Prologue. A Brick Wall in Evanston
Chapter 1. Developer as Visionary
Chapter 2. Deal Makers
Chapter 3. The Real Estate Development Process
Chapter 4. Developers and Their Architects
Chapter 5. Good Design
Chapter 6. Selling Real Estate
Chapter 7. Market Cycles, Leverage, and Timing
Chapter 8. Profits, Values, and a Sense of Purpose
Chapter 9. The Creation of Place and Culture
Chapter 10. Developers and the Community
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
Based on interviews in Portland, Chicago, Miami, and Minneapolis/Saint Paul, How Real Estate Developers Think depicts the entrepreneurial personality of the developer, explores the meaning of "good design," and examines the economic risks and rewards of development.
Peter Hendee Brown is an architect, planner, and development consultant based in Minneapolis, where he also teaches at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. He is author of America's Waterfront Revival: Port Authorities and Urban Redevelopment, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.
"Peter Brown interviewed more than 100 people involved in real
estate development. He understands how the key players-developers,
architects, engineers and government officials-interact to develop
new or repurposed buildings and landscapes. Using real situations
as examples, he clearly and expertly portrays essential
personalities, and the differing motivations, risks, and rewards of
the players in the process. This book is important, well written,
clear, and easy to understand. If you are an architect or engineer
working with developers, a municipal official responsible for
reviewing and approving building proposals, a resident in a
community with sites being considered for development, a member of
a neighborhood or city zoning committee, a public-spirited citizen,
or simply a person interested in expanding your understanding of
how projects get built, you should read this book."
*Peter Piven, FAIA, principal consultant of Peter Piven Management
Consultants and author of Architect's Essentials of Starting,
Assessing and Transitioning a Design Firm*
"Peeking into the minds of real estate developers turns out to be
riveting. Peter Hendee Brown has managed to open up the life of
risk, reward and values in the paradoxical world of development.
From understanding how well intentioned community guidelines for
development often backfire, to learning more about how real estate
deals work and how design relates (or doesn't) to the market, to
seeing case studies of how real estate development is ultimately an
expression of values, this book is a must read for anyone in the
development, design or planning world, or anyone who lives in a
city or community where planning and development happen-basically
anyone who is interested in knowing more about how our cities and
communities are shaped."
*Mary Margaret Jones, FASLA, FAAR; President and Senior Principal,
Hargreaves Associates Landscape Architecture*
"Brown makes the great point that less conflict and more
cooperation should lead to far better buildings and cities that are
better places to live and work."
*Lee Schafer, Minneapolis Star Tribune*
"Focusing on imaginative and experienced development professionals
working in complex urban settings, Brown usefully problematizes the
monolithic idea of the 'greedy developer.' By helping readers to
see how these more sophisticated developers think, this engagingly
written book can do much to help move real-world situations from
hostile standoffs to informed conversations."
*Ann Forsyth, Harvard Graduate School of Design*
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