# Urban Redevelopment Projects Around the World



## staff

Västra Hamnen with the Turning Torso in Malmö needs no further presentation I guess...


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## bob rulz

Starting in 2001, and expected to finish up in the next few months, is the Gateway Center. On the western edge of downtown, an old industrial/railyard area has been converted into a two-level outdoor pedestrian-only shopping center, complete with a fountain that operates in summer. The west edge is lined with condos, and a few office buildings line the north end (the last of which will be complete by March or so). Here's a picture:










That's really all we can boast about, but a recent project has just been approved. The first demolition downtown is taking place in preparation for the City Creek Center. We will tear down two skyscrapers (one historic one from 1912, and another boxy, ugly one from 1980), as well as both of the downtown shopping malls. It will be replaced by an outdoor-oriented, multi-level shopping center, anchored by big-box retailers, and complete with high-rise condos and apartment complexes, as well as a few new office buildings. This two-block area (essentially the heart of downtown) will look a lot different once all is said and done in 2011. Main Street will also have a skybridge running over it. Demolition of the first building should be complete in about a week; full demolition finished by either March or July...can't completely remember. This is a huge project for Salt Lake City, although it pales in comparison to ones in larger cities. Overall, the outdoor-oriented feel of the area will make for a refreshing change in the city.




























A skyscraper is also going to begin construction in the next couple of months just south of this construction area. It won't be the tallest, but it should make our already dense skyline even more so (and hopefully more attractive, as well).

Read more here: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=402156


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## Minato ku

*Paris*

*Seine arche* _La Defense_ (Nanterre western inner suburbs)


























One year ago

















*Beaugrenelle* (Paris 15th district)










































*Terrain Renault et l'Ile Seguin* (Boulogne western inner suburbs)


























*Zone pleyel* (Saint Denis northern inner suburbs)










*Projet Canal - Porte d'Aubervilliers * (Aubervilliers nothern inner suburbs)

















42 000 m² for commercial 
380 appartements in construction
12 000 m² of green park
20 000 m² of offices


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## GENIUS LOCI

Milan is a city in total redeveloppement since 15 years at least: millions and millions sqm of former industrial sites were in the years replanned and redevelopped

Here a coupple off redeveloppement


*Bicocca* - former Pirelli factory





































*Milan Exihibition Centre* - former refinery



















*CityLife project* - Milan old fair










*Sesto San Giovanni* - former Falck factories


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## hkskyline

*St. Louis recognized for urban renewal *
7 December 2006

ST. LOUIS (AP) - St. Louis is receiving international recognition for revitalization efforts. 

Mayor Francis Slay was in London Wednesday to accept the World Leadership Forum's award for urban renewal. 

The forum's World Leadership Award honors cities for showing imagination and resilience in reversing trends, or those that serve as inspirations for others. 

In accepting the award, Slay said, "It isn't just bricks and mortar. We are certainly revitalizing downtown and our neighborhoods. But we are also addressing health care, education, affordable housing and homelessness." 

Other finalists in the urban renewal category were Kansas City, Mo.; Manchester, England; and Calcutta, India.


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## hkskyline

Langham Place, Hong Kong 
Having taken over a decade from start to finish.


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## sprtsluvr8

Atlantic Station is a large urban renewal project at the edge of Midtown Atlanta. Officially opened in 2005, it encompasses 138 acres of mixed-use land development and is on the former brownfield site of the Atlantic Steel mill. Major retail includes Target, Publix, Ikea, Regal Cinemas, L.A. Fitness, Dillards, etc. The redevelopment is projected to include 12 million square feet of retail, office, residential and hotel space as well as 11 acres of public parks. 










former Atlantic Steel site


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## spongeg

Coal Harbour in Vancouver was nothing much in the early 90's - it was bleak and empty

and an unfriendly area - ie no public access or seawall or parks, condos etc

it had turned into one of the best areas of the city


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## TYW

Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC)

from racecourse to this:


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## pdxheel

Two in Portland (OR)

Pearl District (converted old Warehouses with mix of new condos)

























South Waterfront (Under Condstruction)


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## ShowMeKC

Kansas City:

Power and Light District-
This is a 6 block project that will include 1,200 residential units, and a lot of retail, as well as the already built H&R Block World HQ. There is also the possibility of a W Hotel being located here on top of a residential tower.
Adjacent to the Power and Light District is the new/under construction Sprint Center Arena.
Nearby developments also include the multiple condo/loft projects, Sprint Center Arena, NABC HQ, new Peforming Arts Center, Municipal Auditorium renovation, new Bartle Hall Ballroom, and the new KC Star Printing Press.










Unfortunately many stable, usable buildings were destroyed for this project. But hopefully this will live up to it's expectations. It could include 3 residential towers 15 floors and above, and 1 residential/hotel tower at almost 40 floors.


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## mudvayneimn

Louisville, KY is experiencing redevelopment with three major projects, A 703ft skyscraper named Museum Plaza, two new bridges, and a downtown arena.

New Skyline with Arena and Museum Plaza:









Museum Plaza Skyscraper:

































New Arena:

























New Bridges:


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## Taylorhoge

Wow I like Lousville's new development that tower is really cool


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## Marco Bruno

*Lisbon: Almada Riverside Masterplan*














































in the past...









The Municipality of Almada has commissioned the practice to devise a masterplan for a 115-hectare site encompassing extensive former dockyards and a part of Almada’s conurbation along a two-kilometre stretch of river frontage. The location is an outstanding topographic feature of the Tagus Estuary, important both in terms of geography, history, economy and environment and the scheme aims to create a new urban centre that helps establish the Tagus Estuary as the focus of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. Originally a fishing village, Almada is now a major residential centre; its shipyard community was active from the 1960s until its decommission in the ‘90s. The historic centre of Lisbon lies to the north of the site across the estuary, while to the south is an extensive nature reserve. 
Sustainable development underpins RRP’s approach for the area’s regeneration, combining environmental, social and economic objectives. The team envisages an employment-led mix of uses, leisure and cultural activities while retaining a large allocation of residential use. Densities ranging from 800,000 m² up to 1.5 million m² are planned, depending on the implementation of the proposed Metro link to Lisbon. The masterplan’s initial phase focuses on a transport strategy for the Almada area to reduce dependence on the car. This includes extending the proposed MST (tram), a Metro link from Lisbon, the expansion of an existing ferry terminal, and the creation of a river taxi service - strengthening existing connections with Lisbon and with the eastern Seixal area. The scheme also allows for new vehicular access to unlock the site's potential while using centralised parking and creating pedestrian priority streets. 
Almada Riverside aims to set new environmental standards for the development. The possibilities to deliver zero carbon development will be explored through an integrated strategy for energy efficiency, on-site energy production, renewable energy harvesting and carbon sequestration. RRP’s environmental strategy for the area includes maximising use of solar energy such as photovoltaics and solar panels; the use of the docks as heat sinks for heating and cooling purposes and the incorporation of CHP plant to optimise energy consumption. It is envisaged that programmes for recycling waste will be implemented; in addition, rainwater will be collected for irrigation and grey water usage.
The masterplan layout is based on a linear arrangement of neighbourhoods running parallel to the existing docks and the new water channels; high-density developments around MST/transport nodes; mixed-use development focused around existing docks; public piazzas sited at strategic locations along the riverfront promenade and new east-west connections with Almada town centre.
The new masterplan aims to maximise use of existing docks for amenities and parking, establish an interlocking network of docks and new water channels, as well as creating compact waterside living and a new riverfront promenade along existing dock edges. To capitalise on the original maritime history of the site, the team proposes a maritime museum, marinas, as well as a cruise liner terminal and provision for small-scale ship repair industries. In addition there is scope for an academic and research community including a science centre, university departments, R&D facilities, along with media centres comprising studio facilities for young professionals and small businesses. The scheme also provides for a new energy centre, an eco park and on-site water treatment plant and aims to be a showcase for best practice in sustainability.


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## hkskyline

*A Tokyo development for the world to envy *
The New York Times Media Group
17 March 2007
Published in the International Herald Tribune

As Asian mega-developments go, it's pretty hard to miss. In magazines, on TV, on the radio, on the street and from pretty much anywhere in Tokyo with a clear view to Roppongi, Tokyo Midtown, the city's latest mixed-use development, looks set to overshadow even the blossoming of the sakura. In two weeks the developer Mitsui Fudosan will finally press play on one of the biggest urban renewal projects in the world, one that will boast Tokyo's tallest building, a new art museum, a five-star hotel, a sizable park and a Starbucks complete with radio studio. 

The Japanese might be obsessed with many things (cute mascots, manga, belting out a good tune to close a business deal) but few pursuits can compete with the passion put into building - not just the concrete-and-cranes variety but also the fine art of building anticipation. When Mitsui unveiled plans for the project on the site of the former headquarters of the Japanese Defense Forces, so much had been put into the modeling and rendering and digital imagery that it already felt almost complete. Shortly after the announcement, an elaborate Web site was launched featuring exquisitely crafted interviews with the architects and collaborators. With the site developed as more of a broadcast channel than a simple list of facts and figures, the communications strategy for Tokyo Midtown has been managed to appeal to everyone from the financial institutions that will occupy the sprawling floors of the main tower to the commuters who might want to use the 24-hour food market after pulling an all-nighter at the office to former Harajuku skateboard boys who now want to look a bit more Savile Row. That the whole development has been built less than a kilometer, or a half-mile, from the borders of Mori's Roppongi Hills development (another mega-complex of hotel, retail, museum, residential and offices) could be seen as a cheeky shot across the bow of a competitor and simply another chapter in the gentrification of Roppongi. 

I'm usually not the biggest fan of such "grands projets," but Japanese developers have a special knack for not only delivering extraordinary modern wonders but also completing them on time. 

When Mori finally took the hoardings off its Roppongi Hills development, it was remarkable how quickly the mix of high-rises, tunnels and retail blended into the fabric of its surroundings. While the final execution may not have been to everyone's liking, Mori could hardly have been accused of leaving a trail of mud, untended flower beds or unfinished concrete canyons on or around the site. Within weeks of completion, Roppongi Hills felt like it had been around for years. 

Having just had a sneak preview of Tokyo Midtown, it looks to me like Mitsui is set to pull off a similar feat. 

When I was offered a virtual tour of the project in the mini- cinema at the Mitsui's Tokyo Midtown site management center, I was fully armed to dislike it. The rather over-the-top, "together we'll build a better future" style voice-over went some distance in triggering a bad reaction. But four minutes into the dramatic pans, zooms and pull-outs, I was hooked. At ground level, behind the orderly stretches of plastic sheeting, some offices are already occupied and the matte bamboo floors in the "galleria" retail area are all set for heavy footfall. Midtown's retail leasing team has pulled together a lineup of "Japanese premieres" and "world firsts" for their mix of retail brands. For the truly devoted, the Web site spells all of this out in a graphic complete with footnotes highlighting which retailers are unique not only to Midtown but to the world. In most markets, this would seem like overkill, but in a city with a retail climate as competitive as Tokyo's, it seems natural. 

So who has signed lease agreements? The Savile Row tailor Richard James is opening his first stand-alone shop outside London, the superniche Italian fashion brand hLam will launch its first-ever store in a space designed by the Tokyo firm Wonderwall and Muji will introduce a housewares concept. At the less premium end, Starbucks has teamed up with Tokyo FM to start a cafe-cum-studio concept that will see the broadcaster host entire blocks of programming from the space. 

For residents and workers at similar scale developments in London and New York (Canary Wharf and the World Financial Centre come to mind), Midtown is likely to become an object of some envy. Retail aside, the project includes Suntory's new art museum (designed by Kengo Kuma), a slinky design space by Tadao Ando, a range of residences, a Ritz-Carlton hotel atop the tower and a park - complete with Wi-Fi. 

Where a project with similar ambitions would be raising all kinds of "will it work?" types of questions, there's scarcely a murmur to this effect around Midtown. By the time I'd completed my tour the only question I was left with was: Does Starbucks have covert, global radio ambitions? 

* 

Tyler Brule is the editor in chief of Monocle magazine. He lives in Switzerland, Sweden and Britain. He can be reached at [email protected].


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## Manila-X

To be honest, I don't find Tokyo's new tallest that attractive compared to Cityhall Tower


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## hkskyline

WANCH said:


> To be honest, I don't find Tokyo's new tallest that attractive compared to Cityhall Tower


There are some really neat buildings scattered around Tokyo, some of which are very daring, such as the Fuji TV tower on the other side of the rainbow bridge. Then there is the Hermes building in Ginza (it's one of the luxury chains if it's not the Hermes). There are also some very simple yet elegant ones in Shinjuku. You should check them out when you are in Tokyo.


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## gincan

For Barcelona I'd say Sant Martí, basically the entire District have been overhauled. It used to be the second most run down area i Barcelona after Raval filled with factories, shantys and loads of unocupied buildings. Today it's the most modern and clean District with some of the most expensive to live in areas of Barcelona. Roughly 10 sq km totally redeveloped, only a few small areas of dirty and old buildings left.


