hmmm, go to http://urbanpartnersllc.com and see what you think. I can't say that I would ever trust a developer to always do good stuff, especially when these guys do a lot of developing of other people's land, and that puts them at the mercy of the client, but Urban Partners is one of the better developers I've seen. But they are young, so in a way we've all just got to wait and see how some of these projects turn out.

I also like Tom Gilmore for his adaptive reuse work. But I figure you probably already know about him since he's been getting so much media attention lately.

take a look at Lyme Properties out of Boston and New England area- they seem to be very competitive and profitable, yet they hire talented architure firms and do (mostly) interesting buildings- there are a few developer firms out there like this but are in the minority

I am a graduating architecture student and love architecture. But i hate what i see happening with these huge developing firms that just trash the area by throwing up any old piece in order to make a buck. These are some good suggestions.

yeah, I am also a graduating arch student, and one of my strategies to find firms I want to work for is to find the developers I want to work with, and see who they keep hiring (for instance, Tom Gilmore seems to always work with Killifer Flemeng)

isn't gerhy a developer turned architect?

Wermers in VA fairly consistently hires noted architects. Maybe not to your taste, but noted nonetheless. Back in the '80s they won a P/A award with a development designed by Eric Kuhne. These days they're working more with Ray Gindroz and the like, the New Urbanists.

There was the developer in New York, CoCo Brown, of course, who hired a whole passel of architects to do one-off incredibly expensive houses in the Hamptons.

A year or so ago Dwell ran an article about a developer out west (Colorado? Nevada?) who did a whole neighborhood in modern houses.

Don't know any developers who are themselves noted architects. I think the agendas are at cross-purposes most of the time.

[url=http://arizona.optimaweb.com/]Optima Houses[/url

Decent Stuff From David Hovey/Optima

I am afriad of anything with the word "lyme' attached to it......

Does that fall under bad "branding"?

Decent Stuff From David Hovey/Optima

The good part of Urban Partners died with Ira Yellin. Now it is an outfit whose commitment to architecture and urbanism only goes as far as marketing and what it buys them in Modifications from the city. In Los Angeles, there are lots of examples of close collaborations between architects and developers that result in quality buildings that neither could have accomplished on their own... I will post some examples when I have more time on my hands...

Jonathan Rose studied planning, architecture, and urban design but never finished his degree. (He went to Penn, if I recall correctly) He is now a developer and does amazing projects.

http://www.rose-network.com/

I agree that Lyme Properties does really nice work. They were the developers of the new Behnisch + Behnisch designed Genzyme Building in Cambridge. MA

Though David Clem, the founder, isn't an architect, he does have a Master's degree in City Planning.

I thank everyone, these are exactly the issue's i am curious about. If you have anymore suggestions...Janosh....i would love to hear them. happy holidays everyone

Just as it's incorrect to assume "developer = bad design", so it's just as naive to think that "architect = good design." Some of the worst buildings out there were done by architects, unaided by evil real estate tycoons.

I've always been interested in work as a developer. However, I have heard that most architects make bad developers. They lose money.

And most developers are very wealthy to start. I'm not.

From the trends that i have been seeing, i wouldn't say you need to be wealthy out of the gate. I believe that its all in the turnaround, if you can mustard up enough money to buy one property, can do nice work, you then have enough collateral to buy another...from that you can relatively quickly have the wealthy backing that is needed to support other ventures in real estate. Do i sound Psycho? I think its in the management and marketing of the operations that architects can prevail in the developers world...This method also seems to be the todd Gilmore technique.

You have it correct, lowryourstds.

Architects typically get caught up in the design and lose money, or so that's what everyone says. I don't personally know any architects that are developers, but I am working towards that.

It's all about risk. It's always funny that firms like Gensler will spend more than $100k for rent, for one office, but not buy properties. It's the risk. Rent is a constant, for the most part, but real estate values can put a billionaire in bankruptcy in a day.

Big risk = big rewards.