ARCHITECTURE

lead the
design process
watch out for
politicians
respect the
existing
the town, and give people more or less what they are
used to. The goal is to reap a profit on sound investments,
not to change the world.
Developers should direct the design process, gathering
knowledge from the existing production: “Get in
your car . . . and visit competitive properties.” Architects
need to be led: while they “can design what you
need, they rarely know what you need.” Too often
architects and developers sacrifice profitability for
good design and costly features. However, a good designer
will optimize layout and design in a way that
enhances success. 48
In Linneman’s world, politicians are self-interested
obstructionists who abuse their power to distort the
market. We don’t hear about the government’s role
in urban or regional planning and related infrastructure
investments, as a source of subsidies for development,
or as the place where land-use decisions are
decided through a democratic process. The economy
grows naturally, except when harmed by government
action. 49 The 2009 stimulus program, for example, is
predicted to merely depress private-sector spending. 50
Instead of genuine considerations of the public
good, narrow political concerns drive legislation.
Thus, the IRS bases deductions like the depreciation
for new carpet not on empirical studies, but on Congress’
need to collect taxes in a way that “gets them
reelected.” Linneman translates this into the language
of developers: “Reelection is their pro forma!” 51
For Linneman, mentoring the reader means inculcating
a respect for existing conditions. Rather than
questioning existing types and processes, we learn
how to replicate our everyday spectrum of built
products: malls, warehouses, offices, housing, and
hotels. Idealism and ethics are always circumscribed
by the exigencies of personal utility in the face of 5
to 7-year project timelines. In development, the real
is the rational.
1. George Lefcoe, Real Estate Transactions, Finance, and Development, 6th ed. (Newark, NJ:
LexisNexis, 2009), 1.
2. Ibid., 64.
3. Ibid., 63.
4. Ibid., 105.
5. Ibid., 530.
6. Ibid., 797–798.
7. Ibid., 799.
8. Ibid., 113–114.
9. Ibid., 412.
10. Ibid., 495–496.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid., 661.
13. Ibid., 495.
14. Richard Peiser and David Hamilton, Professional Real Estate Development, 3rd ed. (Washington
D.C.: Urban Land Institute, 2012), 3.
15. Ibid., ix.
16. Ibid., 7.
17. Ibid., 15.
18. Ibid., 29.
19. Ibid., 15.
20. Ibid., 9, 14.
21. Ibid., 3.
22. Ibid., 6.
23. Ibid., 56–57.
24. Richard A. Brealey, Stewart C. Myers, and Franklin Allen, Principles of Corporate Finance,
10th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2011), 9–12.
25. Ibid., 11–12. The authors find rhetoric, but not practice, around shareholder value to be
culturally variable.
26. Ibid., 273.
27. Ibid., 269–271.
28. Ibid., 273.
29. Ibid., 440. Compare this to firms in pharmaceuticals and advertising, which use equity
financing.
30. Ibid., 871.
31. Ibid., 334.
32. Ibid., 329.
33. Ibid., 321.
34. Denise DiPasquale and William C. Wheaton, Urban Economics and Real Estate Markets
(Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1995), 7–10.
35. Ibid., 13–18.
36. Ibid., 49–57.
37. Ibid., 92, 102–103.
38. Ibid., 65, for example.
39. Ibid., 103–108, 122, 124–125, 140–143.
40. Ibid., 108. Another barrier to the achievement of full decentralization is the need for
workers of “different wage rates,” living in “different types of housing at various density
levels.”
41. Ibid., 13, Figure 1.3 for example.
42. Ibid., 83, 84. Figures 4.19, 4.10
43. Ibid., 67–68.
44. Peter Linneman, Real Estate Finance and Investments, 3rd ed. (Philadelphia: Linneman
Associates, 2011), 160.
45. Ibid., 161.
46. Ibid., 163.
47. Ibid., 162.
48. Ibid., 174.
49. Ibid., 237.
50. Ibid., 389.
51. Ibid., 53.
164 165