ARCHITECTURE

avoid
conflicts
buy access
lawfully
delineate
the social
ness and inherent bias of memory” by memorializing
“the results of the parties’ negotiations” and providing
“confirmation and evidence” of an agreement. 3
A corollary of the text’s focus on transactions is its
emphasis on interested actors. Though interests
motivate actors to complete transactions in reliable
ways, they also lead to conflicts. For example, in buying
or selling land, determining the value of a property
often requires a land inspector to examine it for
defects. In this way, the text’s foregrounding of roles
extends to the putative object of exchange—land itself.
Land inspectors typically come to prospective
buyers recommended by real estate brokers. Because
brokers make commissions on sales, they are thus
subject to competing interests. 4 They desire a careful
inspector who will maintain their reputations by
catching “undisclosed flaws,” but they also want a reliable
inspector who will not “kill the deal.”
The book describes financial institutions, buyers
and sellers, brokers, architects, and contractors
in terms that strip down their responsibilities to
those of instrumental functions, supplemented by
notes on their roles as defined by law or by professional
organizations. For example, architects “translate
the owner’s objectives into buildable plans and
construction documents, [and] assist owners in obtaining
bids and negotiating with contractors.” 5
For Lefcoe, the contract between a buyer and seller
is also a model for describing larger social, political,
and ecological worlds, from neighbors to local governments
to zoning ordinances and environmental
regulations. 6 To the degree that the notion of public
good appears, it is a public in need of redemption by
development. Ostensibly political acts, such as campaign
contributions—“buy[ing] access lawfully”—are
simply links in a chain of operational transactions.
One just has to avoid crossing into illegality. 7
Social relations form the center of this text, driven
by the question of how to get one’s money’s worth
in a landscape where personal relationships are unclear.
Trust and authenticity are useful insofar as
they alleviate the economic anxieties of buying or
turn raw land
into a useful
product
1.
Landowner
(Ground Lessor)
orchestrate
professionals
imaginatively
to realize
projects
renting a home, entering a partnership, or developing
a property. Yet, the right of a seller not to disclose
“psychologically tainted” property is emblematic of
a structural divide between the personal and social. 8
No amount of clarification or documentation will
cure these anxieties.
Mortgage lenders and developers have different
roles than sellers. 9 Here descriptions move from
transactional relations to the norms of development.
One of the main assumptions about land is that it
is raw, and a developer shapes “raw . . . or previously
developed, but derelict or underutilized sites, into a
useful product much like a manufacturer might mold
plastic or carve wood into furniture.” 10
2. 3.
4.
Ground
Rent
Developer
(Ground Lessee /Sublessor)
Rent
Ground
Lease
Operating
Lessee
Operating Tenants /
Sublessees
Note and Mortage
Mortage Loan Proceeds
Note and Mortage
Mortage Loan Proceeds
SNDA Agreement
Key Players in Ground Lease Development, Lefcoe, p. 729.
The chapters on development portray the developer
as someone who uses a “fertile imagination” to
mix the components that allow the project to come
to fruition. 11 The skill of a commercial real estate
developer is “not necessarily [that of ] architects or
contractors, engineers or financiers,” but instead the
bringing of these specialties together to serve those
who need space to carry on their businesses. Further
chapters cover how to choose an entity for real estate
investment in order to formalize a relationship
between developers and investors to share risks and
rewards together. 12 Developers may not “draw up
blueprints or erect steel or pour concrete, but they
cause these things to happen.” 13
5.
Lessor’s Lender
(Freehold Mortage)
Developer’s Lender
(Leasehold Mortage)
150 151