Billion-point laser cloud will help rebuild Notre Dame

In April 15th, 2019 around 6:40 pm, I was walking around the Jardin du Luxembourg park in Paris with some friends when we saw some yellow colored smoke in the sky. We thought nothing of it, but soon discovered, shocked, that one of the most famous landmarks in the world, the Notre Dame cathedral just north of the park, was engulfed in a terrible blaze.

It was touch and go that the structure could be saved at all, but the city’s pompiers (firefighters) finally got control of the blaze in the early morning of April 16th. French President Emmanuel Macron promised to rebuild it, but that raised a question: How can you restore an 800-year-old structure without any plans? Luckily, thanks to the late American historian Andrew Tallon, we do have an incredibly accurate and recent picture of the structure.

Tallon, who died from cancer late last year at the age of 49, was an art professor at Vassar and architectural historian. In 2010, he and Columbia’s Paul Blaer spent five days creating an incredibly accurate 3D laser scan of the structure using Leica’s ScanStation C10. They repositioned the device around 50 times, working in every nook and cranny to capture the most complete picture of the Cathedral possible. Tallon knows it intimately, as shown in a 360-degree YouTube video tour he created, below.

The laser data contains one billion points in a “cloud” that can be used to create a full-blown digital recreation of the structure, inside and out. The data could prove incredibly valuable, especially for the roof of the structure and comble, or attic sections that were nearly completely destroyed.

Even if someone had the original plans, the laser scan will give a picture of the building as it actually was prior to the fire, not as it was 800 years ago. “A three-dimensional laser-generated model allows one not only to peer into the building but also to displace it, measure it and, most importantly, immerse oneself in its spatial and structural matrix,” Tallon told Leica in 2015. Considering the huge rebuilding task ahead, that data could be crucial to safely renovating the structure, regardless of whether architects hew to the original design or not.

After witnessing the fire, his scanning partner Paul Blaer reflected on the work. “One thought was that I was kind of relieved that he didn’t actually have to see this happen,” Blaer told the Atlantic. “But on the other hand, he knew it so well and had so much information about how it’s constructed, he would have been so helpful in terms of rebuilding it.”

https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/29/notre-dame-laser-scan-andrew-tallon/?utm_campaign=homepage&utm_medium=internal&utm_source=dl

Developers Trying To Make Sense Of New York City’s Climate Policies

The New York City commercial real estate industry is picking over the details of upcoming city laws that will fine building owners if they exceed new emissions caps.

While the industry grapples with the implications of those requirements, Mayor Bill de Blasio has signaled he is not done with legislating building materials over environmental impact, sparking a wave of questions for which the industry wants answers.

This month, the City Council passed the Climate Mobilization Act, which requires large and medium-sized buildings to cut emissions 40% by 2030 and 80% by 2050.

The worst-performing buildings have five years to bring their emissions down. The new laws set emission caps, and would impose hefty fines if landlords don’t comply.

Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio — who wants the city to become carbon neutral by 2050 — took on the glass and steel buildings that have defined the city’s skyline, implying those types of buildings would no longer be allowed.

“We are going to introduce legislation to ban the glass and steel skyscrapers that have contributed so much to global warming,” de Blasio said last week. “They have no place in our city or on our Earth anymore.”

Though the city and the mayor have since conceded that glass and steel would not be entirely outlawed, de Blasio has continued to refer to it as a ban. His office has not released a draft or further explanation of his plan, but the mayor hopes new energy codes will be in place by next year, the New York Times reports.

“It’s a ban, and I’ll tell you why,” he told WNYC in his weekly segment Friday, but then acknowledged there is nothing stopping builders using the materials. “It is true that if a building owner wants to invest a lot more to make sure that that glass is not inefficient — it’s a major investment to do that — they can still have, certainly, a notable amount of glass.”

Members of the real estate industry — many of whom are already bristling against the laws demanding emission caps on building — said they were perplexed by the comments.

“It was absolutely ridiculous, and really the only thing that would work under his statement would be mud huts,” Marx Realty CEO Craig Deitelzweig told Bisnow. “I don’t know how you can attract world-class tenants to New York City if you can’t have glass buildings. It’s very strange. It’s backwards thinking.”

Durst’s One Bryant Park was the first commercial high-rise in the country to earn LEED Platinum certification Youngwoo Executive Vice President Bryan Woo, whose firm is co-developing Pier 57, said the lack of clarity is disconcerting.

“If you are not exact and precise about the way that this is going to work … there is a huge chance for a misstep,” he said of de Blasio’s comments. “There’s nothing wrong with doing something for the environment, but we would love to know the details.”

