Sustainable Real Estate
This introductory course surveys the historical foundations, economic logics and underlying physics that underscore the design, development and operations of sustainable buildings. The recurring theme of people, place and profit is redefined within the context of user demand, asset management, site planning, building design and financial acumen. Students trace a narrative of process that begins with market analysis and conceptual design and ends with de-commissioning and recycling. Throughout the course, the central subjectivities and applications of sustainability will be challenged in order to critically evaluate aspects of social, financial, and environmental sustainability. In particular, the course seeks to understand the nature and extent to which empirical science can inform risk-adjusted business decisions. In practical terms, the course is built upon basic technical calculations ranging from material energy transfers to discount cash-flow analysis. These calculations are contextualized against building code benchmarks and exemplified through various technologies and building systems. The course includes a systematic review of various rating systems, building codes and delivery models, as well as the support systems necessary for informing investment and design decisions. At the conclusion of the course, students will have sufficient knowledge to pursue further competencies and accreditations leading to an entry-level practice in sustainable real estate management. For design students, the course defines a fundamental set of operational and economic parameters that shape design decisions and development trade-offs in commercial real estate. Students will be evaluated through the development of a business case based on programmatic requirements set forth in an RFP issued by the U.S General Services Administration (GSA). The business case will be based on an integrated design and financial strategy that includes a pre-tax investment analysis, physical plans and designs, and life-cycle projections. The course will conclude with a presentation of the business case in a format that is intended to simulate the process of making a successful bid to a GSA jury. Sustainable Real Estate is not exclusively about the efficiency of inputs and outputs of market production. It is about the design of material investments in the built environment that promote efficiency and reduce consumption in the advancement of the stability and durability of a broader range of urban ecologies.
There are no prerequisite courses required for this course.
Healthy Places
The connections between health, well-being, and place are a complex. This class focuses on four topics that will be important in coming decades: a place, suburbia; a population, older people; a method, neighborhood health assessment; and an implementation strategy, multi-sectoral collaboration.
• Place: Suburbia is a key site for urban growth in coming decades and has provoked polarized opinions about its healthiness. The class will look beyond the hype to understand the strengths and weaknesses of this very diverse part of the metropolitan landscape.
• Population: The aging of the world’s population is an enormous challenge that will fundamentally reshape households, cities, and regions. The class will engage the shifting physiological and psychological dimensions of aging. This is an area of some innovation in terms of technology, housing forms, transportation options, and lifestyle options.
• Method: Understanding the healthiness of existing and proposed neighborhoods is an issue that is more contentious than it would at first appear as various health assessments start from different premises. The class will examine existing tools including health impact assessment, healthy community assessment, community health needs assessment, as well as various livability and sustainability tools. The course will also engage with an emerging kind of tool the neighborhood health assessment or audit.
• Implementation strategy: Because health and well-being are so multifaceted many propose collaborative models of implementing healthy places strategies including well-known approaches like healthy cities, age-friendly communities, and child-friendly environments. The course will unpack these approaches, asking how effective they really are.
In examining these topics students will also reflect on some larger questions. Can the way places are planned and designed improve health? What are the key health issues that should concern those in planning and related fields? Does the work of incorporating health issues into planning and design processes always add value? Is evidence-based practice really an improvement over business-as-usual? What is the relationship between the different approaches to incorporating health into planning and design practice: health assessments, built projects, regulations and policies, interagency coordination, and programs to change how places are used?
Housing and Urbanization in the United States
This course examines housing as both an individual concern and an object of policy and planning. It is intended to provide those with an interest in urban policy and planning with a broad background on why housing matters and how its unique attributes give rise to certain challenges and shape how practitioners respond to them.
The course first lays out a framework for understanding the roles housing plays in individuals’ lives, neighborhoods, and the metropolis. Early sessions examine the unique attributes and roles of housing, including the role of homes as constitutive of the private and domestic realms, housing as an icon and encoder of social status, housing as a commodity, and housing as a driver of urbanization and shaper of neighborhoods.
