.

A ton of bricks and a familiar tune

Nice reminder of another reason to try to make due with what we have.


Look familiar?


Thanks goes out to Luke & Shawn for posting these.

posted by adam commercial @ 8:21 AM 0 comments

A good idea? At least an idea tested

Transcend Equity Development is a company that may or may not be on to something. The third party position that will upgrade old buildings with energy saving efficiencies while making a profit can be a risky proposition. Then again, so can any pioneering play into green capitalism. Kudos to them for being pro actively practical, entrepreneurial and assuming risk by taking the necessary lead for a better way. Better that than to wait for the government to get its act together, take off the energy sucking gloves after crisis and administer their potentially heavy handed help by mandating a half solution. Time will tell if Transcend will be a model to help transcend our 1/3 of ALL energy use suck fest that commercial real estate currently holds title.

posted by adam commercial @ 10:51 AM 0 comments

"In times like these, it is helpful to recall that there have always been times like these." - Paul Harvey

It can be said that it is both a unique time and just like old times. Ask Bono at the World Economic Summit in Davos and he'll tell you its a critical time for change. What is your answer to the Davos Question?

As commercial real estate professionals trying to put forth efforts toward making a better world, Adam thinks its with design of form, function and finance for flexibility and the future value. How this comes about will challenge our current view on the operating model. Spaces will need more dynamic less episodic uses and be relevant to more audiences. They will certainly need to be less modeled after our one way consumer mentality and more toward regenerative cohabitation. At the very least, they will need to be less wasteful. As the leaders are saying in Davos, its all connected. The butterfly in Georgia flaps its wings and it rains in Hong Kong is matched by lights left on in Cleveland and there are floods in Mozambique. Even if the connecting is hard to prove and the level of crisis is contended, its better that we love our brother, our mother and our pocketbook...they are all connected. They always have been and always will be.

posted by adam commercial @ 10:38 AM 0 comments

Shaking it out

Many transitions in progress: Offices, web templates(trying), partnerships, market needs....change is the constant, not the entries to Adam. Apologies to those who actually ready this once in a while.

Still there is time for inspiration...there always needs to be. Finance and Commerce sponsored Jerry Yudelson to speak on Green Building and its significance to employee productivity. A huge factor in retaining employees in the future.

Today its the ULI's talk on supporting plans for bike/walk communities in Northern Hemisphere cities. Hopefully all the green/sustainable/smart growth flavor of the month buzz will die down as does many things and, absent a major environmental/economic/political event that forces a needed paradigm shift, we just incorporate these principles into our industries and go about our business.

The challenge for Adam is connecting with more companies to communicate the idea that commercial real estate for business is one part financial consideration, one part business utility and two parts environmental/experience design.

We spoke of this since the beginning ( blog post #3 Wednesday, January 25, 2006) but we still looking for others to help spread the message.

Interested?

posted by adam commercial @ 7:41 AM 0 comments

Have it, use it. Get inspired by it.

Most patrons I saw this day were so focused on the library computer screens I'm not sure it would have mattered to them if they were doing it in a vacant retail space City Center. Still, this place makes you want to hang out and read with whatever medium you choose. It makes you want to just plain hang out. If you have not been, go. I you have gone, go again and soak it up. The building is an excellent experience. More coffee shops and offices need to take a lesson or two from the downtown library and other places like airports. These are the places where they are spending our public design dime and where us commercial collaborators can take cues of inspiration and temporary sanctuary.

posted by adam commercial @ 12:07 PM 2 comments

The beginning of the beginning

After a gap that has included work on the forthcoming new site and good ole' working on biz, here is a video of Alex Steffen that follows the theme or the last post. A little sustainability talk given at the 2005 TED conference. We are just learning about TED but it will definitely be a place to investigate further. Many good things to think and act on.

posted by adam commercial @ 1:39 PM 0 comments

Not your typical Green

We came across this series on PBS and ordered the DVD after seeing one episode. Halfway through the series, we felt so pumped up that we needed to talk about it. Hopefully, the rest of the proposed series will deliver. For Adam, the economies of being environmentally conscious identifies with what this is all about and why we are pursuing the sometimes zig-zagging course we have chosen. No, its not a flavor of the month thing and the DVD has help confirm it. This echos back to understanding of a larger connection to what was a then a twenty-year-old's first connection with Gaia Theory in the late 80's and later the vision for adaptive reuse of a historic property for a community sports & entertainment project in the early 00's. The E2 series has hit upon the economic/ethical blend of purpose. For the goal of greenbacks and green minded. Inspiration beyond the brokerage. Motive for the movement. The reason we do this. More to come on this.

posted by adam commercial @ 10:18 AM 1 comments