The Real Estate Board of New York, which has criticized the emissions cap laws and believes they will cost the real estate industry at least $4B in building upgrades, is similarly in the dark about further legislation.

“We haven’t seen any law drafted or any policy drafted,” Carl Hum, REBNY’s senior vice president and general counsel, told the Times this week. “We are curious, if the mayor is banning glass and steel, what the alternative will be?”

Mention of the words “glass” and “ban” from the mayor resulted in panicked calls from clients at engineering consulting firm Thornton Tomasetti, Sustainability Project Director Casey Cullen-Woods said. Her view is that the mayor is posturing — though she is pleased to see this level of attention given to climate policy discussion.

“While it is very theatrical to say, ‘We will not allow glass and steel buildings,’ that’s not what the law actually said,” she told Bisnow, adding that building with glass will still be allowed. “It just has to be a high performance [material].”

Over the past 15 years, Cullen-Woods said, there has been a wave of new laws and codes to drive efficiency that have simply not worked fast enough

“Sometimes it takes a controversy for people to step away and look at solutions. Arguably changing infrastructure is one of the hardest things for us to do,” View Dynamic Glass CEO Rao Mulpuri said. His company makes smart window technology that allows the owner of a building to adjust how much light and glare a window lets in, which has been used in places like Durst Organization’s One Bryant Park and LaGuardia Airport.

“Glass is not our enemy,” he said. “You can build as much glass as you want as long as you build it smartly.”

Putting aside the is-it-a-ban-or-not conversation, there is no denying the industry is now facing a fundamental shift in the way it must build and manage properties.

“Developers will have to meet our new standards,” Mark Chambers, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, told the Times. “Business as usual won’t cut it.”

Under the laws, varying emission caps apply to building 25K SF or larger. Rent-regulated and affordable housing, as well as houses of worship, are not subject to the new limits.

The city is setting up an Office of Building Energy Performance to monitor building owners, who will be fined $268 for every ton of emissions beyond a building’s limit, the AP reports.

The laws have rattled the commercial real estate industry, with many big landlords claiming it is a punitive plan that will do more harm than good.

“In this legislation it is all stick and no carrot,” Rudin Management Chief Operating Officer John Gilbert said. Since introducing a machine-learning system that integrates all building operation called Nantum, Rudin has already cut carbon by 44%, reduced steam consumption by 48% and lowered electricity use by 41%, Gilbert said. His concern, shared with many others, is that all buildings are treated the same under the law, which will penalize companies that have densely populated buildings.

“You want to incent owners to cut their carbon, rather than create unreasonable caps that no one’s going to be able to meet,” he said, adding that he has no clue about what the mayor meant about banning glass and steel.

The Durst Organization, one of the city’s most prominent real estate partners, believes the legislation will wind up punishing densely populated, efficient buildings, and the fact that so many buildings have been exempt undercuts the goal.

“It ends up promoting inefficiency over efficiency,” Durst spokesperson Jordan Barowitz said. ”It’s misguided in that it exempts too many buildings in the city from the more stringent requirements in the bill.”

Marx’s Deitelzweig said the demands of retrofitting older buildings to meet the emissions caps means most people will likely opt to tear down buildings rather than improve them.

“I’m not sure that is good for the environment and wouldn’t meet their goals,” he said. “Many things that are good [for the environment], they are not really wonderful for the tenant experience. You have to find a balance.”
https://www.bisnow.com/new-york/news/sustainability/developers-are-trying-to-make-sense-of-new-york-citys-climate-policies-98692

We Company: Confidential submission of draft IPO registration statement

The We Company, the parent of WeWork, announced that it has confidentially submitted an amended draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to an initial public offering of its common stock. WeWork initially submitted its Form S-1 with the SEC in December 2018. This process will enable WeWork to make the decision to become publicly traded, subject to market and other conditions, the company said.

https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2899206

Mortgages? Big banks may be throwing in the towel

You can kiss George Bailey’s mortgage market goodbye.

As the small-town banker in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Bailey epitomized an old-fashioned world in which bankers know every borrower personally. In the mortgage market of 2019, borrowers can do just about everything online, never meeting the lender behind the process.

And as comments from executives of America’s biggest banks made clear last week, that person – or institution – making the loan is increasingly less likely to be a banker.

In an earnings report last week, JPMorgan Chase JPM, +0.76%   said that mortgage originations were down 18% compared to a year ago in the first quarter. For Wells Fargo WFC, +0.95%  , which reported earnings the same day, mortgage lending was down 23% compared to the year earlier. (Wells Fargo is still the largest originator of mortgages in the U.S., with a 10.7% market share in 2018, according to Inside Mortgage Finance.)

