Posts Tagged ‘urban planning’

UST Student Profile- Marty McCarthy, Project Manager and Green Building Consultant

Friday, February 15th, 2013

The UST Opus College of Business Master’s in Real Estate program welcomes the new class to the 2012-2013 academic year!  Take a look at a brief snapshot of the students in this year’s class.

Student_Marty McCarthy

Marty McCarthy is a part of the new class of students entering the MSRE program in Spring 2013. Marty brings over 10 years of public and private sector experience to the program, including five years as a project manager for the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development. He also spent several years in the private sector green building industry where he focused on energy efficiency improvements. By obtaining an advanced degree in Real Estate at UST, Marty hopes to broaden his understanding of the Real Estate industry and to expand his professional network.

 

 

What is your educational background and experience?

My major was sociology, however because I went to a small school I was able to shape my studies to focus on Urban Issues that affect communities. I studied the concepts of Ernest Burgess of the University of Chicago who created the Concentric Zone Theory. One of my professors was getting his Doctorate from the University of Chicago and I studied his theories on gentrification in Chicago and how Hipsters/artists were the indicator of where gentrification would happen next.

Why did you choose the MSRE program at UST?

To broaden and make deeper my knowledge of the Real Estate industry. I also was attracted to the program because of the networking possibilities that the program offers.

What are your future career goals?

I would like to be a consultant for small businesses or work for a commercial/industrial developer.

As you enter the MSRE program, what aspect of the program are you most excited about?

I am most excited about growing my knowledge in financial aspects of real estate. I want to know more about financing real estate deals and also the financing a real estate business.

What do you enjoy most about the real estate industry?

I’m really interested in Commercial/Industrial development. I am particularly interested in distressed properties and helping small businesses with understanding how to manage their real estate assets.

What is your favorite non-real estate pastime ?

Well there are two. No. 1 is golf because I love to challenge myself. I played soccer all my life including a year in college and have found that Golf fills that competitive spirit in my life. No. 2 I love baseball, Chicago White Sox to be specific. I do have respect for the Twins, but no love for the Chicago Cubs. I have noticed a sizable population of fans of the Lovable Losers (cubs) in twin cities, so I feel I need to represent the Southside.

What is your favorite local development and why?

A few months ago I attended a presentation by Ryan Companies at UST on the development of 222 Hennepin. I really like all projects that incorporate mixed use development in dense urban settings. I think I favor this type of development because I grew up in a dense neighborhood in Chicago. I favor being able to walk places over having to getting in a car to go everywhere.

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9 worst urban planning moves in Twin Cities history

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

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This article came to my attention recently.  It was written by Marlys Harris and it appeared on December 18th, 2012 in MINNPOST.  I think it is an interesting look at what happened and what might have been.

Herb Tousley

 

 This coverage is made possible by grants from the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative and The McKnight Foundation. By Marlys Harris | 12/18/12

Since I began writing this column last spring, I envisioned two year-end pieces. One would itemize the worst things that planners, bureaucrats, politicians, developers and We the People have done to our Twin Cityscape; the second would list the best. My thought was that both might provide some lessons about what improves the urban environment and what doesn’t — though, such is life that sometimes even the best ideas turn into misbegotten messes — and vice-versa.

Over the last year, I’ve been asking practically every person I interview for his or her suggestions. And, I have added a few I’ve collected since moving back here two years ago. Herewith, the baddies, in no particular order:

No. 1: The destruction of the Gateway District.

Located near the Mississippi, this area stretches south to the library and from Hennepin to Third Avenue S. Once upon a time, it was a park with an elaborate pavilion that welcomed those arriving at the nearby train station. During the Depression, however, it became Minneapolis’ version of the Bowery, complete with flophouses, taprooms and sleazy hotels.

 By the 1950s, the city decided it had to do something. The buildings were dilapidated and supposedly impossible to renovate. So Minneapolis won a grant from the Feds and over the next six or seven years razed 200 buildings and leveled 22 blocks, leaving a third of downtown vacant. Among the casualties: the Metropolitan Building, a then 80-year-old landmark whose central atrium was adorned with incredible iron grillwork. Buildings have gone up in the area, but it has never become vital. Much of the acreage is still devoted to surface parking lots.