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## hkskyline

hkskyline said:


> *Seoul*'s Cheonggyecheon Stream Restoration is quite unique since it went from highway to park, a reverse type of urban redevelopment.


*Award-winners to learn from Korean restoration project *
27 June 2007
South China Morning Post

Winners of this year's planning awards will be sent to South Korea to learn from the restoration of a stream that is flowing through the heart of Seoul again after being covered for a decade by a highway. 

Tam Po-yiu, chairman of organisers for the Hong Kong Institute of Planners Awards, said the Cheonggyecheon scheme was completed in two years. 

Hwang Kee-yeon, a planning researcher at Seoul's Hongik University, said the 8km stream was originally a small brook but was enlarged in 1412 by King Taejong of the Joseon dynasty. 

By the 1950s it was severely contaminated by Korean war refugees living in shanties lining its banks. Officials decided to cover the stream with a road 6km long and up to 80 metres wide. 

But the air pollution was serious, and the highway had structural problems which would have cost 100 billion won (HK$843.5 million) to fix, so the government decided in 2003 to go ahead with the restoration. When the stream came alive in 2005, the average temperature of the city was reduced by 3.6 degrees Celsius.


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## hkskyline

*Tall order 
After a shaky start, Canary Wharf has proved the critics wrong and cemented London's position as Europe's business capital *
25 August 2007
Financial Times










From the 30th floor of One Canada Square, the tallest skyscraper in the UK, you can see the rest of London spreading out into the distance in all its grime and splendour. It was here, in a slick boardroom, that the three top executives of Canary Wharf, a vast complex of office towers in the east of London, watched the terrorist attacks of 9/11 unfold on television. 

There was Paul Reichmann, the sombre, softly spoken septuagenarian who had built the estate; George Iacobescu, its Romanian-born chief executive; and Peter Anderson, the American finance director. 

All three watched in horror as New York's Twin Towers collapsed - just yards from the World Financial Centre, another of Reichmann's projects. 

"The reaction was complete shock," says one person who was there that day. "Paul didn't say anything. Peter Anderson didn't say anything. He looked sick." 

There was no immediate evacuation of Canary Wharf. Later, Iacobescu emerged defiant in public, admitting that many tenants were "traumatised" but predicting that attitudes to skyscrapers would not change. Still, he must have wondered whether the estate would be a target. In March this year a transcript was published of a supposed confession by the senior al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed saying he had planned to destroy "the Canary Wharf building" in 2003. 

It is no surprise that the complex should find itself on such a hit list, given its status as a symbol of global capitalism. Still, Canary Wharf is a latecomer. As recently as 20 years ago, the site was a ruined landscape of abandoned docks on the Isle of Dogs, a strip of East End land wrapped within a tight loop of the Thames. (The East End has always been down-at-heel compared with the city's western flank - as with other British towns over the centuries this is caused by the prevailing westerly winds. Put bluntly, genteel types did not want to be downwind from the working classes.) Construction began in 1988 and Canary Wharf now has 33 office blocks with 14m sq ft of office space. About 90,000 people work there, fed and entertained at 200 bars, shops and restaurants. 

It is disconcerting to step out from the enormous atrium of Canary Wharf's Underground station. You are in London, but there are few visual clues to suggest this. The smooth, gleaming towers, super- clean pavements and array of chain retailers makes it feel more like a North American city. The names of the main tenants are redolent of big global business, divorced from any one city or country: HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup. 

In many ways, Canary Wharf is a lens on the changing British economy. Until two generations ago Britain depended on manufacturing and trade. Tonnes of freight came in and out of the country, shipped past the muddy banks of the Thames estuary to unload in the many wharves in the East End. 

The introduction of container shipping in the 1960s strangled freight trade up the Thames. The large ships could not travel any further upstream than Tilbury, 26 miles to the east. An estimated 150,000 workers lost their jobs in the docklands between 1967 and 1977. The noisy docks fell silent and physical decay set in. 

Former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine recalls flying over the area in the 1970s. "It was devastation," he says, holding forth from behind his desk in the Hammersmith headquarters of Haymarket, his publishing company. "There were swathes of undeveloped, often toxic land." 

Back in 1979 and recently appointed secretary of state for the environment, Heseltine's top priority was to set up a development corporation for the East End. Civil servants were underwhelmed. The revival of the docks seemed an uphill, thankless task. But pushing private investment into the area appealed to the go-getting instincts of the new prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. Heseltine chuckles as he recalls how he told her that the local councillors were mostly "communists"; in other words, nothing would get done unless central government intervened. This was enough to persuade Thatcher. 

He admits he had no idea what would emerge. "If I'd said, 'Prime Minister, in a decade or so we'll have one of the world's greatest trading financial centres, an airport, and an extravagantly large high-quality exhibition centre,' they would have locked me up." 

George Iacobescu is one of the few people to have been at the heart of Canary Wharf from day one. He was an executive at developer Olympia & York in the 1980s when the project first came to the attention of his boss, Paul Reichmann. 

Reichmann, an Orthodox Jew who speaks in a whisper, fled Austria with his family in 1938 and built an enormous real estate empire from Canada. (He spent about 10 years in Algiers en route.) He and his two brothers created the World Financial Centre in downtown Manhattan in the 1980s, when the city was in a serious real estate slump. He hoped to repeat that success at Canary Wharf, where he saw an opportunity to build high-quality offices cheaply. But the location was a problem - at the time, the Isle of Dogs was seen by most Londoners as the boondocks. 

Iacobescu was an engineer and also a refugee of eastern Europe - in his case growing up in the dark days of Ceausescu's Romania and emigrating to Canada in 1975. From his offices high in One Canada Square, where he barely picks at lunchtime sandwiches, you can see the problem of distance: the City, London's traditional financial centre, looms miles away, up the Thames. At 61, Iacobescu, a tall man with a hawkish face behind thick glasses, still talks in a lilting and heavily accented voice. "The first phase was 4.5m sq ft, they said we were crazy, and we probably were crazy, but it was the problem of transport that was lethal." At the time, transport links to Canary Wharf were primitive, with the only rail link - the Docklands Light Railway - widely dismissed as a joke. The Jubilee Line underground extension was supposed to arrive in the early 1990s; it wasn't completed until 1999 (Pounds 1.4bn over budget). Bankers, meanwhile, were not keen to move away from the pubs, restaurants and shops of central London. 

Distance wasn't the only headache. Construction of the complex's early skyscrapers coincided with a brutal downturn in global property markets, damaging the value of Olympia & York's Dollars 20bn empire. The group went bankrupt in 1992. In 1993, Canary Wharf was bought by the project's construction lenders, who managed to secure several important lettings. Three quarters of the space was let by 1995, when the Reichmann brothers bought it back for Pounds 800m, a knock-down price. 

Even then, the success of the project remained questionable. Mike Hussey, Canary Wharf's head of leasing at the time, recalls: "There was 1.4m sq ft of vacant space, the market was not great. I wouldn't say it was a ghost town but it felt sterile. But you could feel the potential as well." 

In time, the towers did fill up, and more were added. Wall Street banks moved in, along with some thoroughly British names: Coutts & Co, The Telegraph and Barclays. Iacobescu says 1999 was the tipping point, when HSBC and Citigroup both agreed to occupy giant skyscrapers on the site. 

Things may have turned out differently had it not been for the ingrained attitudes of the men who ran the City of London Corporation - the organisation that decides planning policy in the City. The maze of streets around the Bank of England had been the essential location for banks and insurance groups for so long that few believed this could change. And when it came to big planning decisions, the corporation often acted to protect the heritage of the Square Mile. 

Throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s this was frustrating for many banks that wanted vast trading desks, particularly after the Big Bang deregulation of London's financial markets in 1986. Iacobescu says the City's office stock at that time was "90 per cent obsolete", while Canary Wharf's huge, high-specification buildings offered modern and flexible office space. In time, and against the corporation's expectations, the banks migrated east. 

But the success of Canary Wharf has not visibly damaged the City. Rather, it may have helped London maintain its position ahead of Frankfurt or Paris as the European business capital - which in turn has boosted business in the Square Mile. Michael Snyder, chairman of policy for the City of London Corporation, says it's not a competition between the two sites. But he points out that 340,000 people work in the City, nearly quadruple the number in Canary Wharf. "If anything, we're expanding faster," he says. "And our buildings are somewhat more interesting... the City has a more English feeling, a more British feeling." 

When I relay this comment to Iacobescu, he looks uncomfortable for the only time in our interview. His concise manner of speech gives way to rambling. Canary Wharf is a magnet for local shoppers at weekends, he says. It hosts hundreds of events. It takes its responsibilities to local people seriously. A colleague interjects that Canary Wharf is "more international". Iacobescu disagrees with him as well as with Snyder. "Geographical locations don't mean a lot in today's world. Canary Wharf in 500 years will have as much history as the City of London... Canary Wharf is part of the City." 

Beyond Canary Wharf's northern boundaries, the complex seems to stop dead. A stroll past a pub and Cineworld Cinemas takes you to a flyover, strewn with rubbish, then a major road. And suddenly you are in east London proper, complete with tired council housing and drab parades of newsagents, laundrettes and bookmakers. Kids in hoodies linger outside a fast food takeaway. 

Pushing a pram along the high street is 23-year-old Emma Hand, her blonde hair scraped back from her face. She says she likes Canary Wharf. "You can shop there, it has a Gap For Kids and Topshop. It's closer than Stratford or Lewisham. I've been over there now and again for a drink or something to eat." 

Other locals are less enthusiastic. Victor Welch is a full-time carer to his wife, Margaret, who is in a wheelchair. The couple, who have been in the area for 35 years, live on Limehouse Causeway. "When you go around Canary Wharf, all the people there are so snooty, they won't get out of the way," Margaret says. "They are always knocking into you because they're thinking about number one." 

Developers often talk about a "ripple effect", where projects send out waves of change into the surrounding community. This is true to the south of Canary Wharf with its "lifestyle" luxury flats offering waterside views; but not to the north. Tom Dalgleish, a banker taking a cigarette break outside one of the Canary Wharf towers, confides that he spends little time there because of its "insular" environment. "It is very much a wrong-side-of-the-tracks divide between the estate and everywhere around it," says Dalgleish. "Everything seems to stop just a few hundred yards away. They try to come up with community schemes but it is still very 'them and us'." 

Iacobescu concedes that there are still barriers between the estate and its neighbours. He is hoping that further developments may allow Canary Wharf to "taper" into its surroundings, eventually. The 2012 Olympics will be one test; the Games will take place two miles north of Canary Wharf, and many hope they will regenerate the entire East End further. 

Most of the big companies which relocated to the area brought their staff with them. But as more hotels and retailers move to the estate, job possibilities are opening for locals, according to Jim Fitzpatrick, MP for Poplar and Canning Town. Unemployment in his constituency stands at 9.5 per cent - triple the national average. One in five residents is Bangladeshi. 

In the 1980s there were protests against the development - 30 sheep were released by locals to disrupt the groundbreaking ceremony - but resentment has been at a low level. In fact, last year a delegation of Parisian politicians visited to glean tips on preventing further outbreaks of rioting in the French capital. They were amazed that there had been no such incidents at Canary Wharf, despite the obvious contrasts between rich and poor. 

With the likes of Waitrose, the Marriott and the Four Seasons moving in, the complex is bringing in more jobs for locals, particularly through ventures that fit into jobs at Canary Wharf. 

Local suppliers are encouraged to bid for work with Canary Wharf's tenants (Pounds 436m of contracts have been won through one scheme) and local "watermen" - who operate barges - are employed to transport materials to development sites. 

As well as providing jobs, Canary Wharf is immersed in a variety of other projects, such as sponsoring children's football teams, training programmes and educational initiatives. "From day one, we wanted to work with the local community," says Iacobescu. "We'd have been out of our minds not to when they will be our neighbours for the next 150 years." 

Questions remain about whether Canary Wharf has lifted the surrounding areas or whether it still is an isolated "citadel". Ricky Burdett, professor of architecture and urbanism at the London School of Economics, takes the latter view: "They created a very elegant, very swish, office ghetto," he says. 

Burdett, the design adviser for the London Olympics, praises the speed at which Canary Wharf was built but says it is unlike other new developments that fit into the "fabric" of the city. 

The estate has often suffered brickbats from the likes of Prince Charles, who famously asked whether the towers had to be quite so very big. Despite having employed Sir Roy Strong, the dandyish cultural historian, as an adviser, Canary Wharf is still seen by many as an alien slice of downtown America, transplanted on to English soil. While there are neo-classical pillars and arches on some buildings, the prevailing style has always been Big Business USA. 

Some believe Canary Wharf would have been more appropriate elsewhere. Sir Stuart Lipton, the developer behind Broadgate, an acclaimed office complex on the edge of the City, says: "Canary Wharf is a wonderful environment for corporates, who can get certainty and quality of delivery, but looking back it is a great disappointment that it wasn't done in the City." 

