Features

Managing Climate Change-Related Risks in Global Real Estate

The CRREM project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement no. 785058. In these times of COVID-19, our perspective of time has changed. Therefore, it might seem a long time ago that we had river floodings after storms Ciara and Dennis in February, Australian and Californian… Read more

Features

Building Blocks of the Future

Our Story: How My Company Developed Modular Construction with Recycled Shipping Containers is Advancing Solutions to the Affordable Housing Crisis and Environmental Sustainability We constantly see headlines announcing this punishing housing affordability crisis – that the younger generation cannot afford homes, that nearly half of U.S. renter households are cost-burdened,1 and that each year fewer… Read more

America’s Sordid History of Exclusionary Zoning

In the summer of 1910, a successful Yale-educated attorney named George W.F. McMechen and his schoolteacher wife moved to an upscale neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland. After all, McMechen had achieved the American dream; he and his wife were well-respected, affluent professionals, and they wanted their home to reflect their success. But there was a problem…. Read more

Features

Had Enough ‘Disruption’ Yet? Economic Reflections After the (First) Summer of COVID-19

It is now nearly a quarter-century since the adjective ‘disruptive’ gained currency as a positive value, rather than referring to its prior pejorative meaning of ‘disintegrative’ or ‘misbehaving’. The popular embrace of ‘disruption’ as an engine of forward economic change dates from a 1997 book by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma.1 In a… Read more

Perspectives

What’s “Still” Special About Special Purpose Property

Introduction After fielding comments and inquiries on special purpose property definitions and refinements based on the original article “What’s so Special About Special Purpose Property?”1 It is clear that further explanation is warranted. Some of the terminology is in need of further commentary, in combination with the refined issues that unfold from valuation in litigation…. Read more

Features

How American Cities Can Benefit from “Land Value Capture” Instruments in the Time of COVID-19 and Beyond

Why Now? The financial pressure cities are experiencing due to COVID-19 only amplifies the pre-existing historical underinvestment in municipal infrastructure and adds urgency to cities’ search for new sources of funding. Indeed, underinvestment in building new municipal infrastructure and replacing aging structures, along with chronic deferred maintenance, is an age-old story in many countries – even developed ones. For example, according... Read More