The next sessions focus on housing as an object of policy, examining the early rise of public intervention into housing as a result of concerns over slums and the expansion in the twentieth century of programs and policies that shaped housing markets, homeownership, and metropolitan form. We also explore problems flowing directly out of these interventions, including sprawl, concentrated poverty, housing unaffordability, and racial segregation.
Finally, the course focuses on planning and policy responses to these challenges, including responses to poverty and segregation through urban renewal, public housing, fair housing laws, and participatory planning; cost-income mismatches and attempts to supply affordable housing; and land use regulation as a potential solution to the social and environmental problems of low-density, exclusionary development. The final session will touch on some of the most recent solutions to housing challenges including micro units, form-based zoning, age-friendly design, and others.
Upon completion, students will have a firm grasp of housing and urban issues, a theoretical frame for understanding them, and a working knowledge of the planning and policy tools used to address these issues.
Jointly Offered Course: HKS SUP-661
Transportation Policy and Planning (at HKS)
The course is intended to develop in students an understanding of the management, policy and planning problems that are peculiar to transportation and other types of infrastructure. The first half develops three basic analytic skills:
1. The ability to evaluate spatially and temporally detailed demand forecasts by systematically identifying and analyzing the relevant markets and by understanding the strengths and weakness of traditional mode split and four-step models.
2. The ability to estimate the costs of different services despite the presence of economies of scale and scope, peak, joint, fixed and sunk costs and other complications and an understanding of the different roles that cost and non-cost considerations play in the service and pricing decisions of for-profit firms and public enterprises.
3. A basic understanding of the importance of scheduling, network design and inventory policy in balancing customer convenience with carrier cost.
The second half builds the capability to identify and evaluate remedies for four policy and planning issues:
1. An understanding of the basic options for controlling congestion (such as building new capacity vs. managing existing capacity better) and air pollution (such as reducing vehicle miles traveled vs. reducing emissions per vehicle mile) and the ability to determine which option is most appropriate in a particular situation.
2. The ability to assess when a transportation policy or investment is likely to have a significant effect on urban land use and land values, including an understanding of the role the transportation has played in shaping metropolitan form in the past and the extent to which the parallels with the past can be misleading.
3. An understanding of when it is economically sensible and politically acceptable to have a private firm provide transportation services through public-private partnerships or other means and the ability to asses the need for government to regulate the prices or quality of service of private providers.
4. An understanding of the pros and cons of using transportation investments as a tool to stimulate the national economy or lagging regions including the different roles that benefit-cost, financial and regional income analyses play in the evaluation of those investments and how jobs created and the indirect or wider economic effects of investments should be reflected in the benefit-cost and financial analyses.
The course is taught primarily by the case method and the cases are drawn from a variety of urban and intercity modes—including mass transit, highways, railroads, airlines and ferries—and from both industrialized and developing countries.
This course has a discussion section on Fridays from 8:45-10 AM.
Jointly offered as HKS SUP 651
Those interested in GSD SES 5302/HKS SUP-651 are encouraged to attend a shopping session on Wednesday, September 5th from 8:45-10 AM at HKS in L230. The actual first class meetings will be on Friday, September 7th. After that the course will meet regularly on Mondays and Wednesdays, 8:45-10 AM in L230, with reviews on Fridays 8:45-10 in R306.
Analytic Methods: Qualitative
How can planners understand places in a rich, meaningful, and yet systematic way? This module examines how qualitative approaches can be used in planning practice and research. Qualitative methods are particularly useful in answering why and how questions; investigating differing perceptions and values; understanding unique situations; and helping describe complex situations.
Focused on learning-by-doing, the class examines how to design a qualitative research project and reviews a range of data collection and analysis methods useful in community and organizational environments. With the aid of well-thought-out conceptual frameworks, qualitative research can be designed to make a coherent and meaningful argument. Students learn about collecting and reviewing artifacts, observing places, asking questions, engaging with diverse groups, and using visual techniques. Such data are frequently organized into specific kinds of outputs including case studies, scenarios, and evaluations. Students will try out these approaches in weekly exercises.
By the end of the class students will be able to:
1. Identify the range of qualitative methods commonly used in planning practice globally, including methods planners use themselves and those used in research planners commission and/or read.
