Originally Posted by ATL_J
Its a fallacy that high rents are needed to achieve good design. Good developers with good architects can achieve quality design using cheap materials. Rents have nothing to do with the the quality of the design. Sure, you can maybe spend more on a quality architect with a higher rents or put in more expensive interior items or use more expensive / unique facades, but quality design = / = expensive
In Atlanta you nailed it on the head already. First of all there isn't a lot of room to be aggressive with design and materials, financially, because Atlanta's a super risky market with flaky rent growth and huge untimely cycles, so a certain return is needed and VE is inevitable (this even happens in large core markets). Second of all, Atlanta is still not even close to being walkable or urban, so emphasis is on the apartment building itself, minus the amenities. The developer must provide a ton of on-site parking, larger units, higher end interior finishes and appliances, and a ridiculous amount of amenities, such as 24 hour concierge, pool, gym, library, etc. this is not the case in larger cities where a plethora of gyms exist within blocks, or people are ok with walking to a laundromat or doing it in the basement, and they are comfortable with basics and smaller units. So thus, on a tighter income stream with riskier growth projections and deeper cycles, developers in Atlanta must often pick and choose where they spend their money. Unfortunately, no matter how fancy or beautiful or well designed they make this tower, Wood won't achieve rents materially higher than Skyhouse, so why should they go out of their way to make it materially better?
Edit: And to add, those cities you list, they put up plenty of ugly looking projects too. I understand you're relating to projects in way you know how (price per square foot = more money to spend on quality materials = better quality building), but expensive facade is not indicative of good design.
Believe me when I say I agree with you that a facade does not equal all that entails design. However, an exterior facade on a new resi high rise in a prime CBD location in the skyline of a major city where there is opportunity to shine and stand out (Atlanta) is a major component of the design, both from a branding and immediate appeal standpoint and from a contextual standpoint. A 15 story building is not likely to even be constructed on prime land in NYC or SF or Chicago because the land itself is too expensive to justify that small a building and it wouldn't be visible or noticeable in the larger cityscape to begin with. In that sense it's not an apples to apples comparison, however even ~5 story low-rise product in these cities attempts to make a statement with their facades in certain hot or high end areas.
Going back to this project, there are plenty of inexpensivey ways to clad a project and you can do a lot of neat things if you're creative. This project's form, the way it addresses the MARTA station, which I think would / could have been a huge selling point for the project, is poor. You'd be surprised at how many uncreative architects there are out there and how many developers / customers try to tell an architect how to design (despite the developer / customer having poor taste, no design skill) to the detriment of their project.
Agree on all fronts, but Wood is a huge proven multi family shop based in Atlanta, but with a development presence everywhere. I'm pretty sure they are blah everywhere they are active, but again they operate in certain financial structures and they have found what works for them, similar to Novare, and they probably plan to use recycled methods, designs, and schemes until the day they don't work. You need different equity and a different developer if you want better/riskier.
To reiterate: I'm happy a parking lot is being covered, I'm not happy with the design / look of the project and the garden-style apartment materials. If this was elsewhere in the city and not right on West Peachtree right in front of the Midtown MARTA station I wouldn't care as much or feel as strongly.
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, all of them different. EXAMPLES:
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