not dead yet

However, the residential real estate market in the Boston metro region has settled into a period of complacency.

What happened in the late 80's is the stuff of legend--the great condo housing boom and bust. The housing boom of the 2000's was really never a boom, but compared to the current "recovery" it's significant. 

The issue here is that the Boston Metro region has run out of geographic space and political space for the housing that would satisfy demand. Projects take a long time to get approved and developers try to focus on high return projects. Large scale work has to be branded as "luxury" to get off the ground.

Towers of ilium doesn't subscribe to graphology, but it's hard to imagine a scenario where housing starts get back to the apparently sustainable levels of the late 1990's. 

the end is nigh

Towers of ilium will close its doors on or about the 1000th post. The loyal readership will be able to spend time doing more productive things, like perusing The Oatmeal. Some people have noted that posts dropped off in volume about a year ago. This was the consequence of a new job that actually required that I do work throughout the business day. So it goes.

A recent Boston Globe article provided a breakdown of real estate development costs for new housing. It was a good article, but it made the error of attributing the housing shortage to high development costs in terms of dollars. The real high cost of development arises from the amount of time that is required to obtain permits for new construction in every community. In addition, suburban zoning bylaws and existing housing stock patterns prevents the development of higher density housing.

High prices will persist in the Boston Metro region until Harvard University goes out of business.

coming soon to a village near you

Luxury housing in Singapore that should inspire and amaze us all. They are air conditioned of course.

the perfect HVAC

The Perfect HVAC has the following attributes:

-It is effective at achieving and maintaining the desired air temperature and humidity level regardless of outdoor conditions or internal loads.

-It is energy efficient.

-It can be installed and repaired easily.

-Mechanical components have a lifespan of 20 years or more.

-It is compact.

-It is quiet.

-It is affordable.

-It is unobtrusive.

As far as towers of ilium is aware, it does not yet exist. The modern heat pumps are getting close, but they aren't there yet.

there was only one

The TWA terminal by Saarinen. Photo by Tod Seelie.

prediction market for plymouth mass

A poorly researched article in today's Boston Globe made a set of idiotic comparisons between Plymouth, Mass. and three other New England communities that had closings of nuclear power plants. The impending shutdown of the Plymouth reactor will immediately impact the plant employees and the tax revenues from the facility. What it will not effect, in the opinion of towers of ilium, is the long term economic prospects of the community. Plymouth is not commuter friendly with regard to Boston, but it occupies a considerably different economic environment than Vernon, VT or Rowe, MA. Plymouth, it should be noted, has a seacoast--which although it is eroding alarmingly in places--still attracts people with money who like to live near the ocean, or nearly in it. They will probably see the absence of a nuclear reactor as a positive thing and coastal property values will rise conspicuously.

building skins and other stories

Using the term "skin" for a building is one of those signs that architects are tampering with language in a way that does not help with understanding. While descriptively correct in most respects, the term "skin" invests the wall and roof assembly of a building with more philosophical  weight than it deserves. Biological skin is an active organ system. Good walls, according to the science dept. at towers of ilium, function best if they entirely passive. Even operable windows cause problems, and any effort to introduce more complexity or moving parts into a wall or roof can only end in misery.

The romanticism that is associated with masonry walls and roof coverings is still strong, and for good reasons. More modern systems--even very well detailed and constructed rain screens--should be treated with caution.