“It’s now a dead area between two neighborhoods,” says Sam Newberg, founder of Joe Urban, Inc., a market research company.

The takeaway: I see two lessons here. First, you don’t knock down buildings until you have something compelling to put in their place. Second, large-scale projects are blunt instruments that destroy the good along with the bad. Among the flophouses and taprooms probably existed salvageable small buildings and rooming houses that these days, with an infusion of dough, could be turned into a walkable neighborhood of interesting stores that would give us some relief from chains. When it comes to urban renewal, it’s probably always better to go small and see what happens.

View of the State Capitol in St. Paul, 1974Minnesota Historical Society/Eugene Debs Becker

A view of the State Capitol from I-94, circa 1974.

No. 2: The slicing of downtown St. Paul in two.

The U.S. interstate highway system is considered one of the marvels of the modern age. On its broad lanes drivers can speed without interruption from city to city, almost as though they were in a tunnel. But those same concrete byways can and have blighted cities. Take St. Paul, which has a beautifully compact and navigable downtown. How much better would it be if I94 did not cut off the Capitol and its campus from the rest of the city?

“Separating downtown from the Capitol was obviously a terrible decision,” said Mayor Chris Coleman at a meeting of the Urban Land Institute a couple of months ago. Those lousy decisions, he added, can be with us for 100 years.

The takeaway: Freeways should transport people to cities, not churn through their guts. Highway engineers: Figure out a way to go around downtown, not through.

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A Sense of Place: Spaces Designed For People

Monday, July 9th, 2012

This is a reposting of a blog entry that appeared recently on The Cornerstone Group blog(see link below).  It presents an interesting look at how project planners, architects, and developers can make cities a better place a better place to live.

http://www.tcgmn.com/blog/

Imagine a perfect day in your city or hometown.  What does it look like?  Where would you go?  How would you get there?  What would you do?  Who might you see along the way?

Place making, an evolving multi-disciplinary approach to planning, design, and management of public spaces, seeks to transform average spaces into high-quality places where people can relax, interact, collaborate, and participate.

After years of designing cities for the automobile, astute planners and developers are once again designing for people.

Cornerstone staff recently attended a Project for Public Spaces (PPS) event, where instructors gave participants insights about how great public spaces take shape.   

“Value created by the public realm will drive the success of a city.”

“How do we get from inadequate to extraordinary?”  The process starts with listening to the community, because neighborhood residents truly are the experts.  They know what is needed and what will or won’t work.

New York City has witnessed the redesign of several public spaces for greater pedestrian visibility and accessibility, which promotes increased activity and improves levels of public safety and comfort.  Setting back corners from the street edge, away from cars, can be an important aspect to the design.

Recognizing that cities and developers alike are strapped for cash, PPS advises for the “lighter, quicker, cheaper” approach.  Adding simple elements to plazas such as moveable furniture encourages people to customize a space for their specific use and group size, enabling collaboration.

Programming public spaces with a variety of activities from markets to fitness and games to performance arts and crafts
brings life to a place and attracts even more people to a neighborhood.  In New York City, Bryant Park was formerly home to several drug-dealing gangs and underwent a major renovation.  Committed to change, business owners supported redevelopment of the plaza through a special taxing district and created a more welcoming, accessible design, with the park booked morning, noon, and night with activities for all ages and cultural backgrounds.

Candy Chang, an artist and urban planner, recently spoke at the Walker Art Center and shared her vision for community spaces as inspiring places where citizens are both contemplative and engaged.  One of Chang’s most successful projects, a wall that encourages passerby’s to fill in the blank answering the question “Before I die I want to…” has expanded to cities on several continents.  A “Before I die” wall launched in Minneapolis in the Whittier neighborhood just hours before Chang’s arrival and was completely filled by eager citizens on the first day.

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Posted in Development, Economics, Government Policy, Green Building, Real Estate Trends, Residential Real Estate, Think Outside The Box, Urban Planning | No Comments »