Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 1165

The London-based architecture firm, Assemble , has recently put their old studio space up for sale at £150,000 (building only). It’s called the Yardhouse.

Completed in 2014, the 250 square meter building was designed and constructed by the firm using modest and, in some cases, prefabricated materials. Total construction costs were £291/m².

The building has since been disassembled and put into storage until a buyer comes along, which tells you a lot about how it was built in the first place.

But what’s great about the building is that, despite its modest roots, it was highly celebrated. The front facade is clad in colorful concrete tiles, which supposedly made it one of the most Instagrammed buildings in London.

Here’s a photo of what that looked like when the building was still put together:

The front faced a “public yard” – hence all of the people in the photo and why it seems appropriate to call it a Yardhouse.

According to The Modern House  (they have the listing), the building is already under offer. So if you were in the market for a Yardhouse clad in multicolored concrete tiles, you may be too late.

But perhaps you’ll draw some inspiration for your next project.

Image: The Modern House

I’m not a huge believer in new year’s resolutions, as I much prefer the idea of continuous goal setting and improvement. But I like Mark Zuckerberg’s tradition of pursuing one “personal challenge” every year. One year it was to learn Mandarin. And this year it was to build a personal artificial intelligence tool. If you’re interested in AI, you can learn about the experience and his takeaways in this post .

I am definitely interested in AI, but right now I’m actually thinking about his approach to personal challenges. This is a time of year when many of us are looking back at what we accomplished over the last 12 months and thinking about what we would like to accomplish in the next 12 months, as well as beyond. I know that I was doing some of that this past weekend. 

I managed to check off many/most of the items on my 2016 list, but full disclosure: some of them are getting punted to 2017. I also modified certain items. I originally wanted BARED (Becoming A Real Estate Developer) to be a book, but instead it transformed into a new blog series. My most recent BARED post can be found, here .

However, as I look back at all of the lists I’ve been making, I realize that virtually all of the goals are work related. They’re about completing this, growing that, and so on. That’s obviously important, but what about personal growth? Sure, one could argue that learning Mandarin is actually a prudent business move, but Zuckerberg claims to have been motivated more by personal reasons. And that’s great.

So I’m revisiting my lists and thinking about ways in which I can challenge myself to grow not just as a professional, but also as a person. Right away, photography comes to mind as an obvious personal challenge, but I’d like to give it a bit more thought. If Mark Zuckerberg can find the time, then there’s no reason that you and I can’t as well.

Do you have your own set of lists that you keep?

Detroit has started testing its new streetcars on Woodward Avenue. Quicken Loans bought the naming rights to the line, so it’s now officially called the QLINE. If you’re British, this name probably won’t instil feelings of rapidity.

Here’s a recent tweet from M1-Rail ( click here if it doesn’t show up below):

The #QLINE is back on the road for testing today! Take a pic and tag @M1RAIL if you see the streetcar. #WeMoveDetroit pic.twitter.com/K42aHxebgG

— M-1 RAIL (@M1RAIL)

December 16, 2016

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Note how the train is running curbside.

There’s lots of debate about the economic benefits of streetcar/LRT over other transit solutions such as BRT. But if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll probably know that I am a supporter of light rail .

In the case of Detroit, I also think there’s symbolic importance to bringing back light rail to the core of the city. The last Detroit streetcar was shut down in 1956 .

It’s also worth mentioning how the streetcar line was funded. Below is a breakdown of funding sources dated 2014 .

There may have been some changes since then, but it’s positive to see the public and private sectors come together, alongside a large infusion of philanthropic money (The Kresge Foundation).

Many of the companies on the above list sponsored individual stations . The cost to do so was $3 million, which is why you see that number show up a few times. Compuware and JP Morgan Chase shared a station at $1.5 million each.

Is this a transit funding model worth replicating?