Category Archives for "Architecture"

At a recent Ottawa mayoral candidates debate, the issue of what to do (if anything) about Airbnb came up. Current mayor Jim Watson pointed to a 4% tax now levied on Airbnb rentals somewhat leveling the field between professionally-run hotels and sharing economy-based ones. Mr Watson also said, “When you move into a neighborhood, you expect […]

Engineers say a perfect machine is one with no moving parts. I’d add to that: Complexity is the enemy of success in all endeavors. How could we apply those twin concepts to business modeling? Here’s how: By answering the question–can we reduce the complexity of operating an organization, any business even charity, not-for-profit or foundation, […]

Where buildings in North America meet grade, we tend to throw away its value. How’s that? Every time you open a building at grade to the outside, every time, you add both functionality and value. It’s easier to access apartments, condos, retirement residence suites/rooms, stores, offices co-working spaces, makerspaces, you name it and it makes […]

“You can’t drink all day, unless you start in the morning,” one middle-aged female fan of the Buffalo Bills told me at their home-opener on Sunday September 16th, 2018. It was 0930 at the time, proving her point. That the Bills are important to Buffalo seems self-evident to me. But after tailgating with over 100,000 […]

Law of unintended consequences It’s one thing for a city to allow secondary dwelling units (ie, basement apartments, in-home suites or coach houses in your backyard), it’s another to provide enough parking to get cars off streets, especially in northern shelf areas and the snow-belt. If you ban frontyard parking and second driveways, this is […]

Send them to Porto, an industrial city of 1.8 million in northern Portugal to see how it works (well): More images of Porto… Note how they reach amazing densities and create animated, walkable communities with a careful integration of woonerf (living) streets): Bruce M Firestone, B Eng (civil), M Eng-Sci, PhD Real Estate Investment and […]

It’s probably not where you think it is. Most observers would assume it’s downtown where all the office skyscrapers live. That may be where the highest price per square foot or square meter of land is traded but is it the most valuable? I would argue not. Huh?

Fifteen minutes outside of Olhão, Portugal, you will find a 30-hectare olive oil plantation that combines sustainable farming practices with agritainment. Most mornings around 10 or 10:30 am, a Monterosa (favorably reviewed on TripAdvisor–62 reviews, five stars) staffer will take a group of around 30 (made up of locals on holiday and tourists) around the […]

You don’t have to be a genius to become an accomplished urban designer; you only have to have a tape measure and a camera and come to Europe to learn how. Visit the Algarve (southern Portugal–we are in the small town of Olhão, west of Faro) and you will see thriving, wealthy, walkable, animated, livable, […]

I actually don’t like going away but, when I do, I find that things which were complicated suddenly aren’t. Here’s what I do to gain perspective: -exercise 4-6 times per week (20 minutes after I finish, problems miraculously “solve themselves”) -“move the furniture,” which means getting up from your desk and walking around—for example, when […]

I have to admit to feeling a teeny stab of jealousy as I watched “I own Australia’s best home” season 1 on Netflix. After all, I lived in Oz for seven wonderful years and their weather is certainly better than my current abode (Ottawa, Canada), which is the 2nd coldest capital city (after Mongolia’s Ulan […]

[Here is Bruce Firestone’s contribution to a new book called, Stories about Teaching at Carleton University, 2018]   When one of the courses (Design Economics) I taught at the School of Architecture (now the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism) was reviewed by their accreditation committee, I got a call from the director’s executive assistant […]