Archinect - News

New statistics detail the coming surge in apartment conversions nationwide

2023-08-10T20:11:00-04:00

New economic reporting compiled by Yardi Matrix suggests that apartment conversions will yield 122,000 or more new units in the United States in the coming years despite a recent turndown that’s been recorded in the market since January 1st.

RentCafe has the latest data analysis to highlight a still-surging trend in the residential sector that has only mildly dampened over the last two years after reaching an apparent peak in 2019 and 2020.

There are now 45,000 units on the way across the country as a product of office-to-residential conversions. Another 10,222 conversions were completed last year, propelled by a 43% increase in hotel retrofits. A total of 3,390 of the conversions were enacted within former office buildings — representing 34% of all conversion project areas nationally.

"Market conditions that favor such projects include significant multifamily demand or government incentives, specifically aimed at promoting historic restoration efforts, the same source shows," Yard...

Construction still ranks as one of the deadliest industries in the U.S., according to new survey

2022-12-21T16:24:00-05:00

Construction workers died at a rate of 9.4 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers in 2021, the BLS reported, down from 10.1 in 2020. That rate has hovered in that threshold for at least a decade. The new per capita figures are the lowest since 2011, but still don’t break the trend. Worker death rate across all industries was 3.6 per 100,000, the highest since 2016.

Among the demographics, immigrant Hispanic & Latino workers were almost twice as likely to die than their U.S.-born counterparts, highlighting an underreported problem nationwide. Slips, trips, and falls were among the most commonly-recorded causes of death, followed by transportation accidents, exposure to toxic substances, and fatal contact with equipment. This comes after news that construction site staffing has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

“There is a temptation to see a decline in the fatality numbers as something to celebrate. It isn’t,” Brian Turmail of the Associated General Contractors of America told Construction Dive bluntly. “There is nothing acceptable about nearly 1,000 people losing their lives in our industry.”

What's behind the record share of women in the construction trades?

2022-11-23T14:00:00-05:00

The share of women in construction has hit a record high, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Women surged into the industry starting around 2016, even as the number of men in construction lagged. ... What the heck changed?

Florida, D.C., and Arizona lead the country in terms of the percentage share that women occupy in construction industry labor markets for each state, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This can be partially attributed to a 117% increase in the number of Hispanic women employed primarily on job sites over the past six years, though sustained low unemployment rates combined with a “chronic shortage of skilled labor” and an increase in job training programs have been contributing factors along with better hiring practices overall.

“It feels like this is the moment where all of the preparation that the tradeswomen movement has been making over the years is finally being met with a huge opportunity,” National Center for Women’s Equity in Apprenticeship and Employment associate director Lark Jackson told WaPo before adding that last year's Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill was an additional “game changer for women’s inclusion in the trades.”

...

These are the global cities with the most skyscrapers

2022-09-22T14:15:00-04:00

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has released data chronicling the prevalence of buildings with total heights taller than 150 meters (492 feet) in major metropolitan areas across the world.

The statistics speak to several yearslong industry-wide trends as well as a preference for the recently-halted practice of (extremely) tall-building in China, which had more entries in the Top 25 (10, excluding Hong Kong) than the United States, Canada, and Australia put together.

Dubai has by far the largest stock of 300-meter (984 feet) or more structures at 28. New York, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are the only cities with 10 or more in the same category. Australia’s largest city, Sydney, had fewer overall entries than the Philippines city of Makati, despite hosting a population almost tenfold its size. London was one of only two UK metros listed.

The new overall Top...

New CTBUH study on tall mass timber gives us a look at the impacts of the material industry-wide

2022-05-26T13:37:00-04:00

A new study from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has revealed important statistics that provide a clearer picture of the present state of tall mass timber construction across the globe.

There are now a total of 66 completed mass timber projects worldwide totaling of least 8 stories or higher. Nearly two-thirds (64% or 54 buildings) of all projects are residential, while office buildings account for 19% (16 buildings), and the mixed-use typology currently makes up 14% (12 buildings). Including projects that are currently under construction or proposed, there were 139 total projects matching the audit’s criteria.