Jamie Dimon, JPM’s CEO, said this in his shareholder letter released at the same time as Q1 earnings:

“In the early 2000s, bad mortgage laws helped create the Great Recession of 2008. Today, bad mortgage rules are hindering the healthy growth of the U.S. economy. Because there are so many regulators involved in crafting the new rules, coupled with political intervention that isn’t always helpful, it is hard to achieve the much-needed mortgage reform. This has become a critical issue and one reason why banks have been moving away from significant parts of the mortgage business.”

Because of post-crisis capital rules, “owning mortgages becomes hugely unprofitable,” Dimon lamented later in his note. On a call with analysts, he called mortgage servicing – the bookkeeping for regular customer payments – hard. “You got to look at that and ask a lot of questions about whether banks should even be in it,” Dimon said.

If not banks, then, who should be “in it”? “Non-banks are becoming competitors,” Dimon told analysts.

In contrast, Wells Fargo executives sounded hopeful for a pick-up in mortgage lending, at least in the short term. “We expect to see a higher origination volume in Q2 due to typical seasonality for home buying as well as some additional refinance activity resulting from the recent decrease in mortgage interest rates,” they said in prepared remarks on an earnings call.

“Mortgage lending is core to Wells Fargo,” CFO John Shrewsberry said in response to an analyst question. But moments later, he added, “I think non-bank competitors both on the origination and servicing side are here to stay.”

What exactly is a non-bank? That term generally describes any lender that does not hold deposits, like a bank does. Non-banks lend mortgages that will be guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Administration, or other agencies. In contrast, many banks still hold some mortgages in their own portfolios.

Banks’ retreat from mortgage-making isn’t new, and MarketWatch has covered the issue in the past. But the executive commentary this quarter seemed particularly stark.

Some housing industry participants have raised concerns about the non-bank business model. In 2016, MarketWatch profiled Ted Tozer, who was then head of Ginnie Mae, the massive government entity that includes FHA and other mortgage agencies.

One of the biggest concerns shared by Tozer and other analysts is that while non-banks must hew to the same lending standards, they must depend on banks for short-term financing. “My big concern is starting to have a contagion, similar to 2008, where people quit lending to each other and at that point the whole system had issues because no one knew who to lend to,” Tozer said at the time.

In response, Bill Emerson, CEO of the largest non-bank originator, Quicken Loans, said, “When I think about access to governmental funds, history hasn’t proved that that’s been a great solution for anyone.” (Quicken Loans had 5.1% of the mortgage market in 2018, according to Inside Mortgage finance, making it the number-three lender in the country.)

Non-banks have taken a bigger and bigger share of the mortgage market, as both Shrewsberry and Dimon acknowledged. They had 25% of overall single-family volume in 2008, and 54% in 2017, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The mortgage industry is adamant that non-banks are subject to so much scrutiny that they could never cause a major financial system snafu. In fact, the MBA points out that some guardrails that ostensibly make banks safer, like the FDIC’s deposit insurance, simply mean that taxpayers are on the hook for failures.

It’s worth noting that there was a lot missing in that Hollywood vision of a salt-of-the-earth community banker, like practices that explicitly excluded people of color from getting bank loans. But the debate over whether it’s safer for everyone if lenders have some “skin in the game” when making mortgages is likely to continue.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/mortgages-big-banks-may-be-throwing-in-the-towel-2019-04-16?siteid=rss&rss=1

In Active-Shooter Events, Building Managers, Owners Are Legal Targets

Over a span of two decades, close to 1,000 people have lost their lives in active-shooter or aggressor events inside schools, buildings, parks and other public areas.

While the shooters face criminal charges, they aren’t the ones landing in civil court to cover damages. Defendant X in much of the high-stakes litigation after live shootings is the property owner or building manager where the crime took place.

Because of the frequency of litigation and changing attitudes toward shootings, building owners are more frequently being tasked with not only trying to prevent attacks, but also covering the legal and financial risks before anyone fires the first shot.

While the chance of facing a live shooting inside a public building is still low, the figures are sobering enough to convince commercial property owners and office building managers to contemplate preparation and security measures, according to a webinar series on active shooters created by the Institute for Real Estate Management. That increasingly includes purchasing insurance specifically for violent incidents in buildings.

There were 280 active aggressor events from 2000 to 2017, according to IREM’s recent webinar on active shooters hosted by Safe Passage Consulting CEO Tony Casper and consultant Dustin Randall, who study live shooter incidents and their financial impact for a living.  In those 280 events, 831 people lost their lives and 1,520 people were injured.

