Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 1234

My spring allergies have gotten the best of me today. So instead of a regular post, I’m going to share some of my photos of the Cranbrook Schools . I toured the campus this afternoon.

Cranbrook Schools is a private boarding school (PK - 12) in Bloomfield Hills, outside of Detroit. It has an endowment fund of about $233 million , which is one of the largest of American boarding schools. In 1989, the campus was designated a National Historic Landmark.

The photos are in the order in which they were taken.

A man happen to be playing a violin in the space below.

The stone shingles below get smaller as they move up the roof to give the illusion that the building is larger than it really is.

And here are my fellow architecture nerds, Matthew and Rick.

I’m in Detroit right now.

I’m staying in a nice neighborhood where you can buy a 2,000 sf house on a 6,000 sf lot for about US$125,000. A house double the size, at around 4,000 sf, might run you US$350,000.

In comparison, a new underground parking spot in downtown Toronto could cost you around CDN$60,000. And a small 1 bedroom apartment, could easily run you the same price as the above 4,000 sf home.

These are two completely different real estate markets.

What’s happening in Detroit is that many/most of the houses are being valued at below their replacement cost, which means it generally doesn’t make sense to build new. Why take on the risk of building when you can buy for less?

Oftentimes this a decision that real estate companies will face: buy or build? Depending on the market, the answer could be very different.

This week – thanks to an introduction from a mutual friend – I had the pleasure of having lunch with architect Omar Gandhi. 

Based in both Halifax and Toronto, the Globe and Mail has called Omar one of Canada’s next top architects  and Wallpaper Magazine has named him one of the top 20 young architects in the world. So if you haven’t yet heard of him, consider this post as your heads up.

What’s exciting about his work is how it really reflects the ethos of the places he works in (east coast Canada in many cases). At the same time though, his works seems to define a new modern and Canadian design sensibility. 

And this is what I believe great architecture should do. It should respond to and reinforce local cultures, but also help to shape them as they invariably evolve. Architecture and culture are inextricably linked.

I love seeing local talent thrive, so I hope you will take a minute to visit  Omar Gandhi’s website .

Image: Modern Cabin in Cap Breton from OG