Out of the blight comes Affordable Housing

With the crash of real estate all over the country, the city of New York recently unveiled a program to "convert vacant and stalled high-end projects for middle income families." This $20 million program, known as HARP- Housing Asset Renewal Program, is geared to clean up the blight littering the five boroughs and at the same time create much needed affordable housing for the city.

“Private developments that sit vacant or unfinished could have a destabilizing effect on our neighborhoods, but we’re not about to let that happen,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement. “This program holds out the promise of addressing the unintended blight caused by vacant sites, while transforming what would have been market-rate buildings into affordable housing for working class New Yorkers.”

Speaker Christine Quinn introduced this option in February 2008 during her State of the City address and the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development was brought on board to flesh out some of the details that need to be worked out before implementation.

The entire process is set to work thus: the city will issue a request for funding applicants—a sort of RFP with a rolling deadline—in July that is expected to run through December. Applicants will be judged on three criteria: those who offer the deepest discounts, require the least amount of subsidy, and provide the most “stabilization” to the neighborhood. For instance, a single building in need of subsidy in a ten block radius would be more likely targeted than 15 buildings in need within a five block radius, according to Andrew Doba, a council spokesperson. - www.archpaper.com

I think this is a great idea to not only open up financing to complete the construction on these projects but to also provide affordable housing for the public. Also, this will greatly help to clean up the blight and make the neighborhoods safer by removing these spots which could harbor potential predators in the dark.




Images obtained from: www.archpaper.com
Article details obtained from Matt Chaban's "Harping on Affordable Housing"

Spainish Architecture Faces Slump

The hard hitting recession we have been experiencing all around the world seems to have inevitably crept into Spain, ending the country's long-running love affair with cutting-edge architecture. This has turned the boom of high-profile projects from the world's greatest architects into a countrywide building bust.

Last week builders walked away from one of the country's most glamorous architect-driven developments, the Richard Rogers transformation of Barcelona's Las Arenas bullring. With bills unpaid and developers unsure what to do with the 19th century bullring, Lord Rogers' project turning it into a leisure and shopping center faces an uncertain future.

In Barcelona, a number of other high profile projects are also grinding to a halt. Some of which are Norman Foster's colourful, £230m remodelling of Europe's biggest football stadium, the Camp Nou of Barcelona football club and work by Frank Gehry on a 34-story office block and a development of 10 tower blocks by Jean Nouvel. Even Foster and Zaha's proposed New Campus of Justice (image above) in Madrid is experiencing a dramatic slow down in development.

"There is neither the financing nor the confidence to go on,'' said the local La Vanguardia newspaper as it mourned the future loss of Barcelona's reputation as a contemporary architecture showcase.

Many architects have have admitted to sources that not unlike Dubai, the writing is on the wall that boom days of Spanish architecture are over but have expressed hope that the country will recover a taste for signature buildings when the recession ends.




Image obtained from www.guardian.co.uk
Fore more information, check: www.turkishweekly.net/media/275344

Define Dubai's Skyline. A Sign Of Vitality Or Is It Just Crass?

I've come across a couple of articles in magazines and newspapers in which each writer berates the other's accounts and opinions of Dubai and the emirates' continued redefinition of revitalization and building construction technology. In her Feb 9th article in the guardian, Germaine Greer describes her recent visit to Dubai as "disappointing" and goes on to say, "from its artificial islands to its boring new skyscraper, Dubai's architecture is beyond crass." Wow! Meanwhile, Siobhan Campbell in her response article on the 18th in the same paper, describes Greer's remarks as, "lacking insight, and panders to the media pastime of rejoicing in the supposedly burst bubble of Dubai's prosperity. So...is there a middle ground here?

First of all, both Greer and Campbell are 6-8 months behind times and don't seem to really know the real state of affairs in Dubai where all building construction has come to a screeching halt. I've outlined this before in past articles, most recently in my Jan 24th write up. The financial loses to Dubai are just as bad as those in the US, UK and the world over. The cost of food that has to be imported has sky rocketed. The real estate and property values have fallen by 50%, and it is only a matter of time, before the building construction industry there completely collapses.