The largest portion, 45%, of those events occurred at commercial businesses, followed by schools (24%), outdoors (19%) and other miscellaneous places (12%), IREM’s webinar said.

But when does the building owner actually become liable for the crime and for any injuries and deaths on-site? This answer of legal liability hinges on whether the landlord or owner possessed a duty to protect the victim from the shooter, and this duty is typically created when a crime becomes foreseeable for the landlord or building owner, said attorney Mark Lies II, an employment and labor partner with Seyfarth Shaw.

“It is totally unforeseeable a criminal just coming in unless the building has some tip-off from the police that there are some bad guys in the neighborhood that have been knocking off buildings and causing threats to people in the vicinity,” Lies said. “It could potentially be more foreseeable if there has been a problem customer, or if there is a problem with an employee of one of the tenants of the building who is accessing the common areas, or they become aware of an order of protection, or a spouse is in the facility and down in the lobby creating disruptions.”

It is not unusual for victims’ families to sue the property where a shooting took place. Business owners and/or landlords in most of the recent high-profile shootings — the Aurora movie theater, Mandalay Bay hotel, the Jacksonville video game competition — all were sued in the aftermath. Randall and Casper include the average cost of litigation in their security presentations for small businesses and properties, because these are common targets for litigants after an incident.

Most of the time, the property owners have not been found liable, but legal experts warn all of the publicity surrounding shootings could change the views of civil juries contemplating damage awards against property owners.  Juries’ expectations of what property owners should do will change as the public hears more about these cases, Litigation Insights Director of Jury Research Christina Marinakis said. Marinakis specializes in jury behavior and wrote a paper on active shooters and juror interpretations of foreseeability and liability.

Attorneys recommend building owners and managers set prevention measures at commercial buildings to deal with these issues head-on and to have something to share with a jury if they face litigation later on. Some building owners argued previously that creating a safety plan is risky because it makes the idea of a shooting more foreseeable, thereby creating legal liability if an event occurs. It wasn’t an unfounded fear — the argument has been made in court. But this idea is fading fast in legal circles.

“In this day and age, most jurors would think it is negligent not to have a plan in place,” Marinakis said. “If you don’t have a policy and don’t train people then you have already dropped the ball. Almost always they recommend you need to have a policy in place of what to do in an active shooting situation — where to go, to having doors locked and have a safe path.”

These plans don’t need to be comprehensive.

“We recommend that people do have an active-shooter program, but remember it’s based on feasibility,” Lies said. “And feasibility has the aspect of foreseeability too. You can only do things that are feasible if they are foreseeable, but you want to have some type of policy that if there is a report that a weapon has been brought into the premises, that immediately the police are notified.”

Lies created an active-shooter policy for his own clients, which is available online. It covers how to inform tenants, contact authorities and create organizational principles that attempt to protect lives while waiting for police.

The Legal Outcomes Are Nebulous And Expensive Either Way

So far, courts have leaned heavily in favor of landlords and buildings owners sued by victims of shooters, because these acts are often considered unforeseeable. It has gone the other way. In a 2018 case out of South Florida, a strip club was found liable for a shooting that occurred on the premises. The club, which had experienced shootings and reportedly had notorious criminals as patrons, failed the foreseeability test since it knew of the potential for violence beforehand. But having a property owner be named liable is still more of the exception than the rule when it comes to random acts of violence.

After the deadly 2012 shooting at a Cinemark movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, victims of the gunman’s rampage inside the theater sued for damages. A civil jury found the event was not foreseeable and sided with Cinemark, the Insurance Journal and Reuters reported.

An appellate court in the state of Indiana recently ruled that a shopping store possessed no duty to protect a patron from an unexpected live shooter who took her life on the store’s premises. In this case, the Estate of Rachelle Godfread v. Martin’s Super Markets, the plaintiff’s family argued the existence of a safety policy by the store made the event foreseeable, since the business had plans in place to deal with this type of event. The court disagreed, and the store was not found liable.

But even if a company is not found liable for a shooting, building owners will face enormous litigation costs and legal fees mediating negligence cases, experts say.  Randall and Casper point to the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino shooting in 2017, which targeted a nearby music festival. They estimate the financial impact of the shooting reached $600M. This same figure was reported by Forbes, which obtained this estimated cost from the administrator of a fund set up to help victims.  The legal burden to the hotel owner, MGM Resorts, which ended up in protracted (and ongoing) litigation with the victims and their families, is difficult to measure. However it turns out, MGM will have spent millions of dollars on legal fees for defense, mediation, protracted litigation and then any settlements reached.

