflects a broader industry shift. He believes a healthy balance of builders should be around 15% to 20% of the overall retail book of business.
Through Community Facilities Districts (CFD), Municipal Utility Districts (MUD), Public Improvement Districts (PID), Community Development Districts (CDD) and reimbursement districts (RD), builders can potentially shift infrastructure costs off their balance sheets and onto special districts that homebuyers ultimately absorb through property taxes without potentially adding debt to the builder's books.
A bridge failure might sound like something from a blockbuster, but real damage usually creeps in slowly. Across the nation, engineers watch thousands of bridges that remain open, yet are far from their best condition. "Structurally deficient" is not a death sentence, but it signals repairs can no longer wait. These 10 bridges handle massive traffic and are a serious concern nationwide today.
For many years, bamboo has been mostly known as the favourite food of giant pandas, but a group of engineers say it's time we took it seriously as a building material, too. This week the Institution of Structural Engineers called for architects to be bamboo-ready as they published a manual for designing permanent buildings made of the material, in an effort to encourage low-carbon construction and position bamboo as a proper alternative to steel and concrete.
Cedar Street just came out victorious in a multi-year saga with the city of La Canada Flintridge, winning the first successful builder's remedy case in California Superior Court for its 80-unit mixed-use project at 600 Foothill Boulevard and setting a path for other developers to build. But the fight may have left its scars, in time, stress and now soured relationships with some officials.
By focusing on what others aren't building, solidifying relationships on the ground, improving processes incrementally, and carving out a niche where they can stand apart from peers, private builders can achieve stronger margins, maintain brand value and grow sustainably despite the advantages held by large public competitors.
Once a nice-to-have niche urban design concept, TOD has become an essential part of many urban neighborhoods. It has helped address the shortage of housing by enabling the development of higher-density residential communities near transit stations. It has helped revitalize countless once-deteriorating or static urban enclaves near transit hubs by activating sidewalks near the developments. And it has spurred walking and transit use, enabling residents of TODs to reduce or eliminate automobile dependency.