Yet its tall towers and modern silhouette may have helped alter central London's skyline. The City's planning policy has changed since Canary Wharf became a serious contender. Even Michael Snyder, at the City of London Corporation, admits that Canary Wharf's success acted as a "wake-up call" for the corporation, which has recently allowed skyscrapers such as Swiss Re's "Gherkin" to be built. The alternative loomed large: a City of London in decline. 

This year may prove crucial for Canary Wharf, at least in corporate terms. The company first floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1999. Four years later, the share price collapsed and a bidding battle ensued between Reichmann and a consortium put together by Morgan Stanley, his previous advisers. The Canadian magnate lost. 

Since the takeover, the estate has been owned through a fiendishly complex structure involving various classes of shares. The investors are thought likely to sell out sooner rather than later to take advantage of Britain's hottest-ever commercial property market. Vacancy levels at the complex are now hovering just above zero and several new developments are planned. 

Some say it would not be too whimsical to envisage the return of the estate into the sole hands of Paul Reichmann. Lord Heseltine, as he escorts me out of his offices, describes the developer as one of the most extraordinary men he's ever met. 

"In 1979 I never would have known who would come along, that it would be Paul Reichmann, and thank God that he did." 

Jim Pickard is the FT's property correspondent.


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## hkskyline

*Hanoi to offer $7 bln riverfront land to investors *

HANOI, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Hanoi is to offer investors $7 billion worth of projects to develop prime land along the banks of the Red River that sweeps through the centre of Vietnam's capital, in the country's largest property development so far. 

The project, advised by the government of South Korea's capital, Seoul, would replace a riverside swathe of mostly low-income housing in Hanoi into a modern urban area, with shopping malls, convention centres, condos and offices. 

The city will next year begin resettling 170,000 people at a cost of $1.56 billion to clear land for infrastructure construction, the Hanoi Architecture and Urban Planning Department said in a report on Tuesday, making available a 40 km-long riverfront area totalling 1,260 hectares (3,113 acres). 

Officials said more than $580 million would be needed to reinforce flood prevention *****, and $3.6 billion to develop malls, convention centres, condominiums and office buildings. 

Once cleared, the land plots would be tendered to developers. 

"Korean developers are especially interested in this project and they have many advantages including strong support from their government and the Vietnamese government," a Hanoi-based property consultant said. 

South Korean developers such as Kumho Asiana and Keang Nam Enterprises are entering Vietnam's property market to cash in on soaring demand for quality office and residential space. 

Dealers said Korean companies were chasing property projects worth a total $4 billion, including a $2.5 billion investment by Kumho Asiana in Hanoi in what would be the country's biggest convention centre. 

Keang Nam last month began work on Keangnam Hanoi Landmark, Vietnam's tallest building, expected to cost $1.05 billion. 

Foreign developers, mainly from Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea, have pledged to invest billions in hotels, apartments and offices in Hanoi, Danang and Ho Chi Minh City amid a Vietnamese property bonanza. 

Property prices, especially for apartments and condos, in big cities have increased by more than half in the past year to about $1,000-$3,000 per square metre, with most projects sold out before construction began, dealers said. 

The government has promised to ease restrictions this year, dealers said, to allow resident foreigners and Vietnamese with foreign passports to own property, a move expected to boost prices further.


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## hkskyline

*Landmark Johannesburg building to get facelift in effort to renew notorious slum *
13 October 2007

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) - Ponte City, one of Johannesburg's most famous landmarks -- and a notorious slum -- is getting a facelift, boosting urban renewal efforts in one of the most dangerous cities in the world. 

Gray and drab, the concrete cylinder of an apartment block towers 173 meters, or 568 feet, above the flatlands of Hillbrow, a much feared area in Johannesburg's decaying inner city. 

Now it has been bought up by developers who have given it a lick of paint and plan to turn it into a desirable address. 

In celebration of this iconic building, Johannesburg residents got a rare chance Saturday to climb to the top of its 54 stories -- and even parachute off the roof or rappel down its open central core. 

"Ponte City is a symbol of Johannesburg," said Ngaire Blackenberg, representative for developer Investagain, which bought the building for 170 million rands (US$25 million, euro18 million) and plan to spend 150 million rands (US$22 million, euro16 million) refurbishing it. 

"It went through a slump for a while, as did Johannesburg. But now the new Ponte embodies the drive to transform Johannesburg into a truly world-class African city," she said. 

With its gigantic flashing neon advertisement, Ponte City dominates Johannesburg's skyline and has been featured in numerous films and books celebrating the gritty allure of the former gold mining town, now a major African metropolis. 

Built in 1976, it is a failed architectural attempt at avant-garde skyscraper living that came complete with penthouses done in wall-to-wall shag carpeting. 

However, in recent years the building has fallen into a state of disrepair along with the surrounding neighborhoods as residents and businesses fled the crime and grime taking over the inner city. 

Today, it has a reputation for being home to illegal immigrants, prostitutes, drug dealers and a suicide hot spot. 

A plan was once mooted to turn it into a prison, and various other developers have tried and failed to revive the building. 

This week the architect Rodney Grosskopff told a local newspaper that he was disappointed that Ponte, as it is locally known, was not voted the ugliest building in Johannesburg. 

"It was more scary to come here than going off the edge," said Edgar Gaiao, as he prepared to BASE jump from the top of the building. 

From the thin catwalk circling the top of the neon light, the view of Johannesburg is spectacular but the ground and blooming Jacaranda trees look frighteningly faraway. 

"In the beginning it was very trashed. But it has changed substantially," he said, as the sound of a police siren drifted up from the streets below. 

The garbage that had piled up in the central core has been cleared and construction workers are on site, putting up scaffolding and laying cement. 

Most of the 3,000 residents have moved out, but the top floors are still occupied and those who were not waiting patiently for an elevator were watching the crowd of eager abseilers. 

The developers are planning apartments worth between 400,000 rands and 900,000 rands (US$59,000 to US$133,000; euro42,000 to euro94,000) as well as shops, restaurants, a spa and state-of-the-art gym. 

Lael Bethlehem, head of the Johannesburg Development Agency, is confident the time is right for this latest effort to succeed in saving the landmark building. 

"You can look at this building in two ways. You can say: 'What an old building' or you can say: "What incredible potential it has.' The fact that these investors stepped forward and said we see the potential says a lot about the future of Johannesburg," she said at the event Saturday. 

The city has put huge effort and resources into its urban renewal programs and it is beginning to show results. 

Lured by cheap prices in an inflated property market, developers are snapping up buildings in the inner city, businesses are moving back and a number of housing projects have been built. 

Close to a number of stadiums that are being upgraded for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the area around Ponte City is undergoing a major overhaul in preparation for thousands of visitors. 

"Events like this draw attention to the incredible things people are doing," Bethlehem said. "It builds confidence and investment." 

Nigerian Chris Adolphus, who has been living on Ponte's 46th floor for two years, is not so convinced. 

"I know they are trying to uplift it," he says, waiting for one of the few slow lifts still working. "But Hillbrow has no good name anymore. If I was a rich man, I don't think I would live here."


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## hkskyline

*New Los Angeles theater joins condos, restaurants,shopping areas in downtown revival *
17 October 2007

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A new theater clad in brushed aluminum and bright video screens is beckoning concertgoers into a once-seedy corner of downtown where entertainment used to be limited to peepshows and X-rated movie houses. 

The Nokia Theatre is part of a $2.5 billion (euro1.8 billion) project known as L.A. Live that includes a 54-story condo-and-hotel tower, ESPN studios, a Grammy museum, movie theaters, restaurants, nightclubs and a bowling alley. 

The complex, being opened in phases over the next few years by developer AEG, is seen as a major milestone in the ongoing revival of an area that used to be an urban wasteland of small dying factories, empty lots and flophouses. 

"It's another example of the return of real life to downtown Los Angeles, a place that was stripped of its real life," said D.J. Waldie, who has written several books about Southern California history and culture. 

The Nokia Theater is sandwiched between the Staples Center sports arena, also developed by AEG, and a huge hole in the ground where the 1,225-unit condo-and-hotel building operated by the Ritz-Carlton Co. and JW Marriott will soon rise. 

Inside the glass-and-metal theater is a 7,100-seat auditorium where the Eagles and the Dixie Chicks will perform Thursday on opening night. 

Neil Young, Bjork and Anita Baker are to appear later this year on the Nokia's 14,000-square-foot (1300-sq. meter) stage -- said to be the largest in Southern California -- which is flanked by jumbo screens affixed to sparse gray walls. 

The Nokia Theatre, whose namesake paid a fee for branding rights and the privilege of showing off phones at concerts, also is scheduled to host this year's American Music Awards. 

AEG spokesman Michael Roth said the company is negotiating with other major awards shows and will soon announce which ones are moving to the Nokia.

That raises the prospect of events now broadcast from venues in Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Universal City being concentrated on one downtown stage with the towering city skyline as a backdrop. 

But the most impressive performance could be that of the booming downtown neighborhoods outside the Nokia.

"I would speak of it as another patch in the quilt of revitalization that we're weaving here," said Carol Schatz, president of the Central City Association, a business advocacy group. 

Central Los Angeles' recent successes range from the high-profile (the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall) to the mundane (the opening of a grocery store in an area that had no major supermarket for decades). 

Meanwhile, groundbreaking is expected this year on the $2 billion (euro1.4 billion) Grand Avenue project about a mile north of L.A. Live. The 16-acre (6.5-hectare) development will include a hotel, condo skyscraper, a park, and clusters of shopping and dining areas. 

The boom in condominium and apartment construction boosted downtown's residential population from about 18,700 in 1998 to more than 28,900 in 2006, according to the Central City Association. That's a small fraction of the 3.8 million within the Los Angeles city limits, but still a major increase. 

By 2009, some 40,000 are expected to be living downtown. 

"I've seen it just magically come out of the ashes," said former mayor Richard Riordan, who led the city in the 1990s and owns the Original Pantry Cafe, a venerable all-night diner near the new theater. "When I bought the restaurant in the 1980s, it was in the slums." 

Many historians pin the area's downfall on redevelopment projects in the 1960s that demolished downtown neighborhoods and replaced homes with high-rise office buildings. 

The result was "a kind of acropolis of Fortune 500 companies" where there were once vibrant residential districts and bustling shopping streets, Waldie said. 

Aside from the homeless people on Skid Row and transients who lived in residential hotels, the downtown of the second-largest U.S. city was a ghost town once offices closed. 

Crime, recession and the economic fallout from events like the South Los Angeles race riots in 1992 and the 1994 Northridge earthquake thwarted efforts to revive downtown neighborhoods over the next three decades, Waldie said. 

The turning point came in the late 1990s, when the city passed its so-called adaptive reuse ordinance that allowed office buildings to be transformed into condos and apartment buildings. Developers bought up long-empty but architecturally spectacular vintage office buildings and warehouses that were converted into lofts now selling for millions. 

City officials also extended a package of loans and hotel-tax rebates to AEG, which led the company to build Staples Center, home of the Lakers, and commit to finishing L.A. Live. 

That downtown gamble encouraged other developers to break ground on their own projects, said Timothy J. Leiweke, president of AEG subsidiary AEG Live, which owns and operates the complex. 

"We didn't build the grocery store and we don't have any dry cleaner, but all of that came because they saw L.A. Live, they saw Staples Center -- they knew where the downtown community was going," he said. "I think we probably gave everyone spine."


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## pdxheel

Portland, OR (South Waterfront)

http://www.southwaterfrontneighbors.com/sites/pages/17236/front.jpg

http://www.lazenbyassociates.net/SouthWaterfront.jpg

http://www.geonlaw.com/UnderConstruction.jpg

http://ktransit.com/transit/uspnw/portland/tram/pdx-ariel-021707-08.jpg


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## hkskyline

*Johannesburg landmark sheds no-go image *

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - The tallest apartment block in Africa, which has long symbolized Johannesburg's inner-city decay, is shedding its image as a no-go zone in a radical makeover aimed at young urban professionals. 

Overrun by drug dealers and gangsters in the 1990s, the 54-storey cylindrical Ponte, whose 173 meters (570 feet) offer bird's eye views of downtown and neighbouring Ellis Park stadium, had been a byword for danger. 

But the team behind a 200-million-rand (20-million-euro, 30-million-dollar) makeover believe apartments within Ponte will soon be regarded as hot property, especially in the build-up the 2010 football World Cup finals in South Africa. 

"It's an amazing building, very symbolic of the 'brutalist' architecture of its time," says Belgian-born Morroccan developer Nour Addine Ayyoub, one of the project's masterminds along with South African partner David Selvan. 

Sales manager Ngaire Blankenberg acknowledged the giant concrete edifice may not be to everyone's taste but it was ideal for people who enjoy urban living and want to avoid getting caught up in rush hour traffic. 

"People have a very strong relationship with this building: they love it or they hate it," she said. 

"We are targetting upper middle class, the gay community, professionals, finance people who work downtown and want to avoid traffic jams." 

After a conversation on her cellphone with one potential buyer, Blankenberg said that he sounded like the prototype Ponte homeowner. 

"We receive at least five calls a day, most of the time from quite young people in their thirties, forties," she said. 

