Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 456

This stool, Stool 60, was originally designed in 1933 by celebrated Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. And it's pretty much perfect, which is why the design has remained untouched for almost a century. But here's an interesting collaboration. Wood Wood -- a Danish streetwear and design company -- approached Artek -- the furniture company that Aalto, his wife, and others founded -- to see if they could experiment with different color stains for the stool. The objective was to still allow the natural grain of the birch to come through, but to also add some color, so as to get people to relook and what is for many people a very familiar piece of furniture. The result is three new colours : bothnia blue, powder pink, and factory yellow. I think they're beautiful. There is also a good story behind them. And isn't that often what we end up buying -- a narrative?

Image: Wood Wood

I am, of course, generalizing, but we live in a world of comparables and proof. In the slightly-modified words of Seth Godin , we have been trained to show up with proven and verifiable answers because that's what will get us an A on the test or what will allow us to keep our jobs. And there's nothing wrong with that. Risk mitigation is an important part of any organization. But if everything you're doing is already proven, then by definition, and regardless of any claims, you are not innovating. Because if something is truly new, then it may not actually work.

My friend David Wex -- who is on a mission to develop modern condominiums all across Canada -- once told me that if he were to hire consultants to prepare market studies for his projects (he doesn't), they would almost always tell him never to build. And that's because there are often no comparables to point to and say, "look at this thing over here, it shows that somebody has already done this before and has been successful." Instead, he has been forced to ask himself, "is there no comparable product offering because the market doesn't exist or because nobody has done it yet?"

This is a risky proposition. Because if you're wrong -- and the market doesn't exist -- then you will likely fail. But if you're right, and you get to introduce something new to people that want it, then you get the benefit of a commanding market position. You were right about something that most people thought was wrong and/or didn't bother to explore. That's why Seth Godin has argued that innovation really requires two things. It requires guts , because the thing you're trying may not work. And it requires generosity , because innovation is, after all, about trying to make things better.

I think this is a great way of putting it.

Thursday mornings have become my construction site time. I start off at Junction House. I walk the site with the team. We meet and use a lot of profanities. And then I head over to One Delisle for a similar set of activities. It is one of my favorite times of the week because, as a developer, you get to see all of your work coming together in a real and physical thing.

The views can also be pretty nice. Here is photo of the downtown skyline from Junction House this morning (there was a bit of fog):

I know this goes without saying, but I think it is crucial to walk one's sites. There's no way to do this in sweatpants over Zoom. You need to see the details. You need to build relationships. And you need to problem solve with the team. It's also a great opportunity to learn -- generally and from mistakes -- and get better as a professional.

Here's the thing about development: sometimes you're flying at 10,000 feet and sometimes you're talking about how many layers of drywall are appropriate for demising walls. It's a lot of fun.