Illustration courtesy of CTBUH

In terms of height, 12 of the 20 tallest structures are located in Europe. Scandinavia had 4 of those, while the UK and Australia had 3 and 5 apiece, respectively. Additionally, the height of the world’s tallest timber building, now officially the soon-to-be-completed 25-story Ascent tower in Milwaukee, has tripled in jus...

U.S. Census Bureau changes its definition of an urban area, impacting 1,300 former cities and towns

2022-05-03T11:41:00-04:00

The U.S. Census Bureau has changed its definition of an urban area, which will cause hundreds of existing urban areas to be reclassified as rural. The change is centered on a new methodology for how urban areas are calculated, with the number of housing units being used as the key metric, rather than the number of inhabitants.

Under the century-old definition used prior to now, an urban area was classed as one with at least 2,500 people. Now, a place will need 2,000 housing units before being classed as urban, equivalent to around 5,000 people. In addition, the previous distinction between an “urbanized area” (50,000 residents or more) and an “urban cluster” (2,500 to 50,000 residents) will be removed, with all qualifying areas simply referred to as “urban areas.”

In addition, the Census Bureau has created three levels of definition for census blocks, the smallest geographic unit in the United States. Census blocks will be considered urban if they contain a density of 425 housing u...

Our coming apocalypse is now being recorded thanks to this new intervention

2021-12-09T13:37:00-05:00

A digital record of earth’s man-made demise is about to begin thanks to an intervention in Australia called Earth's Black Box.

A remote part of Tasmania is the home of the ominous new steel box that’s meant to capture and record climate data such as oceanic acidification, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, and land and sea temperature increases in addition to information about population growth, energy use, and newspaper stories related to climate change.

The box runs on a combination of batteries and solar power and can collect the data thanks to an algorithm that was developed by the communications firm Clemenger BBDO with the help from the University of Tasmania, and the artist collective Glue Society, which had help from architects Thomas Bailey and Kate Philipps of Room11.

Image: Earth's Black Box

“The idea is if the Earth does crash as a result of climate change, this indestructible recording device will be there for whoever's left to learn from that,” Clemenger’s Jim Curtis ...

Is age just a number when it comes to a career in architecture?

2019-05-08T18:27:00-04:00

Architect and urban designer Matthew Frederick states in his book, 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, "architects are late bloomers. Most architects do not hit their professional stride until around age 50!" Taking Frederick's statement into consideration how does age play into an individual's job decision and transition over time? How does age affect individuals exploring a new career in architecture?

Peak Age for Job Switches: Teenage and Twenties. Image © Nathan Yau | Flowing Data (View full graph here)

Statistician Nathan Yau uses his professional experience with data and data visualization to create a graphic exploring the correlation between age and 100 common jobs individuals switch to overtime. Ranging from age 15 to 90 each job is listed on its own timeline. Any peaks within the timeline reflect the age where individuals are most likely to make a job switch. With this data, Yau then organizes the graph ranking jobs people are more likely to have when they are young...

Projected statistics on building for massive urban density in 2050

2018-08-27T13:28:00-04:00

If you live or work in a city, then you probably see the impact of growing urbanization every day—gridlock traffic, construction cranes peppering the skyline, soaring housing costs. Sure, these are major challenges and annoyances for city dwellers, but they also represent a huge opportunity for the global architecture, engineering, and construction industry: one that requires building the future for a 10-billion-person planet.

According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 68% of the world population are projected to live in urban areas by 2050. Autodesk explores the implications for architectural growth in this timeframe with market research firm Statista. Take a look at the projected statistics on building for this massive upcoming urban density.