"This call was from a young gay, who sounds white. He just got a job in the city and doesn't want to spend three hours a day driving from and to the northern suburbs," she said after answering her cellphone. 

Members of the city's large gay community have been specifically targetted by the sales team. 

"We gave away pamphlets at the Gay Pride" which took place in Johannesburg earlier this month, said Blankenberg. 

The tallest residential building in the whole of the southern hemisphere when it was built in 1975, Ponte was initially seen as a symbol of modernity and prosperity in the City of Gold. 

But as sky-high crime rates prompted many businesses to move out of the city centre in the 1990s, it became a haven for violent gangs, often dominated by immigrants from other parts of Africa. 

Its reputation for danger was cemented by the grimy crime thriller "Ponte City", written by the German author Norman Ohler, which is centred around the story of a young woman who falls in with a Nigerian drug lord. 

In 1998, Ponte was even touted to be turned into a prison but the idea was soon abandoned and a new management team was installed and clamped down on criminality and squatting. 

Ayyoub is convinced that Ponte's image is outdated and based as much on its proximity to the crime-ridden suburb of Hillbrow. 

"The Ponte's bad fame is more a matter of perceptions than facts. The reality now is that it is a very safe building, where all tenants pay their rent," he said. 

In the countdown to the 2010 World Cup, the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) is to spend some 700 million rand on the neighbourhood, splashing out on everything from schools to street lighting and overhauling public parks. 

"To date approximately 60 million rand have been spent in the precinct and a further 150 million rand will be spent between now and July next year," JDA spokesman Sammy Mafu told AFP. 

Blankenberg denied the developers were only worried about making a quick buck and said existing tenants would not simply be turfed out onto the streets. 

"We have a real vision for the neighbourhood and we have been very careful that the people have been treated properly to make the process as smooth as possible," she said. 

"Most of them had short leases, of one year, so we wait until the lease is finished. For the others, there is a three-months notice." 

Builders and decorators are currently hard at work renovating some 300 flats on floors 11 to 34. Each are designed in one of six different styles including Moroccan and Glam Rock, described as "a sophisticated mix of indulgent velvet and satins mixed with neo-classical pieces." 

Nearly 80 percent of the first set of flats which will be ready for occupancy at the end of April were snapped up within two days of going on sale. 

Prices range from 400,000 rand for a studio apartment to nearly 900,000 rand for a three-bedroom flat, a fairly reasonable price by Johannesburg standards. 

Once completed, the complex will also include secure parking, restaurants, an upmarket shopping mall, a gymnasium and even an indoor climbing wall. 

"I am a happy man! My dream is to drive to the Ponte at night and have a cocktail or to climb on weekends, as I am an indoor climber," said Ayyoub, who is still to decide on what to do with six penthouses on the top three floors. 

"A panoramic restaurant? A hotel for businessmen?"


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## hkskyline

*Work begins on first stretch of Atlanta's Beltline *
20 October 2007

ATLANTA (AP) - Volunteers will begin clearing debris from a trail along the first stretch of Atlanta's Beltline project on Saturday -- the first step in the $2.8 billion redevelopment project approved two years ago by city, county and school officials. 

The Beltline will take decades to complete, and will circle the city with 33 miles of trails, 22 miles of transit, parks and new development. Currently, most of the land is made up of largely abandoned freight railroad corridors. 

Tina Arbes, chief operating officer of BeltLine Inc. said the work begun on Saturday -- clearing a 1.7 mile walking and biking trail in Southwest Atlanta -- is a very important beginning for the project. 

"It becomes a real demonstration of what the whole Beltline project is all about," Arbes told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

Areas clogged with weeds, trash and kudzu will be cleared and transformed into a park with manicured lawns, paved paths, and new trees. The path will wind through the West End and Westview neighborhoods. Construction is expected to begin early next year and is scheduled to last about eight months. 

After years of behind-the-scenes work, this weekend's efforts are the first part of the project people will be able to see and use, said EdMcBrayer, executive director of the nonprofit PATH Foundation, which is working with BeltLine Inc. 

"This will make it real," McBrayer said. "All of this work isn't just a pipe dream." 

The Beltline's progress has partly been hampered because a special property tax district has been challenged in court, where the case remains. Much of the Beltline will be paid for by incremental increases in city, county and school property taxes in the tax district, including propety surrounded by the Beltline. 

The trail portion started on Saturday is not affected by the funding dispute because it is being paid for by grants, including a federal grant that will pay for about half of the project. It was chosen first because the PATH Foundation has been working for years to build a trail in the area.


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## Jaeger

Some of London's Major Projects -

2012 Olympics - http://www.london2012.com/

Stratford Redvelopment - http://www.futurestratford.com/

Canary Wharf/Docklands - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Wharf

Kings Cross Redevelopment - http://kingscross.argentgroup.plc.uk/

White City Redevelopment - http://www.whitecitydevelopment.com/

Elephant and Castle Redevelopment - http://www.elephantandcastle.org.uk/

Thames Gateway Redevelopment - http://www.ltgdc.org.uk/

Wembley Redevelopment - http://www.brent.gov.uk/wembley.nsf

Paddington Basin Redevelopment - http://www.merchantsquare.co.uk/main/index.php

Croydon Redevelopment - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croydon_Gateway

Brent Cross/Cricklewood Redevelopment - http://www.northlondon.org.uk/index.php/36/key-developments/

St Pancras High speed One - http://stpancras.eurostar.com/

Crossrail - http://www.crossrail.co.uk/

Thameslink - http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/1326.aspx

London Transport Projects - http://www.alwaystouchout.com/

Plus the City of London's massive redvelopment and other skyscraper/building developments throughout London


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## hkskyline

*Tucson falls short of downtown revitalization; Albuquerque pulls ahead *
5 November 2007

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - Tucson and Albuquerque started out in much the same way. 

Both were hubs of commerce and the center of life in their states in the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, and both fell into disrepair after urban renewal leveled parts of their central cores in the 1970s. 

But now there's one big difference between them -- since both redoubled their downtown revitalization efforts in 1999, Albuquerque has pulled ahead of Tucson in terms of activities and amenities, nightlife and first-class lodging. 

And that's despite the fact that Tucson got more than $100 million in state money for revitalization efforts, a pot that overflowed to $600 million in 2005. 

Albuquerque didn't have that luxury. It had to go to voters each time to approve funding for specific projects, like an increase in the gross-receipts tax to pay for an aquarium and several small bond issues to expand museums. 

Albuquerque accomplished much of its renaissance by offering developers tax breaks and low-cost loans, as well as with private investments and fundraising. 

"The two cities are mirror images of each other in many ways," said Charlie Gray, executive director of the Greater Albuquerque Innkeepers Association, and former manager of what is now the Hotel Arizona in downtown Tucson. 

He said the cities have grown the same way, with downtowns ringed by historic neighborhoods, a midtown university, a south-side Air Force Base, and populations continuing to sprawl outward until hitting nearby mountains and crawling up the foothills. 

And both cities' ideas about how to fix downtown mirrored each other, including a convention-center hotel, an aquarium, a civic plaza, a museum district, condo projects to draw downtown residents, the revitalization of a historic theater and the construction of a new arena. 

While all but one of those ideas are now a reality in Albuquerque, Tucson has had only one major project come to fruition, the Fox Theatre. 

"I think they've done a great job with what they have had," said Jaret Barr, project manager for Tucson's Convention Center hotel search. "They had a real advantage. They truly had a commitment on the corporate, business and government sides. We didn't have that type of commitment." 

Former Albuquerque Mayor Jim Baca said Albuquerque's top business leaders were crammed into a room and told they couldn't leave until they agreed to make a contribution to downtown revitalization. 

He said the group collecting $250,000 that night. 

To be successful, Baca said, a city must win over the private sector and must have the political leadership. 

"Someone has got to make a priority and fight for it," he said. "If you don't, there are a million ways to stop it." 

Tucson City Manager Mike Hein said Tucson has fallen behind because it has lacked private sector and political leadership "coalesce." 

He also pointed to the practice of giving often no-bid deals to developers with little or no competition -- projects that stalled once the deal with the city was locked into place, developing an attitude that city subsidies were entitlements needed to get anything done. 

"It makes everyone lazy," Barr said. "People have forgotten how they build things in other places."


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## hkskyline

*Urban universities helping to revitalize neighborhoods while improving campus experience *
6 November 2007 

DETROIT (AP) - When people around here talk about "Midtown," the discussion generally concerns new condos, small businesses and lifestyle. 

Not long ago, the neighborhood separating Wayne State University's campus from downtown mostly contained ramshackle buildings and rat-infested alleys and was notorious for its drug houses and prostitutes. 

"We use the euphemism today and call it Midtown, but it was the Cass Corridor and everyone knew what the Cass Corridor was," Wayne State President Irvin Reid said. 

When Reid arrived in 1997, he set about transforming the reputation of the faded community bordering the 200-acre urban campus, with Cass Avenue as its main thoroughfare. 

As developers added upscale condos and townhouses costing up to $600,000 per unit, the university also went to work. 

Wayne State has spent more than $1 billion in the past decade for on- and off-campus housing and building projects. 

"More people are realizing the action is in Midtown Detroit," Reid said. "As we fulfill our strategic mission to revitalize Detroit, we have become part of the growing rhythm of this diverse neighborhood." 

Anchored by the university and a cultural district that includes the Detroit Institute of Arts, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and Orchestra Hall -- home of the Detroit Symphony -- Midtown has become a destination for tourists and residents alike. 

More than 20 housing developments have been built. A $36 million apartment development is going up on university-owned land. 

"Universities can't just pick up and move like corporations," said Roland Anglin, executive director for the Initiative for Regional and Community Transformation at New Jersey's Rutgers University. "They really do have a stock investment in buildings and history in those communities." 

Many urban schools are doing more outside the classroom to revitalize their neighborhoods and improve students' experiences on and off campus. 

An early effort was in 1950s Chicago. Federal funds, private investment and $29 million from the University of Chicago were used to demolish old buildings and clear tracts of land to transform Hyde Park into a vibrant college community. 

The University of Cincinnati is a partner in various redevelopment programs expected to lead to $500 million in new construction near the campus. 

And Rutgers donated parking lots to the city of Camden to help create market-rate row houses in one neighborhood. Each of the 18 townhouses being built has been sold, university spokesman Mike Sepanic said. 

Rutgers also is seeking proposals from developers to convert a former law school building on its Newark campus into student housing or a hotel. It's part of the university's plan to create an "academic village," a phrase more schools are using to describe their relationships with the community. 

Schools have to be proactive in removing blight and making sure the area around campus is attractive and safe, Reid said. 

"You have to have the foresight to know there is an opportunity for acquiring the land," he said. "You can't just grab land ... for no purpose at all." 

General Motors Corp. donated a building just north of campus to Wayne State for a technology center. 

Wayne State is promoting new housing in the area to more than 8,200 faculty and staff and nearly 31,000 students. In return, the companies are offering incentives ranging from a year without mortgage payments to thousands of dollars in upgrades to free parking spaces. 

Add small, affordable eateries, a coffeehouse, bookstore and hair salon, and the campus becomes more of an attraction for people living in and visiting Midtown. 

"It's critically important to have new retail and new restaurants," said Susan Mosey, president of the University Cultural Center Association. "It's another reason for students to want to live in the dorm or in apartments." 

The same is proving true near the University of Cincinnati. 

University Park and Stratford Village are helping transform neighborhoods that Tony Brown, chief executive of a nonprofit consortium working with the school on the projects, calls "slum-like." 

"The university discovered that if students were coming to look at the campus, the parents were saying, `Where is my child going to live?'" Brown said. 

For an urban university to be a part of the community, it has to reach out and not become an island, Reid said. 

"This does not happen in one day, one year or, for that matter, in 10 years," he said. "It takes time."


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## hkskyline

*Rundown London area back on track thanks to Eurostar *

LONDON, Nov 13, 2007 (AFP) - Notorious 10 years ago as a hotspot for drugs and prostitution, London's Kings Cross area -- home to St Pancras station -- is in the middle of a major transformation surrounding the new Eurostar rail hub. 

Although the makeover of St Pancras from a faded 19th century gothic gem to a wifi-enabled 21st century terminal was finished before the launch set for Wednesday, builders are still working on a string of projects in the area. 

The roads around the station are still clogged and noisy with construction traffic and Kings Cross will soon undergo "a real transformation", said Alistair Lansley, the architect in charge, who hopes the area will eventually rival London's Regent Street as a shopping destination. 

The area in north central London is dominated by St Pancras and Kings Cross, which connect London with central and northern England, and officials are hoping to transform the space between the two major rail stations. 

"There is a massive area of land that will be completely regenerated -- it's a massive three billion pound (4.2 billion euro, 6.2 billion dollar) project," said Michael Luddy, head of the project for London and Continental Railways (LCR), which manages the services in Britain. 

"The station triggers that development." 

Perhaps the most radical change will be to the red-brick St Pancras railway hotel, whose spire dominates the local skyline and which has lain empty for years after an improbable spell as an office block. 