Even a shooting at your average run-of-the-mill plant in America is going to come with a $4.6M cost burden to the building owner, Randall and Casper estimate. About $300K of that will be used to settle lawsuits, they said, based on data collected from smaller-scale live shooter events in the U.S.

And it isn’t just juries and judges that building owners or managers have to worry about. The area of administrative law has jumped into the act with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration tackling violence at U.S. workplaces.

“We know that OSHA is now in the game regulating workplace violence — and an active shooter obviously is an issue with workplace violence,” Lies said.

OSHA has no specific standards for workplace violence, but has indicated in public literature that employers or employees who know of a violent person or act — or potential of such — have a duty to address it through administrative controls and training.

Employers of shooters are another common defendant in damages cases.

Active-Shooter Coverage — When Is Insurance Protection Needed?

Though they make fewer headlines, smaller building owners are not exempt from live shootings — yoga studios, video game venues and relatively small-scale bars have become shooting crime scenes, said Paul Marshall, managing director of Active Shooter/Workplace Violence Programs for insurance company McGowan Program Administrators.

Marshall, who underwrites active-shooter policies to help building owners and property managers deal with the financial aftermath, said insurance protection may be the only way for smaller landlords to survive when people are harmed or die on-site.  Marshall has noticed a steady supply of calls as smaller property owners and other soft targets like churches and nightclubs read news headlines and become aware of their risk.

“We get about 200 to 300 submissions a month, which is pretty high,” Marshall said. “We are getting a lot of mall owners … hospitals, churches and smaller businesses.”

What hurts premises owners the most after active-shooting events are those costs not covered by existing commercial policies, including victim medical expenses, funerals, building refurbishments, lost business coverages or settlements with victims, Marshall said.  That’s why McGowan’s “duty of care” policies are essentially a separate coverage type from the usual “duty to defend” commercial coverage that a premises owner might attempt to tap into.

“Our policy is day-one, dollar-one, we enable business owners (or property owners) to reach out and start helping victims without proof of negligence,” Marshall said. “It’s a no-fault policy compared to the standard generalized commercial policy.”

The idea is to cover the critical costs upfront with the hopes of staving off or reducing the risk of larger-scale litigation later on, he said. Marshall said policies for smaller building owners or businesses have been priced as low as $1,200 per premium.

McGowan’s underwriting depends on variables such as foot traffic, neighborhood location and business type.  The insurer just launched a new policy for small buildings where tragedies occur. These policies offer owners money to convert, refurbish or change the look of a venue that has become psychologically triggering to people in the community, Marshall said.

“Our coverage allows the building owner to have access to capital to refurbish or to renovate in order to make the space appealing,” he said.

The coverage is designed for smaller premises, mom-and-pop types of commercial real estate where a major claim could destroy the business and property owner forever.

“We are providing a road map for business owners to survive this. Insurance does a good job of that,” he said.

Though legal and financial concerns are rising for property and business owners, they shouldn’t mask what is really important, Lies said. He worries that building owners or managers who think about ambiguous legal consequences ahead of time — or who avoid the creation of policies and procedures altogether to avoid risk — are misled by outdated theories on liability and foreseeability.

“If you are going to let your life revolve around whether or not you’re going to get sued versus protecting human life, I think you’ve got it backwards. The first thing we do is what is feasible to protect human life, and then we decide later about the potential litigation issue.”

https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/commercial-real-estate/what-building-owners-and-property-managers-need-to-know-about-live-shooters-your-liability-is-not-limited-98605

Alphabet’s smart neighborhood could have shape-shifting ‘superblocks’

Too many cities are built around cars rather than people. Sidewalk Labs, an offshoot of Google’s parent company Alphabet, wants its smart neighborhood in Toronto to be different. It’s considering a so-called superblock concept, modeled after Barcelona’s, that bundles smaller streets together and limits vehicles to the perimeter. The smaller lanes inside each superblock would then become safer, quieter spaces for pedestrians and cyclists. Sidewalk Labs wants to go a step further, though, with real-time traffic monitoring and movable street furniture. These would allow the company to create smart, dynamic superblocks that subtly change with the time of day and needs of its residents.

In a new report, Sidewalk Labs pitches four basic road types for Quayside. The widest and busiest, called Boulevards, would allow traditional cars with a driver behind the wheel. These would be limited to the outside of each superblock, however, while a network of smaller Laneways, Accessways and Transitways crisscross inside. Sidewalk Labs also wants to track and predict usage with a combination of low-cost sensors and machine learning algorithms. It would then use this information to alter the structure of each Boulevard and the vehicles that are allowed to move through them.