2. Use different qualitative data collection and analytical approaches.
3. Comprehend the strengths and limitations of qualitative approaches and how they can be combined with other methods (mixed-method approaches).
4. Understand how qualitative methods can aid more complex and systematic understanding of urban places.
5. Critically assess qualitative research designs and outputs.
6. Design common forms of qualitative studies e.g. assessing existing conditions, evaluating an intervention, preparing a case study, developing future scenarios.
7. Appreciate ethical issues in qualitative research and their relationship to planning ethics more generally.
Analytic Methods of Urban Planning: Quantitative
This course introduces students to quantitative analysis and research methods for urban planning. The course begins with an examination of how quantitative methods fit within the broader analytic landscape. It then exposes students to basic descriptive statistics (including measures of central tendency and dispersion), principles of statistical inference, and a wide variety of analytic methods and their practical application. By the end of the course, students will be comfortable with many analytic techniques relevant to urban planning and policy, including: z-tests, t-tests, ANOVA, chi square tests, correlation and multivariate regression. On a broader level, students will gain the ability to understand and critically question the kinds of analyses and representations of quantitative data encountered in urban planning and allied disciplines.
The aim of the course is to introduce students to key concepts and tools in quantitative analysis and research. Most importantly, however, the goal is to develop students’ intuition regarding data analysis and the application of statistical techniques. By the end of the course, students will be familiar with how common techniques of quantitative analysis can be applied to a wide variety of data. Students will also gain a sense of the strengths and weaknesses of quantitative data analysis and under what circumstances the tools learned in the class are best applied in practice. The course seeks to train technically competent, intellectually critical practitioners and scholars who are able to apply quantitative methods in a wide range of settings and who are also aware of the wider analytic context into which these approaches fit. There is a focus throughout the course on epistemology and the ethics of claim-making. Over the course, students will deepen their understanding of how claims are made, how claims are connected to different forms of evidence and what makes different kinds of claims credible.
Policy Making in Urban Settings (at HKS)
An introduction to policymaking in American cities, focusing on economic, demographic, institutional, and political settings. It examines economic development and job growth in the context of metropolitan regions and the emerging “new economy” and addresses federal, state, and local government strategies for expanding community economic development and affordable housing opportunities. Of special concern is the continuing spatial and racial isolation of low-income populations, especially minority populations, in central-city neighborhoods and how suburbanization of employment, reduction in low-skilled jobs, and racial discrimination combine to limit housing and employment opportunities. During the semester, students will complete two brief policy memoranda and a take-home examination consisting of three short essays. Also offered as KSG SUP-600
Jointly offered as HKS SUP 600
Those interested in GSD SES 5213/HKS SUP-600 are encouraged to attend a shopping session on Tuesday, September 4th from 1:15-2:30 PM at HKS in LAND. The first class meetings will be on Thursday, September 6th. The course will meet regularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:15-2:30 PM in LAND.
Field Studies in Real Estate, Planning, and Urban Design: Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, and Andover, MA
The Field Study course is designed to provide students an understanding of the dynamics and complexities of real world development challenges that create contemporary urban physical environments. The course emphasizes the integration of design and development aspects of projects that respond to realistic market demand, political, financial and other regulatory constraints – how financial implications affect planning and design and vice versa. The course is intended for real estate professionals, architects, urban/landscape designers and planners, to broaden their understanding of urban development issues and public-private development problems, as well as to improve their skills in design and financial analysis. This year there will be three field studies: Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, and Andover, MA. Students will have extensive interaction with local officials and developers in all cities.
In Buenos Aires, students will work on the planning and development of the 22 hectare Innovation Park site on the former Tiro Federal Argentino Shooting Club grounds. In Los Angeles, 4 students will work on affordable housing development opportunities in Orange County for cities ranging from Santa Ana to Costa Mesa. In Andover, MA, students will work on the 169 acre North Andover site that was formerly Lucent and Bell telephone property. The city recently turned down a proposal for a 1.1 million square foot marijuana plant there. In all field studies, students will have extensive interaction with local officials and developers as well as real estate and design professionals and neighborhood representatives.