The building, which featured in the 2005 film "Batman Begins", is being revamped and will reopen in 2009 as a five-star Marriott hotel featuring apartments. 

The new 245 room hotel, whose last paying guest checked out in 1935, will see elements of the Grade One-listed building restored to their former glory, while also featuring restaurants, bars and a leisure centre. 

Elsewhere, crumbling buildings and warehouses will eventually be replaced by a university of the arts, schools, sports facilities and health centres as part of a huge, 10-year project. 

The regeneration will "glorify" historic buildings while also developing sustainable, modern ones, Lansley said. 

The British Library moved to Kings Cross 10 years ago, while many well-known employers are building new offices there, including the Guardian newspaper and Sainsbury's supermarket. 

The project also gives north London something to shout about after years in which the south and east of the city -- particularly around the Docklands financial district and 2012 Olympic zone -- have been the focus of development. 

Tailor Paul Hawley, who has lived in the area for 10 years, said it had changed dramatically in that time from "an armpit" to a "very desirable" part of town. 

"This place used to be really rough and now it's a very good place for a family," he said. 

"Prices are going up, businesses are relocating to this area, simply because Kings Cross is a hub of transportation for central London." 

Anette Dal Jensen, marketing manager of the Big Chill bar which recently opened in the area, added: "It's a very exciting area, we're kind of pioneering, there are quite a lot of bars opening around here, design studios." 

Now, the former industrial building which houses the Big Chill has been transformed into a stylish DJ bar, complete with cocktails and projectors, which attracts a fashionable young crowd, many of whom live nearby. 

To celebrate the arrival of Eurostar, the bar is to show a series of films commissioned from artists celebrating the area's industrial heritage.


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## hkskyline

*Giant project to rebuild Beirut's southern suburbs comes into effect *
9 November 2007

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Hezbollah banners across south Beirut proclaim, "We will build it nicer than it was," as thousands of workers lay foundations for new apartment buildings, repairing the devastation wreaked by Israeli bombardment in last year's war. 

In Lebanon's biggest construction project in a decade, Hezbollah has begun rebuilding homes for thousands of people in mainly Shiite south Beirut, its longtime stronghold, where large swaths were flattened by Israeli warplanes and warships. 

The campaign is likely to boost the Shiite militant group's standing in Lebanon -- and, ironically, Hezbollah is paying for it largely with international donations that were meant to strengthen its top rival, Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. 

From the start, reconstruction after the 34-day war in the summer of 2006 -- which also devastated towns and villages in southern and eastern Lebanon -- has been more than a humanitarian issue. It has become part of the political power struggle between Saniora's government and Hezbollah, an ally of Iran and Syria, in a contest to show who can do the most for their people. 

"If this project succeeds, it will give credit to Hezbollah on a political as well as a popular level," Adnan Sayyed Hussein, a professor of international relations at Beirut's Lebanese University, said of the south Beirut reconstruction. 

In south Beirut -- the large suburb known as Dahiyeh that is home to hundreds of thousands of people -- work began over the summer. Builders and architects work nearly 12 hours a day at construction sites under the close watch of Hezbollah members, seen speaking on walkie-talkies. 

During a recent tour of the district by an AP reporter and photographer, dozens of workers were hammering together wooden frames and erecting iron bars in preparation to pour the foundation for a new building on the site that once was the Secretariat General building of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. 

The building was destroyed along with others in Hezbollah's headquarters complex in the so-called "security square" -- but Hezbollah officials would not say whether the new buildings planned there would still be used as a headquarters. 

A Hezbollah member accompanied AP on the tour of Dahiyeh, where Hezbollah has been restricting journalists from going without prior permission from its media office. 

Cement mixers stood in line, waiting their turn to unload at sites around the district, where workers in red helmets and vests were preparing the foundations for other buildings. 

The $370 million project is being directed by Waad, a branch of Hezbollah's construction arm, "Jihad al-Bina," Arabic for "Holy Struggle of Construction." 

Waad is aiming to transform Dahiyeh, rebuilding 213 of the district's 300 destroyed buildings, including 3,700 housing units as well as shops, offices, warehouses and schools, said Hassan Jishi, Waad's general manager. 

It will also build parking lots and gardens and improve roads in the district. Jihad al-Bina will also repair and renovate hundreds of damaged buildings in Dahiyeh. 

At one construction site, foreman Ali Mistrah said the construction was a national duty and a show of defiance to Israel. 

"Israel destroys and we rebuild," said the 73-year-old, whose son was killed in a clash with Israeli troops in 1986 and whose home in southern Lebanon was destroyed during last year's war. 

The name "Waad" -- Arabic for "Promise" -- refers to a television address made by Nasrallah hours after the war ended on Aug. 14, 2006. Nasrallah declared victory and promised Hezbollah would help Lebanese rebuild, saying, "Completing the victory can be done with reconstruction." 

Hezbollah quickly gave each family that lost its home $12,000 to rent an apartment and buy furniture until their houses are rebuilt. 

Meanwhile, Saniora's government asked the world to give money for reconstruction and received millions of dollars, mostly from Arab and Islamic nations. Foremost among them, Saudi Arabia -- a strong supporter of Saniora and opponent of Hezbollah -- gave $550 million. The government has since been distributing donor funds to families whose homes were destroyed to allow them to rebuild. 

But in Dahiyeh, much of that money is going to Hezbollah. In February, Waad received power of attorney from most of the district's families to rebuild their homes -- and in return, the families promised Waad their government compensation money, about $53,000 each family. 

If the money collected from the residents is not enough, the remainder will be paid by Jihad al-Bina, Jishi said. Hezbollah is known to have received billions of dollars from Iran since the group was founded in 1982. 

Sanaa al-Jack, government spokeswoman for relief and reconstruction projects, said the government was aware that compensation money was going to Hezbollah in south Beirut but refused to comment. 

She said the money given to families does not include U.S. donations to Saniora's government over the past year, meaning American money could not be going to Waad. 

Asked if Hezbollah fears a new war will destroy what it is building now, Sami Rislan of Waad's Architecture Department said, "We expect anything from Israel but this does not mean that life should stop." 

"The construction will show a nice image following an aggression that took place here. We have turned this aggression into something nice," he said. 

http://www.waad-rebuild.com


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## [email protected]

Now, Ginza is hot.
These opened this year.








































Opened 2006.








Open 30.11, 2007.


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## hkskyline

*Conference looks at urban renewal *
STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Wednesday, Dec 05, 2007, Page 2










Local officials and land developers keen to learn from the UK's experience in urban regeneration projects attended a conference yesterday.

"We don't have enough experience in major urban redevelopment here in Taiwan. That is why we're having this conference to learn from the UK, which has enjoyed success in this field and developed its expertise," Construction and Planning Agency director-general Charles Lin said.

Lin said that the conference, co-organized by the agency and the British Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei (BTCO), would bring valuable knowledge and experience to the participants.

"Urban regeneration is not easy and it can be expensive. But it's an important task for any modern country," BTCO Director Michael Reilly said, adding that he was glad that up to 10 regions had been selected to undertake urban transformation.

With a series of successful examples in the US and the UK as inspiration, Taiwan will pour billions of NT dollars into urban regeneration projects starting at the end of year, including the renovation of railway stations in Hsinchu, Keelung, Chiayi and Kaohsiung, as well as improvements to Taipei's Huakuang Community near National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall, Lin said.

During the industrial revolution and following World War II, many large scale, cheap housing projects were built in Britain without taking into consideration cultural and social aspects of a community, said Rupert Robinson, board codirector of the British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA).

This is why urban renewal was necessary, he said.

Urban renewal requires revamping or removing buildings and relocating residents, he said, adding this required cooperation between the government, developers and residents.

Reaching a consensus with the community is extremely important, said Shawn Riley, also a BURA codirector.

"Developers and the government had to tell the residents exactly which part of town needed to be regenerated first and what the town would be like in phase one, two and three, so they had a clear picture of what the future would be," Riley said.

The government was also expected to improve infrastructure with the goal of facilitating the area's economic growth and to attract private investment to ensure a well-structured financing plan, Robinson said.

In Taiwan, the government should be very careful with the role it plays during the process because resources are limited, Lin said.

"We have to make it right, not spread it out," he said.


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## ParisianStyle

EUROMEDITERRANEE Marseille, France

Lancé il y a dix ans, le projet Euroméditerranée vise à faire de Marseille, premier port de France, un centre tertiaire méditerranéen et de portée internationale. 












CMA-CGM Tower, by Zaha Hadid :










Euromed Center, by Massimiliano Fuksas :










MUCEM (European and Mediterranean Civilisations Museum) , by Rudy Riccioti :



















Esplanade de la Major :










Immeuble "Le Sextant" :










Esplanade des Terrasses :










Immeuble "Coeur Méditerranée" :










New Tramway :


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## hkskyline

* Man who greened Seoul now sets sights on all SKorea *
AFP
Thu Dec 6, 10:52 AM ET























































As mayor of Seoul, Lee Myung-Bak transformed one of Asia's grimmest urban centres by opening up a waterway through the heart of the city. Now he plans to do the same for the entire country.

Lee's achievements in greening the congested capital of 10 million people made him one of Time magazine's "heroes of the environment" in October.

The showpiece project -- the Cheonggyecheon stream -- had attracted more than 50 million visits as of June, almost two years after it was restored.

Lee, 65, is now using his reputation as a "can do" mayor to run for the presidency as candidate of the opposition Grand National Party.

So far, he is clear frontrunner.

Along with other green projects, a waterway on a grand scale is a key campaign pledge -- a 14-trillion-won (14.7-billion-dollar) cross-country canal which would link northern and southern rivers and slash transport costs.

Lee's conversion to the green cause was dramatic. His then-employers Hyundai Construction had helped bury Cheonggyecheon stream under an elevated highway during the country's breakneck dash for growth in the 1960s and 1970s.

When he became mayor in 2002, the man once nicknamed "The Bulldozer" for his driving energy saw that times had changed.

"When Korea was just rising from the ruins of war, we didn't have the luxury to look far into the future and care for environmental and cultural issues," Lee told AFP when the stream opened in September 2005.

"We are now at a point where those issues have become a priority."

Seoul must go green, not just for the sake of its residents but to prosper in the global marketplace, he said at the time. "Over the next decade Seoul will become a city that is both green and modern."

The tree-lined Cheonggyecheon, fed partly by water pumped from the Han river, flows for 5.8 km (3.5 miles) and cost around 370 million dollars. It was just one of a number of projects to change the face of the city.

Seoul Forest, a 223-million-dollar ecological park, opened in June 2005. City transport was revamped, with a cleaner fleet of buses taking to the traffic-choked roads.

Seoul Plaza, formerly a concrete circle outside City Hall, was dug up and covered with grass.

Lee believes South Korea cannot become an advanced country without a far-sighted programme to preserve the environment, according to his presidential campaign staff.

His Green Korea project, costing 1.5 trillion won a year, would support North Korea's reforestation, turn the border Demilitarised Zone into a green park, drastically expand urban forests, preserve rural woodland and develop a waterfront linked to his grand canal project.

The canal would connect Seoul to Busan, the country's second-largest city 420 kilometres (262 miles) to the southeast, within four years.

The Korean Peninsula's Great Waterway, he says on his website, will be "the environmental revitalisation of the 21st century" -- linking four major rivers and improving water quality through dredging and other clean-up measures.

The grand canal, he claims, would also reduce flooding, create an international tourist attraction and -- most importantly -- slash transport costs and improve the environment by taking container traffic off the roads.

Opponents say it could turn into a white elephant that will weigh heavily on the budget, with unpredictable environmental and ecological consequences.

Lee is publicly sticking to his canal plan although his aides promise further consultations.

"There's nothing we can imagine if we don't imagine the future, if we don't imagine how the Korean peninsula will change, if we dwell in the past and say the rivers will dry and the water will get bad," he said earlier this year.


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## raggedy13

Vancouver's Southeast False Creek & Olympic Village

Thanks to a lot of effort by SFUVancouver/Vancouverite...



