Planned Densification

I’m pleased to share another article in Urban Land…
“Systematic Density for Dummies: Arrested Development Generates Losses That Accrue.”

Markets change. Buildings don’t. They could. Some should.

This article is a revised and updated version (with a touch of humor) of my 2009 Urban Land article that explores the issue of asynchrony—which happens when fixed-assets and project feasibilities are out-of-sync with their host markets as demand and values change. You can read the 2009 version here:

With this 2023 update, I acknowledge real estate development’s challenge of limited functional control of industry processes as a constraint from achieving better outcomes for the public and private sectors. Many betterment programs—such as urbanism, smart growth, the 15 minute city, and transit-oriented development—are impeded from achieving some objectives by the problem of fixed assets in changing markets. Many such programs and initiatives use nature’s systemic orientation as archetype. Development’s systematic processes–timings, capacities, permissions–need to be aligned to achieve density over time.

I want to thank my writing partner Errol Cowan Ph.D. for a fruitful collaboration, and Urban Land Institute and Urban Land Magazine for publishing this article, my fifth with them on the topic of sustainability since 1995. https://pario.com/writing-speaking/