The company has shown off its modular pavement system before. These hexagonal pads have embedded lights that can change color to visualize lanes or pedestrian-only sidewalks. The company says it would use these Dynamic Curbs to prioritize transit during rush hour and carve out relaxing public spaces at off-peak times and during national holidays. Some parts of the boulevard would be fixed — you can’t dig up a tram line, for instance — but most would be reconfigurable.

Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) would, crucially, be allowed on the smaller streets inside each superblock. The top speed of these machines, which could include pods, e-bikes and electric scooters, would be software-limited and change depending on the street type they’re on. On a super-narrow Laneway, for instance, they could only travel at up to 4MPH (8KMH), but on a wider Transitway they might reach 25MPH (40KMH). CAVs would be programmed to take the fastest route to your preferred destination. Navigation software would, therefore, push them toward the faster Boulevards and keep the inside of each superblock open for pedestrians.

Sidewalk says CAVs could be hard-coded to stay inside vehicles or bike lanes. On the flip side, these geo-restrictions could be lifted when it’s deemed safe or necessary to make traffic flow efficiently through Quayside. In short, the district would have a basic superblock structure similar to Barcelona’s. But the rules and physical makeup of each street could be tweaked to maximize throughput or the health and happiness of Torontonians.

“Our hope is that, as cities enter the 2020s, that old question of whom streets are for will be resolved,” Willa Ng, mobility lead for Sidewalk Labs, wrote in a blog post today. “The street will once again be a place to stroll, play, and get around safely  —  for everyone.”

The Alphabet subsidiary will test its ideas with a range of real-world prototypes over the coming year. For now, though, the superblock concept is still theoretical, just like the rest of Quayside. Sidewalk Labs won the right to develop a Master Innovation and Development Plan (MIDP) in late 2017. That document, which still hasn’t been published, will need to be evaluated and, ultimately, approved by a range of parties including Waterfront Toronto — a publicly funded organization — the Canadian government and, of course, the public. There’s no guarantee that any of these parties will say yes, either. Sidewalk Labs has faced a wealth of opposition from resident groups such as #BlockSidewalk who fear the project will only benefit Silicon Valley.

https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/26/sidewalk-labs-quayside-dynamic-superblocks/

Macy’s Weighs Building An Office Tower Above Iconic 34th Street Store

Macy’s is considering building an office tower atop its flagship Manhattan store on 34th Street in a bid to squeeze out more profit from the site.

The company has met with New York City officials about a proposed 1.2M SF tower in Herald Square that would be leased out to other office tenants, Bloomberg reports. The retailer didn’t comment on the report, but a spokesperson for Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer confirmed that she had met with the company and discussed the idea last month.

“Such a major addition of square footage to the area will require major public improvements to the streets and sidewalks that surround the Herald Square neighborhood, and I look forward to Macy’s contributions to ensure that this part of Midtown and the Garment Center sees relief,” Brewer told Bloomberg in a statement.

Macy’s could push for a zoning change that would allow for greater density at the site. Macy’s CEO Jeffrey Gennette told investors earlier this year that the company was examining ways to make use of the real estate value of the building.

“Over the last year and a half, we have been working closely with a team of land-use, development and design experts to produce a menu of economically viable redevelopment alternatives,” Gennette said on the company’s earnings call. “These could densify the real estate with complementary uses and will certainly preserve the store and enhance the customer experience.”

Macy’s and Brookfield — with which the company formed a collaboration in 2016 — are planning to develop several new buildings on areas of the parking lot at the store’s Hawthorn Mall location in the Chicago suburb of Vernon Hills. It’s unclear if Brookfield would be involved in the Herald Square project, but Brookfield is moving full-steam ahead on bringing a mix of uses to outdated retail properties as it mulls what to do with the mall properties it acquired when it bought GGP last year.

https://www.bisnow.com/new-york/news/construction-development/macys-weighs-building-an-office-tower-at-iconic-34th-street-location-98676

California may get rid of single-family zoning

California may be on the verge of eliminating single-family zoning statewide. This is huge. And it’s a sign of how quickly the politics around housing and land use have shifted in just the last year.

On Wednesday, a key committee signed off on Senate Bill 50 — San Francisco Sen. Scott Wiener’s bill to allow denser, taller housing around transit and in communities with lots of jobs. As part of the negotiations, Wiener agreed to merge his proposal with Senate Bill 4 by Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) and the result includes one very big change: Single-family houses could be converted to four-unit buildings, by right, anywhere in the state.

That is, a property owner could subdivide or remodel a house to turn it into four apartments. Or a developer could build a fourplex on a vacant single-family lot. The proposal wouldn’t allow people to demolish a house and build a new fourplex on the property, however.