SFUVancouver said:


> In Vancouver we are building the 2010 Winter Olympics Athlete's Village to exceptional levels of sustainability. After the games three quarters of the the 1,000+ residential dwellings will be sold at market rates while approximately 250 will become non-market housing for seniors and low income singles and families. This is intended to be a demonstration of the best urban planning, architectural, and engineering practices in the world today and act as the model for future local high-density development. The larger Southeast False Creek neighbourhood, of which the Olympic Village is the first phase, will include an elementary school, a streetcar line, parks, day cares, commercial, retail, office space, at least one grocery store, a community centre, a marina for non-motorized boats and kayaks, and a mixture of subsidized and market housing for 10,000 to 15,000 people, all built to very high levels of environmental sustainability (minimum LEED Silver equivalence).
> 
> The *16 building, 1.4 million square foot, single phase* Olympic Village is being built to the *LEED Gold* standard while the Community Centre is being built to *LEED Platinum*. The building that will become seniors' housing is going to attempt to reach the *Net-Zero* standard, which represents annual energy, water, and carbon neutrality. All of the buildings will feature green roofs, passive solar design, beyond-code insulation and glazing, and low/no VOC paint and carpets. Rain water will be retained in cisterns to be used for irrigation of the green roofs and landscaping. The buildings will be heated and cooled using an in-slab hydronic system connected to a hybrid district heating/cooling system powered by high-efficiency natural gas boilers and heat exchange system that will use both ground-source heat pipes and an innovative heat exchange system tied into the sewer pipes to recover their latent heat. Electricity comes from local hydroelectric dams. A streetcar will run through the neighbourhood and connect it to two nearby rapid transit stations. All parking is underground and well below average in its parking to dwelling ratio.
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> As an interesting final note, after the Olympics the buyers of the Village’s apartments and rowhouses will be given the names and nationalities of the athletes who stayed in their homes while competing. I think that’s a nice touch.
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> Aerial photo source:  http://www.globalairphotos.com/images/bc/vancouver/2007/vch2007_457.jpg
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> A link to a _very_ large, hand-stitched panorama I took in the summer of 2007 showing the construction and context of the Olympic Village. There are 13 or 14 cranes visible in this photo.
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> The Olympic Village precinct at sunset, October 22nd, 2007.
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> _Lots_ more information can be found at:
> City of Vancouver Olympic Village site.
> www.MillenniumWater.com is the developer's sales website.
> Olympic Village thread in the Vancouver section of this forum.
> 
> 
> Thank you ImageShack for free photo hosting.


And thanks to Delirium...


Delirium said:


>



And a couple pics I took this week...


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## hkskyline

*Hotel-condos-spa called last, best part of SouthSide Works*
Friday, December 14, 2007
By Daniel Malloy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette










The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh yesterday announced the sale of one acre of land in the SouthSide Works to DOC-Economou for development of a mixed-used complex that will feature a luxury hotel and condominiums, spa/fitness center, and event, office, and retail space.The $48 million coup de grace of the SouthSide Works complex is officially in the works.

The city Urban Redevelopment Authority yesterday approved the sale of an acre of land to DOC-Economou for a mixed-use development containing a luxury hotel and condominiums, as well as a 20,000-square-foot spa. It is scheduled to open in summer 2009.

"This is the crowning jewel of the SouthSide Works development," said Phil Hugh, a principal of DOC-Economou.

The group has worked with the Soffer Organization, the primary developer of the former LTV Steel mill site, for 14 months on the project. URA originally purchased the site in 1993.

DOC-Economou, with offices in Pittsburgh, Chicago and Fort Myers, Fla., has built mixed-use developments around the country. But Mr. Hugh, who grew up in Fairchance, Fayette County, wanted to build in Pittsburgh and especially admired the booming "city within a city" at SouthSide Works.

The final steps were brokering a labor peace agreement with the hotel workers union and finalizing a parking plan. That paved the way for unanimous approval at yesterday's URA meeting.

"It's another great development right on the waterfront," said board chairman Yarone Zober. "We're all excited about that."

The development will boast "phenomenal views" of Downtown and the Monongahela or the South Side Slopes, Mr. Hugh said, from its 23 private condos and 140 hotel rooms.

In addition to the spa, the complex will have a two-story ballroom, an 18,000-square-foot events center, and 20,000 square feet of ground level space for dining and retail.

The 13-story structure will be at 27th Street across Tunnel Park from REI, directly on the riverfront.

"We were very happy with the process," Mark Delanna, vice president of development for Soffer, said at the meeting. "We always wanted a signature hotel. We had a perfect partner with the same vision and dream."

Also yesterday, the URA unanimously approved a $190,000 price reduction on the sale of the old G.C. Murphy's store and other properties on Fifth Avenue.

The amended price gives Washington County-based Millcraft Industries the property for $2.31 million, because it lost out on a tax break when URA took over the removal of asbestos and other hazardous materials from the site.

Daniel Malloy can be reached at [email protected] or 412-263-1731.
First published on December 14, 2007 at 12:00 am


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## PedroGabriel

hkskyline said:


> * Man who greened Seoul now sets sights on all SKorea *
> AFP
> Thu Dec 6, 10:52 AM ET


:applause:
We need someone like him.


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## hkskyline

*Downtown Phoenix gets massive maker, including new buildings, light rail *
31 January 2008

PHOENIX (AP) - Despite being America's fifth-largest city, Phoenix used to practically go to sleep after 5 p.m. Commuters deserted downtown high-rises in droves to return to the suburbs. Sidewalks were empty by early evening. 

These days, it is a different scene in the central business district: Coffee shops, restaurants and bars are open, filled with customers who have moved into new condos and students from the nearby campuses of Arizona's two largest universities. 

Downtown Phoenix is getting a massive makeover, including scores of new or refurbished buildings and a light-rail system. Cranes tower over the rapidly changing skyline. 

"Everyone disparages downtown Phoenix because it's not Manhattan or San Francisco," said Matt Pool, owner of two downtown restaurants. "It's kind of rewarding to see that maybe it does have potential." 

The improvements are in the U.S. spotlight this week as the city prepares to host Sunday's Super Bowl NFL football championship at the University of Phoenix Stadium in suburban Glendale. 

The development process began in 2004, when city leaders mapped out the next decade of downtown development. 

City Council members wanted to attract shoppers, visitors and residents by making downtown an attractive place to live and work. The centerpiece projects include a $600 million (euro403.5 million) expansion of a convention center and the creation of a downtown campus for Arizona State University. 

All the buildings are going up simultaneously and set to be partially or fully completed by the end of this year and in 2009. 

"What's happening in downtown Phoenix is truly unlike anything that has occurred in any other major city in the United States in such a short time," Mayor Phil Gordon said. "It's so exciting to see the changes happen literally before your eyes." 

The efforts are being funded by various sources, including private investors, the government and taxpayers. For instance, voters approved paying for half of the convention center overhaul in 2001. Lawmakers and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano approved the rest of the money two years later. 

Voters also endorsed paying for Arizona State's downtown campus with $223 million (euro150 million) in bonds. The $1.4 billion (euro940 million) light-rail line is being funded by a transit tax and federal money. 

"We think that these projects we're making investments in today, they're going to pay long-term dividends," said John Chan, the city's downtown-development director. 

Chan said most of the projects should not be affected by the flagging U.S. economy, but that some high-rise condos that do not already have financing likely will have to wait until the slumping housing market recovers. 

The renaissance has dotted downtown with high-rises and dormitories on the same blocks that once had only dirt lots and run-down buildings. 

A 10-story building that used to loom over its surroundings is now overshadowed by what will be the state's largest hotel -- a 31-story, 1,000-room Sheraton wrapped around two sides of the existing building. 

Other improvements include the state's tallest condo tower and a $900 million (euro605 million) project known as CityScape, which will add 2.5 million square feet (230,000 square meters) of retail and entertainment venues, as well as apartments and two new hotels. 

Phoenix, with 1.5 million residents, stands out for the scale of its efforts, but a national movement toward downtown revitalization has encompassed other cities, including Miami, Portland, Oregon, Denver and San Diego. 

Urban planners say people are moving away from suburbanization and want the strong sense of place that downtowns offer. 

"After 50-some years of suburbanization, people are just getting to the point that there's something missing, and that something missing is that sense of connection and community," said Rhonda Phillips, director of Arizona State University's School of Community Resources & Development. 

Gretchen Henson, a 35-year-old dentist who bought a luxury loft in a downtown high-rise a year ago, said the changes are exciting. 

"I've lived in Phoenix since 1977, and this seems to be the first time the revitalization we've always talked about is happening," she said. 

------ 

On the Net: 

Phoenix Downtown Redevelopment: http://phoenix.gov/DOWNTOWN/ 

ASU's School of Community Resources & Development: http://scrd.asu.edu


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## hkskyline

*CHANGING NYC: Hospital, Greenwich Village at crossroads *
10 February 2008

NEW YORK (AP) - It could be the biggest development in 50 years in the city's historic Greenwich Village neighborhood. 

St. Vincent's Hospital wants to carry out an ambitious modernization involving a half-block of the city's most sought-after real estate. The plan would tear down the rambling hospital, replace it with a sleek high-rise that would dwarf many buildings in the neighborhood and build dozens of luxury apartments and townhouses on the site of the current hospital. 

The project has stirred up a considerable amount of opposition from neighbors and preservationists, with hundreds of people showing up at a recent hearing on the plan. 

Preservationists see it as a test case for larger questions about what will be saved in a city riding a wave of rebuilding, and how historic protections stack up against the goals of cash-strapped institutions looking to tap the value of their land. 

The 159-year-old Catholic hospital, which recently emerged from bankruptcy, calls the deal its best hope for safeguarding its own health and that of its patients. St. Vincent's, where the emergency room alone logged upward of 58,000 visits last year, would get a high-tech high-rise, instead of a hodgepodge of buildings so inelegantly grafted together that hallways, stairwells and elevators swallow almost 35 percent of the space. 

"We have to build a hospital and provide health care to this community. The best way for us to do that is to maximize our returns," St. Vincent's chief executive Henry Amoroso said in an interview. 

But neighbors are nervous about the project's size and potential to generate noise, traffic and overloaded schools and about the example they fear it could set. 

"This is a proposal of unprecedented proportions in our neighborhood ... and the ramifications are enormous," Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation executive director Andrew Berman said. 

St. Vincent's is in the heart of Greenwich Village, which traces its roots to the late 1700s and cherishes its quaint streets and bohemian reputation. 

The hospital has treated survivors of catastrophes ranging from the sinking of the Titanic to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and it runs one of the nation's oldest and biggest HIV treatment centers. It even rates a footnote in literary lore as the source of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay's middle name -- a tribute to the hospital's care for her uncle, according to a 1983 letter from the poet's sister to The New York Times Book Review. 

Founded by the Sisters of Charity, St. Vincent's retains a commitment to treating the needy. The hospital provided $41 million in unreimbursed treatment last year, Amoroso said. 

Hoping to streamline spending, St. Vincent's agreed in 1999 to merge with several other local Catholic hospitals. But the combined hospital system staggered under rising costs and more than $100 million in charity care, leading to the closure of some of the hospitals and a 2005 bankruptcy filing. 

The rebuilding plan was forged in the financial reorganization, which got a bankruptcy court's approval last July. 

The sleek, 321-foot-tall new hospital would replace St. Vincent's squat, six-floor medical office building, across Seventh Avenue from the hospital proper. Designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects LLP -- known for such marquee projects as expansions of Paris' Louvre museum -- the new hospital would boast an adventuresome almond shape and eco-friendly flourishes expected to reduce energy and water consumption. 

It would shave off about 90 of the 450 beds currently in use, partly by leasing space in another hospital for 80 psychiatric-care beds. But unlike the current building, it would have only single-bed rooms, reducing infection risks, Amoroso said. 

After the new hospital is finished, St. Vincent's old buildings would be demolished to make way for a 21-story apartment tower and 19 new townhouse-style buildings, together counting roughly 400 new residences. The apartment building would be about 50 feet taller than St. Vincent's tallest section today, according to data from the hospital and residential developer Rudin Management Co. Inc. 

The new hospital would soar 120 feet -- or 60 percent -- higher than the current St. Vincent's. 

Rudin would pay more than $300 million toward the new hospital's projected $700 million cost. Donations and borrowing would cover the rest. Rudin Executive Vice President John J. Gilbert III said the company couldn't yet estimate its potential profits because of construction cost uncertainties. 

The city Landmarks Preservation Commission, which reviews major changes to historic district building exteriors, is examining the proposal. The project is likely to need various other approvals, including the City Council's, said Planning Department spokeswoman Rachaele Raynoff. 

The last Village developments of a comparable scope were Washington Square Village and University Village, two large apartment complexes built in the area south of Washington Square Park in the 1950s and '60s, according to Berman and Mosette Broderick, a New York University art history professor who specializes in architecture and urbanism. 

St. Vincent's hopes it will be in its new building by 2013. 

To supporters, the hospital's physical needs and financial constraints make a compelling case for departing from the neighborhood's small-scale tradition. 

"St. Vincent's desperately needs to rebuild ... whatever it takes," said former breast cancer patient Marisa Acocella Marchetto, who was among 135 people who signed up to speak at a Jan. 22 hearing on the plan. 

Opponents bristle at the idea of leveling buildings up to 83 years old to clear the way for ritzy new apartments, and they fear St. Vincent's could open a floodgate for other institutions to do likewise around the city. 

"If we let this happen, it can happen all over," 35-year Village resident Barbara Datesh said at the community board hearing, where scores of residents and community group representatives ripped the plan. 

Critics have their own proposal for a scaled-down rebuilding, with a more modest residential component. 

As for simply renovating St. Vincent's, it would take up to 15 years and $1.5 billion, Amoroso said. 

------ 

On the Net: 

St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers: http://www.svcmc.org.