Still, let's analyze both their respective comments on this issue. Greer, who called the Burg Dubai, "the needle stuck in the buttock of the Almighty" shows that the outrageous prices for space in the tower has made it an eerie, empty nest. The Amani residences which go for a minimum of 3,500 USD are also equally empty and have aided the the developer, Emaar lose 75% of the tower's total value. So has all this construction been for naught? It might as well have been if hardly anyone lives there especially on the "man made" islands. And these Greer has pointed out as the "crassest of all." Palm Jumeira remains underdeveloped as "the water between the branches is stagnating and algae is forming along the man-made beachfront. How this will affect the dolphins that are shipped from the South Pacific to amuse the guests at the Hotel Atlantis, who pay $75 to swim with them, is any body's guess." So altogether, Germaine Greer does not have much of a high opinion of Dubai and I really can't say that anyone should blame her much.

Now Siobhan Campbell, as a resident of Dubai, is not at all impressed with all the issues outlined by Greer. According to Campbell, only 6% of Dubai's revenue comes from oil so the need to create a tourist industry to supplement the market is not only a necessary thing but a very innovative move which has attracted "investment and tourists: with both of these come jobs." Jobs? Is she really counting the cheap labor of the migrant population of Indians and Philippinos, who can no longer survive on their meager existence and are leaving en mass, as jobs created? Or is she speaking of the expatriates who have also left in fustration? And how many of the actual indigens of Dubai were employed during this time? Not very many if any at all. Still, I do agree with Campbell that Greer really just had a bus tour of the city during a lay-over and can't really sum up the dynamism and culture of the entire area in just four hours.

The issue of Dubai's architecture is probably one of the most controversial of our time with everyone coming in with hotly contested opinions and never really seeing eye-to-eye. But one thing I think that we can all just come out and agree upon is that the building frenzy in Dubai has been a Little over the top and the recent crash in the market has not helped. The focus on large scale mixed use towers has taken precedence over much needed projects such as better infrastructure to address the horrible traffic and sewage problems and this even residents can agree upon. Though done in excess, Dubai has been broken the barrier in forward thinking architectural design but unfortunately, this has come to the detriment of much of their ecosystem. Still, I think I've done enough pieces on Dubai, though I couldn't resist the urge to rant about it once more here. It is what it is so let's leave it alone and move on.



Image obtained from: www.guardian.co.uk
For more information, check: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/18/dubai-architecture and www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/feb/09/dubai-architecture-greer

Economic Downturn Causes Universities To Trim New Construction Projects

The hard reality of the economic hardships we face have also hit universities and other none profit organizations that till now, had been considered, for better or worse, the most recession proof consumers of design and construction services. The American Institute of Architects' market data, the architecture billings index (ABI) reflects this apparent drop-off. The institutional sector's most recent ABI score, from November, was 40.8, down from 41.3 in October and 44.4 in September. A number above 50 indicates an increase in billing activity, and below 50, a decrease. Prior to August 2008, the last time the institutional score had dipped below 50 was in December 2004.

Harvard, the world's wealthiest university announced that for the month of December, its endowment had shrunk from $36.8 billion to $28.8 billion during the second half of the year. Due to this astounding drop in their funding, the school is seeking to scale back on the scope of the ambitious 1 million square foot, $1 billion science complex expansion plans by Behnisch Architekten already under construction and scheduled to top-out in 2011.

“As recently as several months ago it was looking like institutional was holding up pretty well and the sector might actually get through this downturn unscathed,” says Kermit Baker, the AIA’s chief economist. Yet the equities meltdown has hammered endowments, obliging universities to divert funds from capital projects to financial aid, faculty salaries, and other core needs, Baker notes. Institutions are also finding it difficult to line up loans, issue bonds, and attract donors.

Other top schools like Princeton and MIT have not escaped unscathered either. The former has trimmed $300 million, or 12 percent, of its capital plan budget and delayed by a year the mid-2009 start on neuroscience and psychology buildings designed by Raphael Moneo while MIT has called for construction spending cost of up to 15% for the next four years but all projects like the Ellenzweig’s David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research are to proceed on schedule.