It’s unclear how many property owners could reasonably convert a house to apartments, or whether this proposal would significantly increase multi-family housing in what are now single-family neighborhoods. There are also serious questions about whether this proposal will survive future committee hearings, not to mention the Assembly gantlet and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto pen.

Still — let’s just pause on the fact that a bipartisan group of lawmakers voted in favor of a bill that would allow apartments pretty much anywhere in California.

Again, this would be a major change from the status quo. Wiener has said that it’s illegal to build more than a single-family house (plus an in-law unit) in roughly 80% of California’s residential neighborhoods.

Let’s just pause on the fact that a bipartisan group of lawmakers voted in favor of a bill that would allow apartments pretty much anywhere in California.

And yet, maybe the support for this proposal is not so surprising. The political winds have been shifting on single-family restrictions. Last year, the Minneapolis City Council voted to eliminate single-family zoning and instead allow duplexes and triplexes to be built on lots reserved for one house. The city enacted the policy so it would be easier to build affordable, denser communities, but also to help integrate neighborhoods that are still segregated as a result of discriminatory housing practices dating back decades. Strict single-family zoning was often adopted as a way to segregate neighborhoods without explicitly banning any racial or religious group.

Planners in Charlotte, N.C., are looking to eliminate single-family zoning for the same reasons.

On the West Coast, the high-cost cities of Seattle and Portland have considered rezoning single-family lots or allowing up to four-unit buildings in single-family neighborhoods. One Oregon lawmaker proposed allowing fourplexes on single-family lots in any city in the state with more than 10,000 residents.

Even Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti — who was down on Wiener’s proposal last year to open single-family neighborhoods to denser development — is warming to the idea. He told Times reporter Liam Dillon earlier this month that the city was looking at the Minneapolis model of allowing triplexes on single-family lots as a way to build more housing “that is also neighborhood compatible.”

It’s also worth noting that the fourplex proposal originated with Sen. McGuire, who represents suburban communities in Northern California. The idea was to let communities grow denser in an organic way that maintained community character by, for example, allowing an old Victorian house to be converted into four apartments.

“No community should see dramatic change, but every community should see some change,” McGuire said Wednesday before the vote to blend his bill into SB 50.

That’s a comforting mantra to suburban communities and single-family neighborhoods. But let’s be clear — allowing apartments in single-family neighborhoods would be a dramatic and important change.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/livable-city/la-ol-sb50-single-family-20190424-story.html

7 Improvements to Consider For Your Next Bathroom Remodel

A renovated bathroom adds value to your home, updates its style, and makes it better adapted to your current needs. Renovations are the best time to introduce improvements that will serve you and your family for years to come.

If you’re spending money for a bathroom remodel this year, consider making one or several of these essential changes to improve the functionality, storage, and comfort of your bathroom.

A Low-Flow, Hidden-Tank Toilet

Toilets with hidden tanks—in which the water storage vessel is mounted inside the wall—have several benefits. They are worth considering if you are remodeling a bathroom, especially a smaller bathroom, where the design can save space.

Hidden-tank toilets (sometimes called hidden cistern toilets)save you precious space, and low-flow models help save water every time you flush. It’s a smart choice that increases the value of your home after the remodel. These are appropriate for all bathrooms styles, but they fit especially well in modern and contemporary decors. But be aware that routine maintenance can be difficult, since there is usually no easy access to the tank if the inner workings need attention.

Another style of tankless toilet uses a pressure valve, such as those often found in commercial settings or public bathrooms. These are also options, although such toilets are noisy and tend to give a bathroom a somewhat industrial feel.

Small, Textured Tiles on the Shower Floor

You’ll have tons of flooring, wall and tile choices to make during your bathroom remodel. The most important for safety will be the floor tiling of your shower.

Choose a small, textured shower tile. The texture and the extra grouting will keep your feet from slipping once the floor gets soapy and wet. Most modern bathroom tiles are easy to clean and they use grouts that resist mold, humidity, and stains.

Ceramic and porcelain tiles give you many style and decor possibilities. Mix and match different patterns and colors for maximum visual impact, or do something more understated for a harmonious look.

2-inch Plumbing Drain Pipes

This is a small, invisible improvement that will make a BIG difference in the functionality of your bathroom.

Typical bathroom drain plumbing is 1 1/2-, or sometimes 1 1/4 inch-diameter pipe, usually PVC plastic. This type of drain pipe can clog easily, especially if you have with several family members using the same shower and/or bath. Installing 2-inch-diameter drains costs the same, and will dramatically improve the quality of drainage in your bathroom.