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## zaphod

Toronto is so incredible

Anywhere else I'd be skeptical that so much could be built but that city is growing so fast it seems like those places will really happen


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## hkskyline

*Building boom transforms heart of Beirut *
23 January 2010

BEIRUT (AP) - Blocks of historic Ottoman-era buildings, once pocked by bullet holes, have been majestically restored, and new high-rise apartment towers with mirrored facades front the glittering Mediterranean, signs of an unprecedented real estate boom that is transforming Lebanon's capital.

Beirut's building craze, despite chronic political turmoil in recent years, has astonished even the experts, turning Lebanon into an investment haven at a time when other regions -- including the oil-rich Persian Gulf -- are hemorrhaging cash. Even the seemingly unstoppable city-state of Dubai has hit the brakes after a massive debt crunch there rattled world financial markets.

"The market is continuing to really stun a lot of people and to attract some new players," said Raja Makarem, founder of Ramco, a leading real estate company. He added that Lebanon has seen a 30 percent increase in property value for each of the past four years.

Lebanon has seen a window of relative peace since the devastating Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006 and deadly gunbattles two years later between Hezbollah and its political rivals in the streets of Beirut. Since then, political wrangling has continued, but Lebanon's many factions have managed to keep their differences from exploding into violence.

Moreover, the financial meltdown that hit Dubai and elsewhere may have even helped Lebanon. While real estate buyers in Dubai were mostly investors and speculators depending on bank loans, the demand in Beirut is mainly from end users buying with cash, Makarem and other experts said.

Real estate isn't the only sector booming: Tourists have rediscovered the coastal nation with its beaches, scenic mountains and freewheeling lifestyle. This week officials announced that Lebanon attracted a record 1.8 million foreign visitors in 2009, earning an estimated $7 billion, beating the previous record of 1.4 million tourists in 1974 -- just before the 1975-1990 civil war broke out.

For many, especially those who have not visited Beirut in a while, the transformation from the real estate frenzy is striking.

Blocks of elegant buildings with apartments selling at prices ranging between $5,000 and $8,000 per square meter have arisen downtown. Some are restorations of buildings dating back to the era of 19th Century Ottoman rule, others are brand new ones on plots where old rubble had long been bulldozed away. High-rises also now stand on land reclaimed from the sea.

The names of the new projects are as ostentatious as the developments themselves: The Beirut Souks, Venus Towers and Sama Beirut (Beirut Sky) are just some of the massive architectural projects under way.

"It's the new Beirut. It looks nice and modern, but the problem is you have to be rich to enjoy it," said Iman Haidar, a 42-year-old mother of two walking recently through Beirut Souks downtown -- a 100,000 square meter (1,076,400 square foot) outdoor shopping mall.

The $300 million mall was built by Solidere, Lebanon's largest construction and development firm, on the site of a historic souk, or market. But with its high-end retail outlets, it is nothing like the bustling souks that existed there before the civil war, where people from all over the country came to buy everything from vegetables and clothes to jewelry.

Solidere has taken the lead in flattening and then rebuilding much of downtown. Many, like Haidar, worry that Beirut is turning into a hotspot for high-end investments unaffordable to most Lebanese.

Experts say many of the new apartment owners are citizens of oil-rich Gulf nations and wealthy members of the 12-million strong Lebanese diaspora living abroad, who want to keep a pied-a-terre for regular visits to Beirut.

In fact, many of the luxury apartments lining Beirut's famed corniche with panoramic views of the Mediterranean seem uninhabited, their glass facades unlit at night.

The number and value of property sales have leaped over the past year, according to figures released by Lebanon's leading Bank Audi this week. The value of real estate sales in December around the country was $1.25 billion, up 40.8 percent from the same month in 2008. The number of sales in all of 2009 were up 27 percent over the previous year, it said.

"The global crisis that has strongly impacted the real estate market in the Gulf has somehow pushed investors to turn toward Lebanon," said Tina Chamoun, marketing manager for Plus Properties, the Dubai-based real estate marketing company currently promoting two high-profile projects in Beirut.

The $700 million developments, Plus Towers and Venus Towers, involve five luxury residential towers with duplexes and penthouses downtown and along Beirut's waterfront.

Chamoun says sales are going beyond expectations -- mainly Lebanese, but also Gulf nationals.

Also, several five-star international chain hotels have opened in Lebanon before the end of the year, including waterfront Rotana and Four Seasons hotels and Le Gray, part of the British-owned CampbellGray Hotels.

Another of the new projects is the 50-story Sama Beirut, which promises to be Lebanon's tallest skyscraper once completed in 2014.

The project, launched earlier this year, has been criticized by some who say the tower will destroy the architectural heritage in the historic area.

The developers were unfazed.

"Mixing modernity with history is enriching," said Massaad Fares, who heads Prime Consult, marketing and financial consultants for Sama Beirut.

Mona El Hallak calls this diversity an urban catastrophe.

"Downtown Beirut used to be a meeting point for people from all backgrounds. Now if you don't have money, there is nothing for you there, you feel you are not welcome," said the architect, who is a member of the executive committee of APSAD, an organization that campaigns to classify Lebanon's old buildings as heritage sites to protect them.

She says old cultural heritage buildings are being destroyed to make way for towers without any urban planning involved.

"Ten years from now," she said, "the city will not even bear resemblance to the Beirut we know," she said.


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## erbse

^ That probably goes along with tearing down historical buildings, doesn't it?


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## Nadini

^^ Nope, they've extended the marina over the Sea and there will be new proposed skyscrapers on it soon, all the projects above had no impact on historical buildings, in fact one of them it was a war torn building and they have included it (to its original state) in the proposal.


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## erbse

That's ok with me then. Beirut has quite some great heritage, even though not being the most beautiful historical city in the area.


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## memph

In Toronto area:

Toronto:

Waterfront:
-East Bayfront: already covered
-West Don Lands: already covered
-Lower Don Lands: http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/explore_projects2/lower_don_lands
-Port Lands: already covered
-Pinewood movie studios: They're planning on redeveloping an area in the far East of the Portlands for a movie studio, so that there will be streets representing all kinds of cities for them to film in. There will be people living there though, and there will also be condo towers and I think a hotel. It might already be U/C.
http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/realestate/article/890265--toronto-streets-to-be-living-movie-set

-City Place: More than halfway built already, the area used to be parking lots and a Golf Course
-Fort York area: Just South of Fort York, a lot of new condos are being built and proposed
-Southcore Financial district: 8 towers proposed/UC including a 67 storey condo, in addition to a few already built, the area is just South of the CBD.

Liberty Village: An industrial area West of downtown near the lake (but not waterfront), there's something like 20-30 buildings U/C or proposed here. King West nearby is in a similar situation but on a smaller scale.
Humber Bay/Mimico Beach: Also a very fast growing area with lots of condos U/C, being built on low density commercial land and greenfields, once that gets developed
Scarborough Town Centre: no images that I know of, it's an area around a shopping mall that is to grow a lot in the future, there are already many new buildings U/C and built, but there were very few 10 years ago.

Markham:
-Markham Centre: It's supposed to be Markham's new town centre, there's a large development currently U/C, as well as lots of new buildings already built in the surrounding area
-Langstaff: Almost as big as Markham Centre and higher density, but it's at the SW corner of the suburb, and has a GO train station and a subway line proposed for it. Currently it's in the planning stages and the lands are mostly warehouses/employment lands.
-Galleria: This development hasn't really registered in the minds of anyone from what I can see... but they already built about a dozen midrise condos and several blocks of townhouses. The main project there is Eden Park, with 3 condos U/C and 2 more that are on their way. There's an empty field to the West, maybe it'll get developed too?
-Yonge/Steeles: last I heard to were planning to rezone the area for higher density

Vaughan: 
-Yonge Steeles: Currently strip malls, it's in the planning stages








-Vaughan Metropolitan Centre: Will be built on low density employment lands and greenfields at the end of the Spadina subway extension (U/C)









Mississauga:
-Hurontario corridor/downtown: reveloping parking lots, low density retail, and greenfields around downtown for about 100-200 new midrises and highrises by 2030 plus likely more elsewhere along Hurontario as the LRT is built
















-Lakeview: Used to have a power plant but that closed, locals have come up with proposals on redeveloping the site, and since it's one of the few areas in Mississauga left to develop, something will probably happen at the rate it's growing.

Oakville:
-midtown: An area surrounding the Oakville GO Train Station will be redeveloped, it currently has stripmall, big box retail and parking lots, with some low rise offices and hotels.









Richmond Hill:
-Richmond Hill Centre: Just across the Markham border from Langstaff

There's also plans for significant intensification (~2-fold by 2030) of these areas:
-Downtown Burlington
-Downtown Bronte (Oakville)
-Downtown Oshawa
-Downtown Newmarket
-Etobicoke City Centre (Toronto)
-North York City Centre (Toronto)
-Downtown Pickering
-Downtown Brampton


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## Shanluo

building a new town from scratch


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## hkskyline

*In Detroit, dreams of civic renewal collide with hard realities *
Wed, Nov 2, 2011









_Source : http://www.pbase.com/xlnt1 _

DETROIT (Reuters) - For years, Michigan Central Station, the towering train depot on the outskirts of downtown Detroit, stood as a haunting symbol of the city's decline and fall.

The last train pulled out of the station in 1988, shortly before the Honda Accord became the best-selling car in America, a humbling milestone for the city and its top industry.

In the intervening years, as the Big Three struggled to pick themselves up, vandals and the elements ravaged the depot. Architect Lis Knibbe says walking into the main waiting room, with its 60-foot vaulted ceilings and its graffiti-covered, water-damaged walls, was like "entering a Roman ruin."

Many locals were less kind. "It's been the most prominent eyesore in the city, a symbol of what's wrong," said John Gallagher, author of the book "Reimagining Detroit."

Now, as a tentative rebound by the city's automakers fuels talk of a Motor City renaissance, the 600,000-square-foot depot -- which is undergoing a multimillion-dollar cleanup -- is seen by some as a hopeful symbol of Detroit's renewal.

"If we can completely rehab the Michigan Central Station and make it vibrant, with people running in and out of it, then we would have proved that anything can be done in Detroit," said Matthew Moroun, whose family bought it in the mid-1990s.

But others are skeptical Detroit can put decades of neglect and abandonment behind it. And they question whether the flurry of activity at the depot is anything to celebrate. For them, the station continues to be a symbol of the hubris that preceded Detroit's downfall and the inconvenient realities that stand between the city and its dreams of a comeback.

"It's not clear that Detroit is going to make it," said Kenneth T. Jackson, a professor of urban history at Columbia University who has studied the rise and fall of U.S. cities. "I'm pulling for it. But it's not a gimme."

ENCOURAGING SIGNS

There are, to be sure, some encouraging signs of renewal. The two automakers forced into bankruptcy in 2009 -- General Motors and Chrysler -- are back on their feet. Together with Ford, they are regaining market share and hiring workers.

Several suburban-based businesses, including Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Michigan, have moved downtown, bringing thousands of workers with them. One of the latest was Quicken Loans, a company whose CEO, Dan Gilbert, is a native son and an energetic champion of what he calls "Detroit 2.0."

Andy Farbman, the president of the Farbman Group, a real estate company with an extensive portfolio in Detroit, compares Gilbert to Felix Rohatyn, the banker credited with helping New York City steer its way out of its fiscal woes in the 1970s.

"Danny's a billionaire with a mission and a plan who wants to be part of saving the city," Farbman said.

"He controls all these jobs and employs all these younger professionals who want to be in a 24-hour city."

Long-shelved residential loft projects are coming back to life; the occupancy rate for existing downtown apartments is close to 100 percent. The city's appeal for young, creative types, who can live here for a fraction of what they'd pay in Portland, Oregon, or Austin, Texas, is growing, too.

Then there are the city's football and baseball teams. Both were league laughingstocks a few years ago, with the Lions -- who went 0-16 in the 2008 season -- especially hard to watch.

This year, the Tigers nearly claimed baseball's American League pennant and the Lions won the first five games of the season, their best start in 55 years.

OFF THE MAT?

"There's a sense that Detroit is no longer on the mat," said Gallagher, whose book looks at renewal efforts in other cities, including Dresden, Germany, and Seoul, South Korea. His conclusion: second acts are tough but possible.

Gallagher and others see Detroit 2.0 as a smaller city, powered by a diverse mix of industries and centered on the handful of neighborhoods that have survived the hollowing out.

Implementing the vision of a scaled-back Detroit, of course, would require controversial policy-making, with officials choosing neighborhood winners and losers and funneling dollars into those deemed viable. Gallagher admits it would be painful. But he says the status quo is painful, too. "A lot of areas are not winning right now," he said.

But even the most slimmed-down dreams face harsh realities in Detroit, which lost 25 percent of its population over the past 10 years, according to the U.S. Census, accelerating a trend that has left nearly a third of the city vacant.

Those who remain are twice as likely to live in poverty and 50 percent more likely to be unemployed than the average American.

And Detroit remains a remarkably unhealthy place to live, with one of the nation's highest homicide rates, according to the FBI, and one of the highest lung cancer mortality rates in the country.

Even trends the boosters tout, like the rise in urban farming, strike others as proof of the city's woes.