New report assesses worrying impact of vacant properties in U.S. cities, and what local communities can do about it

2018-07-30T15:50:00-04:00

Neighborhoods with high vacancy rates rarely recover, according to the study. Vacancy is “first and foremost a symptom of other problems — concentrated poverty, economic decline, and market failure,” the study notes. That means the solutions must go beyond just tearing abandoned buildings down. The study urges local governments to use tools like “spot blight” eminent domain, vacant property receivership, and land-banking to speed up the transition from owner to owner.

CityLab editor-at-large Richard Florida summarizes a new report by Alan Mallach of the Center for Community Progress about the increase of vacant properties and hypervacancy in cities across the U.S. in recent decades — another worrying aspect of the American housing crisis. The report assesses how vacant properties are affecting certain cities, and it also outlines mitigation strategies for local governments and community groups.

How the Speed of Elevators Impacts our Urban Environment

2017-09-07T14:46:00-04:00

The first commercial passenger elevator was installed by Otis Elevator Company in 1857 and climbed at a glacial pace of 40 feet a minute, though it felt staggering at the time. Since then, we have come a long way both in terms of elevator speeds and in terms of the heights these elevators are needed to traverse in order to meet the needs of super-tall structures around the world. Today, an Otis elevator in Dubai soars at a speed of 22 mph, which is still less than half the speed of those topping new rankings for the fastest elevators in the world.

Looking into the ways these improvements in elevator speeds have effected our urban environment, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has released new research in a study titled Vertical Transport: Ascent & Acceleration. The study defines the fastest and longest elevator runs and shows a strong correlation between the increase in elevator speeds and the increase in skyscraper heights. As elevator technology advances and allows b...

Trees can help megacities save $505 million per year, according to new research

2017-08-28T14:37:00-04:00

Megacities—those urban centers crammed with more than 10 million people—would be well served to double down on their arboreal assets, according to a new paper in the upcoming issue of the journal Ecological Modeling. A team of researchers led by Theodore Endreny of SUNY’s College of Environmental Studies and Forestry sought to quantify how leafy infrastructure pays dividends in 10 chock-full cities—and the extent to which those benefits could compound if those urban areas planted more trees.

You can check out the research paper here, as well as this 2015 report about the health benefits of more greenspace in urban centers.

The issue with the median as indicator of housing affordability

2017-03-17T13:39:00-04:00

The standard yardstick for judging housing affordability is to look at the median level of rents or home prices. As we all remember from statistics, the median is the observation in the middle of the distribution. And while for many purposes, it’s a reliable indicator of typical prices, in some neighborhoods, particularly those with a mix of expensive and cheap housing, the median is actually a weak indicator of affordability.

"For an illustration of this problem, imagine two neighborhoods. In both places, the median home costs $300,000. But in the first neighborhood, every home costs exactly $300,000, while in the second, there are a range of homes from $100,000 to $500,000. Although both neighborhoods have the same median home price, the second neighborhood has some homes affordable to low-income people, while the first neighborhood does not. So rather than the median, or 50th percentile, home price, we really care about something like the 25th percentile: the home for which 75 percent of homes are more expensive."

What these “pre-rent control” stats might reveal about SF's soaring housing costs

2016-05-17T18:48:00-04:00

OK, so this would mean the way to make San Francisco as affordable as (say) Portland would be to either cut everybody’s salary in half, or fire half of them, or allow the city’s population to rapidly grow about 50 percent, to about 1.2 million, while the number of housing units increased even faster.

In discussing San Francisco's rising housing costs over the years, journalist Michael Andersen re-emphasizes some points in this recent blogpost by a man named Eric Fischer, who took his own approach in analyzing the city's housing prices before 1979, when SF's rent-control rates began being recorded. While Fischer's method may not be perfect, Andersen argues that the findings could shed new light on San Francisco's housing market.

2015 U.S. population report shows return to pre-2000 patterns

2016-03-25T14:19:00-04:00

Today the U.S. Census Bureau released its 2015 population estimates for counties and metropolitan areas. After volatile swings in growth patterns during last decade’s housing bubble and bust, long-term trends are reasserting themselves. Population is growing faster in the South and West than in the Northeast and Midwest, and faster in suburban areas than in urban counties; both of these trends accelerated in 2015.

