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February 2, 2007

Burano, Venice, Italy

'What about color?'

What provides the greatest return on investment when developing destinations or revitalizing neighborhoods? The answer is easy by far - color.

However, developers and cities mistakenly associate that with the word paint, and that's simply not true. More importantly, it involves investing in the expertise of choosing the right paints - that attract your target market most effectively, in the largest numbers, with the strongest emotional connections.

The best investment in that regard is a color expert (the Color Marketing Group is a good start), and a good read to get a better sense that there's an entire industry behind it is this article from Multifamily Trends magazine, What About Color? (read the pdf to be able to see the article's photos). Here's one key interview excerpt from the article based on color's return on investment:

Interviewer: "So, how much do you think you were able to exceed your pro forma in that project?"

Developer: "We exceeded it by 15 percent. But the impact isn’t just on the pro forma of one property. It also benefits the city and the entire development, by setting the benchmark for [other surrounding] developers... Developers who do not hire a professional to do their exterior colors, who rely on themselves or even on architects - who are not, by training, color people - are really stepping over dollars to pick up dimes."

For people who care deeply about the colors in the interiors of their home, the beta community is the means to guide decisions about the colors in their neighborhood.

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February 1, 2007

Via Verde, South Bronx, NYC

Truly 'triple bottom line' urban village coming to the Bronx

One of the most concrete ways of providing sustainable/green, affordable living in NYC is to develop such a benchmark community for others to be inspired by. That's certainly the case with the New Housing NY Legacy Project Competition that sought triple bottom line development team to build such a place on a 40,000 s.f. site in the South Bronx.

The sustainable, affordable development competition is part of Mayor Bloomberg's New Housing Marketplace plan to build/preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing over 10 years (the City is selling the Bronx site to the development team for $1).

The winning team, including nationally-renowned green developer Jonathan Rose Companies, provided a vision of an urban village, called Via Verde (the Green Way) designed around rooftop community gardens parks (pictured). Of the 202 units, 139 are rental apartments for families earning between 40% and 90% of area median income (AMI) and 63 co-ops are for buyers earning up to 130% of AMI. The sustainable/green/healthy living elements are impressive:

- Community gardens that grow fruits and vegetables,
- A health education and wellness center (Montefiore Medical)
- Fitness center
- Bicycle storage space
- Rainwater collection system
- Low-tech systems: Cross ventilation in all apartments, solar shading, planted green roofs to provide insulation and control storm water
- High-tech systems: High-efficiency mechanical systems, energy-conserving appliances, solar voltaic canopies
- Smart materials: Non-toxic paints, rapidly renewable wood products

Click here to download the Via Verde presentation.

Posted by Neil | Link to Article | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 31, 2007

Louisville's South Fourth Street vision

Louisville's beta community vision for downtown

What to do when no one seems to be providing a bold vision for downtown Louisville, Kentucky?

Last fall a core of creatives in Louisville established a beta community and set forth on that very mission. The above image is the result of that local beta community to date, from a group of future patrons, tenants, developers, building owners and city officials, presented as the South Fourth Street Entertainment District. Five of the buildings are owned by beta community participants who are committed to investing in the group's collective vision.

The focus is on local, independent retail and loft housing, though there's a an auction for two of the retail spaces tomorrow - better check their website for more details if you're interested, or if you want to be part of the local beta community that's continuing to work with the building owners and developers to co-design and co-develop the kinds of businesses and housing/lofts you want, and more importantly, can afford.

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January 30, 2007

Web 2.0

The secret weapon in developing cool towns... 'You'

What does Web 2.0, the most intelligent communities of 2007, the beta community, and building cool towns for the creative class have in common? Ok, so it's not really a secret.

As stated, Web 1.0 was about commerce, Web 2.0 is about people - you. As cities have found the hard way, innovation can't just be tech-centric (ie build city-wide wifi and they will come), but people-centric - you-centric (build places the most creative truly want to be in, integrating wi-fi). Beta communities are the development process by which you become part of the design and development. Mass customization built around you is the theme of the creative class.

These are the very reasons why you were selected as TIME's Person of the Year...

"...For seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you.

"We're looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it's just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy."

Is your input being formally, legally invested as future tenants and patrons in the next venues, buildings, and blocks developed in your city, or is it still only through public hearings and community process meetings? There's a big difference, and we're helping you set up the former in cities throughout the country, with developers and investors who want to work with you.

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January 29, 2007

Dundee, Scotland

The most intelligent communities in 2007?

The NY-based Intelligent Community Forum recently announced their Intelligent Communities of 2007 (don't shoot the messenger!) based on the following criteria:

- deploying broadband
- building a knowledge-based workforce
- combining government and private-sector 'digital inclusion' for all
- fostering innovation and marketing economic development.

One of the cities on the list, Dundee, Scotland, like in many other regions, suffered sweeping job losses in the 70s to mid-90s as manufacturing plants relentlessly shut down. However, a knowledge-economy-based refocus at their major universities resulted in new job sectors like life sciences, computer games, software development, animation, film and television. However, the city also upped its intelligence ranking by investing $39M in an urban digital media district. adjacent to one of the major universities (although a bit too much U.S. research park influence in its design) and implementing 100% broadband coverage with a little Web 2.0 no doubt. The results? The number of knowledge-based businesses has nearly doubled and the number of knowledge workers have tripled since 2003, while U.S. life scientists rank it the third best place to work outside the North America. Other cities on the list include:

Gangnam District, Seoul, South Korea
Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
Ottawa-Gatineau, Ontario-Quebec, Canada
Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, United Kingdom
Tallinn, Estonia
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Cleveland is the only U.S. city to make the list in the last three years, with Spokane WA, LaGrange GA and the Florida Tech Corridor within two years prior. While they did show significant progress toward establishing a digital infrastructure in a short period of time, their momentum fell short in developing a compelling creative class district to work in; a cool town if you will. The industrial age equivalent would be a city having an incomparable network of roads and highways, but no destinations worth driving to.

The above image of Dundee, Scotland is representative of the historical districts that are highly appealing to creatives.

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