May 12, 2023
Let’s talk about the war on parking.
The hard-fought battle to lower parking requirements has been in the news nearly every week in recent memory. Folks advocate to slash parking in the hopes of creating more walkable, vibrant streets and neighborhoods, allowing for 15-minute cities, and encouraging use of public transport as an alternative to gas-guzzling cars. Other voices, while supportive of this effort, also emphasize the need for balance.
The Real Estate Take // Austin, TX, for example, recently announced an enormous move to end parking mandates citywide in 2023, as reported by James Rambin of Towers. But this past week, the city also released a new vision for its landmark park with a significant amount of parking included. As one of the design leads, Claire Hempel, put it, “The challenge is how to balance these initiatives [to lower parking] with the other guiding principles around equity, the environment, sustainability, and history and culture.”
The Creative Take // As more and more cities shift gears towards a parking-free culture, new developments may need to increase their messaging around access to transit and collaborations with micromobility partners.
Do you see both sides of the argument? Feel free to hit respond — would love to hear your thoughts!
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MUST-READS
Meet the Urban Investor Spending $5.5 Billion Making Cities More Liveable // Insider
The World’s 11 Most Beautiful Repurposed Buildings // Architectural Digest
VCs overestimated how fast proptech startups could scale // Fortune
More Companies Are Building Housing for Their Employees // NPR
Putting the Tech Back in Proptech // Medium
Novel Sugarcane-Waste Construction Blocks Could Save 1bn Tons of CO2 // Construction Management
Airbnb let its workers live and work anywhere. Spoiler: They're loving it // NPR
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IDEA SPOTLIGHT
The Country’s First ‘Carbon-Positive’ Hotel
Slated to open in late 2023, the 265-room Populus by Studio Gang claims to be the country’s first ‘carbon-positive’ hotel. The eco-conscious design plan includes a commitment to plant trees equivalent to over 5,000 acres of forest, offsetting a carbon footprint that equals nearly 500,000 gallons of gas and removing additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The hotel’s window shapes, which indeed read as the familiar aspen growth pattern, create a sculptural façade that is tied to the building’s function — the windows are specifically constructed to perform efficiently in Denver’s wide-ranging climate.
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