Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 509

I don't really have an opinion on the debate surrounding public access to Los Angeles' famed Hollywood sign . I just don't know enough and I've never visited it myself.

On the one hand, if you live in Hollywoodland, I can see how having 10 million or so people traipse through your neighborhood each year to take photos of the sign might be a little annoying.

On the other hand, living in a big city like Los Angeles means dealing with certain annoyances. And doesn't everyone deserve a selfie with the sign? It also doesn't seem to be impacting values (see above).

What is more interesting to me is that all of this is a reminder that many/most of the neighborhoods and communities that people love today were, at one point, built be developers.

The Hollywood sign was first erected in 1923, and originally read Hollywoodland. It was developer advertising at its finest and intended to sell new homes. The sign cost $21,000 at the time.

Today the sign is a LA Historic-Cultural Monument and one of the city's most recognizable icons. Isn't it funny how this stuff works?

Chart via the WSJ

This past weekend I was reminded that Phoenix is largely what it is today -- the 5th biggest city in the US -- because of two very important things.

Firstly, the city had to figure out water supply.

About 50% of the city's water supply comes from surface and groundwater, specifically the Verde River and the Salt River watersheds that are to the north and east of the city. And about 40% comes from the Central Arizona Project , which is a 541 km diversion canal that pulls water from the Colorado River and brings it through the state (terminating in Tucson). From what I have read, the CAP canal serves about 80% of the state's population.

Secondly, Phoenix needed A/C.

Air conditioning was first invented at the beginning of the 1900s, but it really didn't become ubiquitous until the second half of the century. And not surprisingly, it made the southwest of the US far more appealing. In 1950, Phoenix had just over 100,000 people. By 1960, the city had grown by about 311% to reach nearly 440,000 people. Apparently there was more construction in 1959 alone than from 1914 to 1945 combined . Air conditioning made Phoenix's summers bearable.

Air conditioning is such an interesting topic because it's one of those things that many of us take for granted. When you walk into a store or an office building in the summer, you expect it to be cool. But it hasn't really been around all that long and its invention has, in many ways, been instrumental in defining the modern city . Even something as common and banal as a glass office tower with large floor plates would not be possible/practical without air conditioning.

We can certainly debate how sustainable it is to urbanize and air condition desert climates like Phoenix, but there's no denying that air conditioning has had a profound impact on our urban landscapes. Diversion canals are pretty important too.

I have been in a few of Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses and in every case it turned out like this:

The Prairie School (of architecture), for which Wright was a pioneer, was all about horizontality. That typically meant flat roofs, deep overhangs and, in the case of Wright’s work, exceptionally low ceiling heights.

I’m about 6’3”. Many of his clear heights were less than 7’ and I believe his doorways were often 6’2”. This clearly doesn’t work for me, but it mattered for what Wright was trying to do. And I don’t think he was the type to worry about small matters like the comfort of tall people.

The above photos were taken at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona . Wright bought the land (495 acres) in 1937, and turned it into both his winter home and a teaching studio.

Apparently Wright paid $3.50 per acre at the time, which feels like a pretty good deal to me. It shows you the power of just buying and holding things over long periods of time.

Today, Taliesin West is the home base of Wright’s foundation and also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I’m glad I was able to finally visit it after reading about it for so many years in architecture school.