Install a Tub Only if You Actually Take Baths

Too many people add a tub to their bathrooms just because they feel like they “should.” But a bathtub is not always a necessity, especially if you never take baths. While there are still real estate professionals who argue that a bathroom with a tub offers greater appeal to prospective buyers than one with just a shower, this is much less true for today’s buyers than it once was. And your major concern should be with how you are going to use the room for the next few years. If you love baths, then, by all means, include it in your remodel. But if you rarely, if ever, take baths, you may be much better off installing just a large shower. It’s true that a bathtub is more appealing to future buyers who may have children. But if your house includes another family bathroom that does have a tub or tub/shower combination, there is no reason why your master bath can’t omit the bathtub in favor of a luxurious shower.

Of course, if you have a large bathroom, you get probably include both without worrying too much about space. But if you have to choose, you should always go with what is most functional for you at this time. And that may mean leaving the bathtub out of your plans.

Include a Window in the Shower

One of the biggest enemies of a clean bathroom is the humidity that stays trapped in the space because of bad or insufficient ventilation. Although a good bathroom fan will make a big difference, the best ventilation is always natural ventilation.

Adding a window in your shower is going to help keep your bathroom clean and free of mold and mildew. The natural ventilation is effective, especially if you leave the bathroom door open after using it. A window also benefits a shower by letting in natural light, which both an aesthetic and safety consideration.

Discuss the appropriate type of window with your architect or contractor, but remember to slope the sill downwards so that water doesn’t get stuck, and use a frosted glass for privacy.

Add a Recessed Medicine Cabinet

Get more storage space and a sleeker look with a recessed medicine cabinet above the vanity. By installing it a few inches inside the wall, you save yourself some needed space and make your bathroom look sleeker and more modern. The extra wall framing job doesn’t usually cost much in the grand scheme of a full bathroom renovation.

This is especially useful when your vanity is on the shallower side: You give yourself extra space to bend over and use the sink by using a recess in the wall. There are fewer worries about banging your head on the edge of the mirror.

Improve the Lighting

Bathrooms tend to have little access to natural light, hence the need for excellent lighting. As you plan your bathroom remodel, consider changing or adding to your current lighting to improve the functionality and mood of the space.

The first important lighting change should be a dimmer for the main lights. If you like to take baths, you know that a leisurely bath in full artificial light isn’t much fun. A dimmer will let you set just the right mood.

Add recessed fixtures around the mirror to give you the best lighting possible when doing your hair, applying make-up, or,shaving—or any other task that requires lots of light.

You should also consider adding lighting in the shower, rather than around it. Surprisingly, you’ll find your showers more pleasant (and safer) when they’re lighted properly.

Remodel and improve

A bathroom remodel should make your bathroom more efficient, more functional, and more stylish. When planning what kind of work you want done to improve your space, consider some of these small yet important improvements.

7 Improvements to Consider For Your Next Bathroom Remodel

Fannie Mae: One-Third of Americans Can’t Find Affordable Housing Near Work

According to a just-released Fannie Mae report, most Americans are struggling to find affordable housing near their workplace, in areas with better schools, childcare and job opportunities.

In a monthly online survey of Americans by research firm Penn Schoen Berland, on behalf of Fannie Mae, one in three people reported having trouble finding affordable housing options near their office or workplace. Respondents said they’d prefer to live closer to their job but the housing options are too expensive.

A majority of Americans—58 percent—reported that areas with better job opportunities are too expensive to live in, while 46 percent of those surveyed said they would prefer to live in a community with access to better schools and childcare but cannot afford to do so.

FINDING SOLUTIONS

“When nearly 6 in 10 Americans have to sacrifice economic opportunities and nearly half have to sacrifice quality education and childcare because of housing affordability, it’s clear we need to bring new ideas to the marketplace,” said Maria Evans, vice president of sustainable communities at Fannie Mae, in prepared remarks.

Fannie Mae just announced a call for ideas to address the affordable housing crisis in what marks the third and final phase of the Sustainable Communities Innovation Challenge, a two-year, $10 million commitment by the government agency to find solutions to the shortage of affordable housing across the U.S. Of the ideas submitted, Fannie Mae will select contract awards up to $1.5 million.

The announcement comes the same week as a National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care report outlining a looming senior housing crisis. The report found that by 2029, 54 percent of middle-income seniors won’t be able to pay for assisted living and out-of-pocket medical costs.

Earlier this week, a public-private partnership in New York City announced a $15 million affordable housing preservation deal to acquire and preserve three multifamily properties in Queens, N.Y.

Fannie Mae: One-Third of Americans Can’t Find Affordable Housing Near Work