Note, 14 students will be selected to participate in the Buenos Aires trip and in the Los Angeles trip via the limited enrollment course lottery and a subsequent lottery will be run the first day of classes to determine which students will participate in which traveling site. Other enrolled students will participate in the Andover field study. Students traveling to Buenos Aires Los Angeles will be term billed $300 and $200 respectively, and are responsible for the cost of all meals and incidentals related to the trip, including visas and any change fees related to modifications to set flight itinerary. Students participating in a traveling option studio or other course trip are not eligible for either traveling field studies sites. Those selected in the limited enrollment course lottery will lose their places in the Buenos Aires and Los Angeles trips if they fail to show up at the first class. Everyone who is interested these field study locations, especially those with close waitlist numbers, should attend. The Buenos Aires site visit will take place October 1-5 and the Los Angeles site visit will take place October 17-21.
Cities by Design I
Cities by Design I is concerned with in-depth longitudinal examination of urban conditions in and among selected cities in the world. The broad aims are: to engage in both comparative study for the purpose of broadening definitions of what it is to be ‘urban’; to identify characteristics that render particular cities distinct; to understand the manner in which geography, locational circumstances and related infrastructural improvements both constrain and promote opportunities for city devel-opment; and to gain insight into the role of human agencies, planning institutions and design cul-tures in shaping cities and their role in broader regions. The cities under examination are Barcelona, Boston, Berlin, Mumbai, Quito and Shanghai. Each will be the subject of three lectures, followed by student-led presentations around four pre-assigned projects, themes or events of consequence for the city in question and how these projects, themes or events are reflective of the city’s broader narratives. Both semesters of the year-long ‘Cities by Design’ course is mandatory for and limited to all incoming Master of Architecture or Landscape Architecture in Urban Design students. Grading in this Fall semester will be based on performance in the student-led presentations, attendance, general class participation, and a final response essay.
Land Use and Environmental Law
As a scarce and necessary resource, land triggers competition and conflict over its possession and use. For privately owned land, the market manages much of the competition through its familiar allocative price-setting framework. However, because one person’s use of privately owned land affects the individual and collective interests of others and because market mechanisms alone are not always adequate to protect or promote such interests, laws enacted by legislative bodies, administered by government agencies, and reviewed by courts play a significant role in determining the use of land.
Encompassed in local ordinances, higher-level legislation, administrative rules, constitutions, judicial opinions, discretionary governmental decisions, and private agreements, land use laws and environmental laws shape the look, feel, and socio-economic dynamics of cities, suburbs, and rural areas worldwide. For example, zoning’s use restrictions affect whether neighborhoods are homogeneous or heterogeneous, its density and lot area restrictions scatter, cluster, or even drastically curb housing production, its height and setback restrictions sculpt the skyline. Environmental laws govern the extent to which land uses pollute air, water, and land, whether habitat is available for endangered species, whether wetlands are preserved, and whether individuals build in areas vulnerable to floods, hurricanes, forest fires, and earthquakes. Do these laws achieve the types of environments desired by everyone? Do they serve some groups more than other groups? Are they an undue infringement on individual rights to property, free speech, and other constitutionally protected rights? Do they stifle design creativity? Are they up to the task of addressing the anticipated consequences of climate change?
This course is about land use laws and environmental laws and introduces students to their content and controversies. Although the course operates on the assumption that incoming students have no legal knowledge or background, those with a background in law can also benefit. Students will gain a working knowledge of popular legal techniques, their implementing institutions, and their judicial reception, along with an understanding of theories that explain and justify the demand for law’s control over privately owned land. For pedagogical reasons, laws from the United States will be used as primary sources, but comparisons and distinctions with laws in other countries will be regularly made. The role of non-lawyer professionals, such as planners, designers, public policymakers, real estate developers, and community activists, in influencing, drafting, and implementing land use and environmental laws, is unpacked. The course defines and distinguishes law’s method from those employed by other disciplines and fields. Reading assignments come from primary sources, such as legislation, judicial opinions, and constitutions, as well as secondary sources such as law review articles, journal articles, book excerpts, and professional reports. A written exercise requires students to examine one provision in a zoning ordinance and draft its replacement. An oral final exam will measure overall fluency with the subject matter.
Jointly Offered Course: HKS SUP-663