Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 720

Here are a few things to consider.

One, the home you live in was likely built by a person or company that was trying to make a profit.

Two, when your home was being developed and built, it probably upset a bunch of people. Both because something new was coming and because construction can be annoying.

Three, your home was built using materials and construction techniques that were readily available at the time. Some of those materials and techniques may no longer be practical.

Four, when your home was complete, somebody probably thought, "boy, they don't build them like they used to."

Five, the need for new housing doesn't stop just because you now have a home.

In the world of planning and community building there is a hierarchy of places that is often referred to as first, second, and third places. As many of you probably know, first place is your home. Second place is where you work. And third places are where you commonly spend your time outside of the first two places. This could be a coffee shop, gym, barber shop, bar, or some other social anchor that serves to connect you with other people. In fact, you probably have multiple third places.

Some have argued that online communities have started to fill the role of third place. And it is true that social networks have used what works offline in order to build and grow their communities online. So in some ways, the internet has brought third places into our first place. Similarly, lockdown has brought our second place into our first place. And now everyone is debating to what extent we even needed these other places. Aren't Zoom and TikTok enough?

Nope.

For those who don't have a second place -- such as, for example, freelancers -- it is common to rely more heavily on third places, which then become pseudo second places. Why is that? Isn't a first place enough? Because it's an opportunity to get out and be around other humans. Cities are built around these other places. It's where, in the words of Jerry Seinfeld , we "coagulate together." And I just don't see that changing. Do you?

MAD Architects recently completed its first project in the United States at 8600 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. It's interesting (and beautiful) in that it was designed to resemble a village of gabled residences sitting on top of a green hillside.

The green hillside is actually a three-storey concrete podium that is covered in what is said to be the largest living walls in the country. The gabled houses on top are wood-frame construction and were assembled to create an open-air courtyard in the middle of the site. Eighteen residences in total. Prices starting from USD 3.7 million ( as of May 2019 ).

At five storeys, I suppose you would call this a mid-rise building. The site area is about 25,700 square feet and the building area is not even 48,000 square feet, according to ArchDaily . So the overall density on the site is actually remarkably low. At least compared to what we're accustomed to building in Toronto. It might be dense for Beverly Hills.

I would love to see the development math for a site like this. After I got over the architecture, the first thing I thought was, "you could never build a mid-rise building like this in Toronto." I suspect it's also not obvious in Los Angeles. And you probably need "starting from 3.7 million" in order for it to pencil.

Photo by Darren Bradley via Dezeen