This should not be too much of a suprise here. University donors are also pinching back their money so schools are ultimately going to have less in their endowment piggy banks. Where this becomes a concern is when these institutions begin to offer fewer scholarships and less money in general financial aid so students with less than affluent means will find it harder to obtain funding to attend school regardless of their talent.

Economic Downturn Halts Expansion of National Museum

The re-opening of the National Museum of American History's new building last summer was met with much fanfare, enthusiasm and a block party on Pennsylvania Ave with speeches from Nancy Pelosi and John G. Roberts Jr. Visitors poured in and attendance was strong despite a $20 admission fee.

Unfortunately, the continued downturn in the economy has caused a 25% shrink in the museum's endowment (about $150 million) and the buyout of 20 employees and 10 staff with the annual budget also to drop by 10%.
Though the expansion is 98% complete, a significant drop off in visitors hasn't allowed for the generation of the anticipated funds to complete the building. As of the last week of December, only about 300,000 visitors had come to the museum since its opening in early April which was not expected to happen to a museum located on Pennsylvania Ave. Of optimum concern now is the ability of the museum to be able to generate enough money to cover all annual operating costs (about $8-10 million). The hope is that the gift shop and cafe will help to generate much of this. The director, Brent D. Glass expressed concern that people will come to spend less and less as the economy continues to tighten and the museum facing an economic crisis after spending $85 million on a two year renovation by SOM.

For more information, check www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/arts/design/21pogr.html?_r=1&ref=design

Construction Boom In China Slowing Down?

As growth in Europe and the United States seems to be grinding to a halt, China may also be facing an economic slowdown and consequently, a decrease in construction projects.

In recent years, we have seen a lot of "throw-up" development that revealed China's insatiable desire to emulate architecture of the West, such as Thamestown, which is a copycat slice of England outside Shanghai. It seems that now they're construction sector is also being hit with a slow market as residential values have dropped by 15% in Beijing and Shanghai since the Olympics. One reason for this is the fact that money supply for developers has tightened in the past few months leaving commercial and residential projects to languish.

Callum MacBean, managing director of Gensler's Shanghai office confirmed in a company Newsletter that many of the firm's projects have been put on hold with many foreign investors suddenly very cautious preferring to venture to India and Vietnam instead.
U.K based firms report that this has been caused by the Chinese government itself who have made it more difficult for smaller scale Architecture and engineering firms to secure projects, by demanding astronomical insurance deposits. Also, the Chinese government has decided to limit the number of residential and commercial landmark projects and emphasize more on infrastructure, education and health care and have also created larger land parcels thereby making them increasingly more difficult for smaller developers to purchase.

I don't know what may have caused this state-driven shift in the last few months. Maybe the government felt that there was overbuilding in the housing sector to the detriment of infrastructure and health care but who can explain why a communist government does what it does. Still, for all those seeking investment and building projects in China, this trend seems to be predominantly restricted to Beijing and Shanghai; at least for now. There is still plenty of work to be had in the cities of Chengdu and Chongqing.


Image obtained from the Architectsjournal.com

Mandarin Oriental Groundbreaking Yet to Occur

The $550,000,000 Mandarin Oriental Tower is a 74 story proposed mixed use project targeted to be the 9th tallest building in Chicago (assuming the Trump and Waterview Towers, both under construction get completed first). The tower is being built by the Hong Kong based Mandarin hotel group, currently operating over 30 hotel groups around the world and are partnering with Solomon Cordwell Buenz as their design consultants.

The proposed design is to be 1.2million sq feet and will include 300 condos and 250 hotel-condo units with the unit mix concept defining these hotel-condos as rooms sold as condominiums to private buyers who now allow the hotel to rent out these units when the owners are not using them.

Despite the initial excitement over the addition this building would make to the design infrastructure of the city of Chicago, a Dec 2, 07 article in Crains Chicago Business stated that various parties involved with this project are facing financial issues and construction loans have not been forthcoming. This is in part due to the current real estate slump in the Country and some inside sources have expressed their apprehension that this project might never be built as the groundbreaking initially set for January 08 is still yet to occur.

Unfortunately, this is the same for numerous other projects around the country; the building industry is slowing down and if the situation does not improve soon, many of us in the field of architecture and other related disciplines might not have much work to do.

Image obtained from condohotelcenter.com