Construction Archives - The Handbuilt City

Whether we’re thinking about costs or spatial geometry, elevators (and the regulation thereof) are an important concept behind the question of how to facilitate development of more multifamily and missing middle construction in the United States. A new report from the Center for Building in North America considers the role of the elevator in construction, looking at both the historical evolution of the technology, the safety of operations and installation, and the spatial efficiencies of European vs. American configurations.

June 3, 2024 Nat M. Zorach

Tour Ford’s New Michigan Central Project With Matterport

Ford’s Michigan Central Station is finally finished. It opens to the public on June 6th, 2024, but since tickets are sold out, you can still take a virtual tour here.

Affordable housing Construction Housing Tech

May 23, 2024 Nat M. Zorach

How Modular Construction Can Help Fix The Housing Market

Industrialized and modular construction have a lot of potential to help fix the housing market. The value proposition is pretty simple. Realizing it, however, is a much heavier lift.

victorian house bim cad visualization architecture wireframe

Construction Energy Efficiency Tech

April 15, 2024 Nat M. Zorach

Better Living With Robots: Scanning Buildings For Energy Efficiency

Fraunhofer, Signetron, RMI, and ADL Ventures talked about energy efficiency in building retrofits at a recent webinar.

Construction Law

April 12, 2024 Nat M. Zorach

Fire Code Reform, The Vital Housing Solution You’ve Never Heard Of

Housing abundance advocates have set their sights on a relatively esoteric hindrance to development that, they say, unnecessarily drives up costs without improving occupant safety: fire code.

light bulb over the city for the NREL prize

Energy Energy Efficiency Policy

April 2, 2024 Nat M. Zorach

NREL Prizes for Energy Innovation

The Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are teaming up to produce a series of competitive prize programs to facilitate innovation in energy and decarbonization.

Energy Energy Efficiency

February 5, 2024 Nat M. Zorach

Cities, Unsurprisingly, Have Far Lower Per Capita Energy Footprints.

Energy data show that cities, as we already know, allow for far more energy-efficient uses of land and space than their suburban and rural counterparts.

Art & Design Construction Real Estate

October 31, 2023 Nat M. Zorach

People Deserve Beautiful Things

The SDBA program introduced an interesting discussion about design standards in renovation. It happens to be something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about.

abandoned ilitch building in cass corridor detroit owned by olympia development

Detroit Historic preservation Real Estate Urban Planning

August 2, 2023 Nat M. Zorach

The Ilitch Crusade Continues: When Is Enough Enough?

The latest Ilitch demolition has us all scratching our heads and wondering when we will deserve a better city– for buildings, for historic preservation, and, of course, for Detroiters.

research graph on energy burden presentation by destenie nock shuchen cong

Energy Efficiency Utilities

July 24, 2023 Nat M. Zorach

Energy Burden: The Elephant in the Electrification Room

Dr. Destenie Nock and Shuchen Cong presented from Carnegie Mellon University on a new approach they are taking to assess energy burden in communities around the United States. It is important analysis that will help inform how public service commissions develop better energy efficiency policy for utilities, and how utilities assess the needs of their most vulnerable customers.