"In economics, we generally consider agriculture to be the lowest value use of land," said David Albouy of the University of Michigan. "So the fact that the land is going back to agriculture is a sign of how little people want to live there."

NO DENIAL

No one denies the city has its problems. "If you want to focus on the negatives in Detroit, there is a list with hundreds of examples you can point to," said Moroun, whose family did little with the depot until this year, when it found itself in a high-stakes fight over the Ambassador Bridge.

"Our idea with the depot is take it off that list."

So far, the family, whose net worth is estimated to be $1.5 billion by Forbes, has spent $1 million on repairs. Moroun says they plan to spend that much again over the next year replacing broken windows and leaky roofs at the depot.

A top-to-bottom renovation is not in the cards for now, he says, because the family has no idea how to make the depot commercially viable.

"We don't have a business projection that proves that we can completely redevelop the thing, put a bunch of people in it and make money right away," Moroun said.

"But we also don't have a plan to let it sit there and continue to decay, either."

Some worry the family's sudden interest in the depot is temporary, designed to curry public favor while the Morouns fight over the fate of the Ambassador, the family-owned toll bridge that links Detroit to Windsor, Canada.

JEWEL IN THE CROWN

The Ambassador is a money maker, the jewel in the Moroun family crown. But it's now in jeopardy because of a proposal, backed by the state of Michigan and the government of Canada, to build a new publicly owned international bridge.

The repairs on the depot have coincided with an expensive, Moroun-supported ad campaign opposing the public bridge as a boondoggle. If the family wins the bridge fight, skeptics wonder, will the work on the depot stop?

"Whether or not it is an attempt to divert attention from the bridge debacle, we don't know," said Gallagher.

The money needed for a full-restoration would be staggering, even for the Morouns. Architect Knibbe, who was involved in the renovation of the Book Cadillac building downtown and consults on the depot, estimates the cost would be "significantly more" than the $200 million spent on the Book Cadillac.

So, like Charlotte Street in New York City's South Bronx in the 1970s, Michigan Central Station remains a convenient backdrop for people drawing attention to urban distress, not urban renewal. The latest to come here was Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who stood in front of the depot to promote his 9-9-9 tax plan.

If the money needed to renovate the depot seems staggering, the money already spent trying to renew Detroit is more staggering still. Susan Mosey, the head of Midtown Detroit, a nonprofit working to revitalize the city's Woodward Corridor, says $2.4 billion has been poured into that neighborhood alone over the past 10 years -- and the work is nowhere near done.

Whether such outlays will continue as the country struggles to recover from the economic bust and avoid a second recession is unclear. But Mosey says without a continued investment, Detroit's renewal may wither.

"This is a very large piece of geography and it was severely disinvested," she said. "So the cost of the rebuild is tremendous."


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## KGB

> Toronto is so incredible
> 
> Anywhere else I'd be skeptical that so much could be built but that city is growing so fast it seems like those places will really happen


All of Toronto, south of Queen Street, between Dufferin and the Don River is essentially one giant brownfield/greyfield redevelopment site.

It's just been broken up into so many different projects/phases, that it just doesn't seem like one contiguous area (Liberty Village, King West, Garrison Common/Fort York, Harbourfront, Railway Lands, King-Spadina, Entertainment District, St Lawrence, West Donlands, Harbour Square, East Bayfront, Portlands).

20-30 years ago, this area had a residential population of practically zero. By 2001, the residential population had reached 35,000. By 2006 it had reached 48,000. The numbers for 2011 haven't come out yet, but a LOT of condos in this area have been built and occupied in the last 5 years, and even more are currently under construction or planned.



KGB


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## erbse

^ Could you (or so. else) please be so kind and offer link/s of those projects? I'm quite interested in it.


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## duabi_vip3

thank you all


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## duabi_vip3

> thanx


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## hkskyline

*FEATURE-Vibrant neighbourhood or tourist magnet? Puerto Rico shows hidden cost of urban renewal*
_Excerpt_

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, July 24 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - W alking through the hip San Juan neighbourhood (barrio) of Machuchal, it is hard to miss the house painted bright yellow, green and red, with a sign on the side reading "Casa Taft 169".

The building in the Puerto Rican capital had been abandoned for nearly 40 years and was declared a "public nuisance" by the municipal government before a group of local lawyers and residents rescued it from demolition.

Since buying the house in 2013, the group has been transforming it into a centre for neighbourhood meetings, talks by guest speakers, and civic workshops to help locals become more politically involved.

"We wanted to level the playing field with the government and say, 'You need to take us into consideration'" when deciding the fate of abandoned homes in the area, explained Marina Moscoso, an urban planner and the project's coordinator.

Now residents say that quality of life is under threat from increasing tourism and rising rents that are pushing out young people and poorer families, as the U.S. island territory struggles to recover from a hurricane two years ago that killed some 3,000 people.

Embattled Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello may resign on Wednesday after 11 days of protests against his administration - with an estimated 500,000 people taking to the streets of San Juan on Monday.

The national government has highlighted tourism as an economic engine in Puerto Rico's 2019 fiscal plan, to help the bankrupt U.S. territory recover after Hurricane Maria caused an estimated $90 billion-worth of damage.

Attracting businesses and travellers is key to reviving parts of Puerto Rico and benefits "not only residents but also outside visitors", according to Yolanda Rosaly, spokeswoman for the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, a governmental organisation.

"The city becomes more dynamic and the value of properties rise," she said in emailed comments.

But residents say the tourism boost in Barrio Machuchal - an area mainly home to elderly people and low-income families - is causing overcrowding and inflating house prices, exacerbating the neighbourhood's already severe lack of affordable housing.

And Moscoso is afraid that the work the community has been doing to revive places like Casa Taft was what started the process.

More : https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5N22W2CI


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## Galro

Here is a selection of some of the mixed-use urban redevelopment-schemes that are either doing through planning or are being constructed in Norway right now.

Bispevika, Oslo. 
Under construction. Maybe a third completed. Location.





































The progress as of this October.










Kabelgata, Oslo. 
Most of it is going through zoning right now. Some of the minor projects, like the re-development of the central gate (see last rendering), do not require a re-zoning and are either under construction or about to be. Location.






































Økern sentrum, Oslo.
The plans were revealed a couple of months ago and they use started up the zoning process with the city. Location. 





























Filipstad, Oslo.
It's going through zoning now. The process have been at standstill for a number of years now due to disagreements over the financing of the infrastructure part of the project (like a new light rail line and putting the highway underground), however a deal on the financing was finally reached earlier this year and it is now expected that the first plans for the area will go through political treatment during the first half of 2020. Location.




















Lilleakerbyen, Oslo and Bærum.
It's going through zoning right now in both Oslo and Bærum municipalities. Just like with Kabelgata, there are some parts (like the re-development of the building row along the river) of the development that do not require a re-zoning and which are now either under construction or about to be. Location.






































Kystbyen Slemmestad, Asker.¨
The plans have been approved and they have started to promote the project, but it don't appear like the sales of the actual apartments have started yet. I also could find no concrete date for when construction will commence. Location.





























Verket, Moss. 
First building in the development was completed in 2018, next part was completed this year and they have now started sales of apartments in yet another building step. However the development is rather large and I doubt they have completed more than 10% of it.Location.




























A picture taken of the building step that was completed this year (although this picture was taken a month or so before final completion):










Trosvikstranda, Fredrikstad. 
The zoning-process was just started this year. Location.





























Elveparken, Sandnes.
The zoning process have just begun and it still open for preliminary statements before the planning process properly starts. Location. 





























Bergensmeieriet, Bergen.
I believe the plans have been approved by the city and sales of apartments in the first building step have just begun. Location.





























Skutvika, Ålesund.
A complete zoning proposal was just (on the 15th of this month) sent in to the city and will likely be sent over to the politicians soon for final approval/rejection. Location.






































Nordbyen, Tromsø.
Approved by the city and it is expected that construction will start during the 4th. quarter of 2020. Location.


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## wakka12

Wow, a lot going on! Interesting to see such large scale schemes going on in pretty minor cities like Alesund and Tromso. Trondheim missing out on the action though..?


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## Galro

wakka12 said:


> Wow, a lot going on! Interesting to see such large scale schemes going on in pretty minor cities like Alesund and Tromso.


While they are basically irrelevant internationally of course, both Ålesund and Tromsø are actually fairly large by Norwegian standards. Tromsø + Tronsdalen (it's part of the same city but separated by the fjord) makes up Norways 9th. largest urban area while Ålesund is Norways 10th. largest one. Tromsø is also one of only two proper cities in Northern Norway (the other being Bodø), which results in an influx of people and investments from all over the region. 

Both cities have actually have one more larger masterplan developments going on each, but I didn't post then here as I'm somewhat unsure about the current status of the one in Ålesund (first illustration) and the quality of the one in Tromsø (the two last). 









Location today.



















It's currently under construction. Location today. 



wakka12 said:


> Trondheim missing out on the action though..?


There is a lot of construction going on in Trondheim too. Trondheim is actually currently the large city that grows the fastest in Norway outside of Oslo, which naturally results in a lot of building activity.

While that is said I don't think there are many large and exciting or high quality projects going on there which deserves a mention here. Despite all of their projects, they have only a few minor infills that I think contributes to make the city a better place. I think they are years behind the other major Norwegian cities when it comes to urban planning and architecture and I think it is probably the city in Norway which underdeliver the most relative to its potential.

But here are some larger and quite urban projects being planned in Trondheim at least: 

Jarlheimsletta.
Location today.




















Leangenområdet
Location today.




















Øvre Rotvoll.
Location today.


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## pellista

*Urbanization of "Villa 31"*​
_Refurbishment of current irregular houses, partial demolition of constructions and infrastructure improvements are among the vast set of ongoing projects that are soon to be finished at this first stage.












"Villa 31" is the name given to one of the largest and historic shanty towns in the City of Buenos Aires, it began its growth at the same time as the "Hoovervilles" in the US by Italian and Spanish immigrants and later minorities from Bolivia and Paraguay but it was never fully removed or relocated,this is the first time that a governmental project is directed to improve the life quality of it's inhabitants._



phantro said:


>







*Informative Video about infrastructure improvements and location of on going works* *(In Spanish but it is pretty self explanatory)*




Ekrof said:


> Fuente 1: https://documentosboletinoficial.buenosaires.gob.ar/publico/PE-RES-MJGGC-SECISYU-337-19-ANX-1.pdf
> Fuente 2: http://documentosboletinoficial.buenosaires.gob.ar/publico/PE-RES-MJGGC-SECISYU-337-19-ANX-4.pdf
> 
> *Refurbishment Plans for current irregular housing*







*Video About the New Housing Blocks built to recolate neighbors from demolished areas.* (In Spanish, Clean Energy devices explantion and such)











*View of some of the New Relocation buildings*


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## Eric Offereins

Rotterdam announced the redevelopment plans for the Rijnhaven eastside this week.
The program consists of a bunch of towers ranging in height from 100-250 meter, lots of facilities and a park.
It is a masterplan, so the designs of the towers shown here are not final.



> For the creation of the Rijnhaven vision, Barcode Architects collaborated intensively with the City of Rotterdam, the Urban Planning and Public Housing Department, BGSV and Robbert de Koning Landschapsarchitect. The Rijnhaven masterplan is one of the biggest large-scale urban development tasks in Rotterdam and comprises a total of approximately 350,000m² of new, mixed urban programs. On the southern bank of the river Nieuwe Maas, a part of the harbor basin will be drained to create new land. A vibrant center area with a new city park will emerge in the coming years, connecting the Wilhelmina Pier and Katendrecht.
> 
> The Rijnhaven is surrounded by popular areas such as the Kop van Zuid and Katendrecht. With the increased growth of the city it is time for the next step: the development of the Rijnhaven itself. The Rijnhaven is located at the heart of Rotterdam, on the city axis from the Coolsingel to Zuidplein. The development of the Rijnhaven creates a second city center on the south bank and enhances the connection between the North and South of the city.



































source of all information and (more) pics:
https://barcodearchitects.com/projects/masterplan-rijnhaven-rotterdam/


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## ubchomes

spongeg said:


> Coal Harbour in Vancouver was nothing much in the early 90's - it was bleak and empty
> 
> and an unfriendly area - ie no public access or seawall or parks, condos etc
> 
> it had turned into one of the best areas of the city


Although Coal Harbour is right in downtown and is a relatively young community, it’s a surprisingly calm and upscale little neighbourhood right on the water’s edge. It’s even more surprising given its industrial history as a former shipyard sitting right next to the railway terminus. The city started residential development in this neighbourhood in the 1990’s that takes advantage of a waterfront walkway and its proximity to the Downtown core. The area starts at Canada Place and stretches east to Stanley Park, and is bordered by Burrard Inlet to the north, West Georgia Street to the south. Coal Harbour Real Estate









555 Jervis, Vancouver BC – Harbourside Park








409 West Pender Place, Vancouver BC


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## Galro

A new development that have just been revealed for the waterfront in Oslo, Norway. Area today.


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