More Americans are becoming "mega-commuters", U.S. Census stats show

2016-02-26T17:51:00-05:00

In 1980, for instance, fewer than 12 percent of American workers commuted for 45 minutes or more one way, according to the Census. The Census didn't even bother separating out 60- and 90-minute commuters in 1980, since it was relatively rare. But they began tracking these mega-commuters in 1990. That year, 1.6 percent of workers commuted 90 minutes or more one way. In 2014, 2.62 percent of workers were commuting this long, an increase of 64 percent over the prevalence in 1990.

More about urban mobility:

So Cal has dumped a lot of money into transit projects, but there's been little pay-off so far

The Ehang passenger drone might be another way people will get around town someday

Is America actually shifting away from its car obsession? Not entirely.

Think driverless cars will reduce traffic? Not so fast.

2014 was the tallest year by far for skyscrapers, CTBUH finds

2015-01-12T17:04:00-05:00

2014 was the year of the tall building. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) published its 2014 Tall Building Data Research Report, a statistic-laden round-up that could make your head spin and wonder how much taller a skyscraper can possibly get. Last year, a total of 97 buildings with a height of 200 meters or greater were completed, making it the highest number that the CTBUH has ever recorded.

Not surprisingly, the report states that 74 of the 97 tall buildings are located in Asia, with China completing the most buildings for the seventh year in a row with 58. The Philippines took second place with five completions, followed by the United Arab Emirates and Qatar with four completions each. Indonesia, Canada, the United States, and Japan shared fourth place for three completions each.

To slap on some more statistical highlights, 2014 also saw the completion of 11 Supertall buildings (300 meters height or more), which now accounts for 54% of the world's currently...

How has the world changed since you were born?

2014-10-23T20:54:00-04:00

Find out how, since the date of your birth, your life has progressed; including how many times your heart has beaten, and how far you have travelled through space. Investigate how the world around you has changed since you've been alive; from the amount the sea has risen, and the tectonic plates have moved, to the number of earthquakes and volcanoes that have erupted. Grasp the impact we've had on the planet in your lifetime...

I Quant NY: Visualizing NYC's Open Data

2014-07-31T14:54:00-04:00

Quantitative Analysis of NYC Open Data: Every data set that the city releases tells a story. This blog is all about telling those stories, one data set at a time.

Ben Wellington's "I Quant NY" blog is a gem in data-driven journalism's crown. Featuring visualizations of data sets from New York City's remarkable Open Data Portal, the blog covers a wide-variety of civic topics, everything from mapping fire hydrant usage to rate of taxi complaints by borough.

Wellington began using the Open Data Portal as coursework for his statistics class, teaching urban planning students at the Pratt Institute.

h/t to City Lab, who spoke with Wellington about his blog and teaching stats to city planners.

Designing and understanding the "Happy City"

2013-12-09T20:24:00-05:00

"For years, urban designers and architects have claimed happiness as their goal," Montgomery says. "And yet none of the claims have been supported by empirical evidence. Which isn't to say they're not right. It's just to say that we don't know. That we haven't known." In this spirit of empirical discovery, Montgomery takes readers around the world in search of the places where urban design has (and has not) improved quality-of-life.

Human behavior can be extremely difficult to quantify, and determining its exact context even harder. But some cities just seem happier than others, no matter how difficult that status is to qualify. In his book, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design, Charles Montgomery tries to create an empirical basis for that causal link between happiness and urban design, through case studies of cities where those two concepts are clearly intertwined. Montgomery spoke with Eric Jaffe at The Atlantic Cities about his research for the book, and how we measure happiness.

Sensitive to the fact that what works in Bogotá might not fly in Oslo, Montgomery is not out to find hard-and-fast rules for happiness. He instead wants to tease out methods of urban design that civic governments may use to become more sensitive, responsive and accountable to their citizens' well-being.