Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 877

I started reading a new book this weekend called, The Global Edge: Miami in the Twenty-First Century .

When many (or perhaps most) people think of Miami/Miami Beach, they think of its beaches and resorts. And that is certainly a mainstay of the region's offering. But over the past few decades, Miami has also emerged as an important global city (albeit at a more regional scale) and as a center for art and culture. Miami has the second largest concentration of international banks in the United States after New York, which begins to speak to the region's importance for Latin America.

New York City is what it is today because it was the port of entry for new immigrants coming to the United States. This same phenomenon is what reshaped the Miami economy, starting first with Cuban exiles. Today, the city remains a refuge for Latin Americans searching for greater political and economic stability. As my friend from Miami likes to tell me, "the best thing about Miami is that it's so close to the United States."

I'm enjoying this book and I bet some of you will as well.

Junction House won "Best Innovative Suite Design" at the 39th BILD Awards (2019) last night. A big congrats to the team. Below is the floor plan that won. It is a 2 bedroom suite from our two-storey House Collection (JH_2B_H1).

This design is fundamental to Junction House. It is why the project is called what it is. The goal was to create a suite that felt less like a condo, and more like a low-rise single-family home. Credit to Superkul Architects , and the rest of the team, for figuring it all out. There was a long list of requirements.

We wanted dedicated kitchen (+ island), dining, and living areas. (The living area is also wider than what you'd typically find.) We wanted a terrace with (standard) water and BBQ connections. We wanted the bedrooms upstairs for privacy/separation. We wanted both of them to have direct window exposure. And we wanted a master ensuite bathroom with a double vanity.

The House Collection includes some of my favorite suites in the building, which is why -- full disclosure -- I'm going to be moving into one of them. If you'd like more information about Junction House , reach out to Paul Johnston and his team at info@junctionhouse.ca or at 416-900-6076.

The European Union uses something called the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (or NUTS) in order to geographically subdivide its member states and collect statistical data. There are three scales: NUTS 1, 2, and 3. And generally speaking, they follow existing administrative boundaries. Or at least that's the goal.

In addition to being used for collecting statistical data, they also form the basis for how the EU implements its " cohesion policies ", which are designed to direct funds toward less developed regions within the Union based on GDP per capita (PPP).

Because these NUTS impact funding allocations and because they can be redrawn if certain criteria are met, there's not surprisingly an incentive to gerrymander. The Pudding has a great visual essay that explains why this happens and how Hungary split its central region into two new ones, isolating its capital, Budapest.

Big cities tend to be, of course, more developed than their surrounding areas. But it is interesting to see by how much. Though an extreme outlier, the Inner London - West region has a GDP per capita that is 625% the EU average (2017 numbers).

Image: The Pudding