Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 332

Full disclosure: I've never really been to Las Vegas.

I say "really" because I did pass through it as a kid. But I've never been during a time in my life when I could actually remember it and, to be honest, I've never had a huge desire. Though, I was interested in the work that Tony Hsieh was doing in downtown Vegas. And I have had people try to tempt me with the lure of good electronic music (and by good I mean not EDM).

Then all of a sudden, Refik Anadol revealed this enormous sphere that shows happy faces. And now I really want to go to Vegas. So at some point, I will endeavor to do that. But the other thought that came to mind when I first learned about the sphere was "this seems to be working, which means other cities will likely copy it and want their own version of Vegas' sphere."

This is, of course, an understandable desire. And today I learned that Los Angeles is working on a " tiny Las Vegas sphere replica " for Sunset Boulevard. Despite being "tiny", I'm sure it'll be pretty cool too. But in the end, who wants to be a replica? The aim should never be to recreate some version of what another city has already done (see " Two very different beans ").

The aim should be to create something new and truly remarkable. And Las Vegas did exactly that with its sphere. So much so that, one day, I may actually visit the place.

Once a year, I teach a session in Carleton University's Certificate in Real Estate Development program. That once a year is coming up this Thursday, and so I'm spending today (Sunday morning) preparing for the class.

This is the third time I've participated. And my usual topic is to cover the complete condominium development process, provide commentary on what's happening in the market, and then discuss how developers might best navigate whatever it is that's going on.

These latter points are particularly important today. A lot has changed over the last year. In fact, you could rightly call it a real estate sea change .

This is the toughest market that I have had to face in my real estate career. 2008 was certainly bad. I couldn't find work in the US at that time, or in Ireland where I had spent a summer working for a real estate firm. But I did manage to find work in Canada. Here, things didn't feel quite so bad.

According to all the gray hairs, the early 90s recession was considerably worse. That was the really scary time in Canadian real estate. (See: Bay-Adelaide stump .) But already today, the comparisons have started: "This is feeling more like the early 90s than the GFC."

It's probably too early to really tell. But regardless, this downturn is going to mean problems for some, and opportunities for others.

The building season is short in Park City. There was still snow on our site in May and there was snow again on our site by October. You can certainly build through the winter, but it's not ideal. It slows you down, and so the team has been racing to get "closed in" before the real winter weather arrives. (Park City Mountain Resort opens for the season on November 17.)

Right now, it looks like we'll be finished framing by early next week. We have our framing inspection scheduled with Summit County on Wednesday. Here's a progress shot of level three from last week:

This is the top floor of the house, which will house the kitchen, dining area, living room, terrace (which is where the above photo was taken from), and two bay windows. The far one is going to serve as a seat in the living room, and the closer one (on the right) is going to be a workspace area. In both cases, they're designed to orient you towards the trees and the mountain.

Overall, this was Mattaforma's design strategy -- to create a kind of introverted house. The windows facing the street are generally small and placed to frame very specific views of the landscape; whereas the windows facing the trees and mountain are generous. The intent was to always connect you with nature as you move throughout the house.

Sadly, PMH won't be available for rent this winter. But if you'd like to get on the list for next summer and winter, click here .