Portico 2006/1 - Taubman College - University of Michigan

40 Pages·2006·3.25 MB·English

PORTICO
2006/1
University of Michigan taUbMan college of architectUre + Urban Planning
Table of Contents
from the Dean .......................................................................................1
Developing good Places: the real estate Program .......................3
for real: Michigan takes on Development ......................................4
real estate advisory committee and faculty ..................................8
college Update ....................................................................................10
faculty Update.....................................................................................12
student Update....................................................................................18
alumni Update .....................................................................................23
class notes ..........................................................................................24
calendar of events ..................................................inside back cover
ON THE COVER
The Value of Forgetting: this drawing was an assignment for arch 509, Drawing with
attitude, taught by associate Professor Perry Kulper during Winter 2006 and involved
successive phases of marking, editing, and censoring as a form of creative production.
Using ink on mylar, laser-cut strathmore, and a cigar box, a pattern of 24 marks was
repeated 36 times. the pattern was intended to flicker—to produce a sense of depth and
movement when layered in multiples. this method was used to explore an interest in
producing difference within a fixed and repetitive system.

Jeana D’Agostino, M.arch. (3g) candidate, 2006
From the Dean
you may have noticed that recent Porticos have focused on college cam-
paign themes. this issue features our fifth and last capital campaign theme:
Developing Good Places: the Real Estate Program. i’m happy to say that the
college now offers a real estate Development certificate Program for our
graduate students in urban planning, architecture, and urban design. led by
taubman college, it is a joint program that is also available to students in the
ross school of business, law school, ford school of Public Policy, and school
of natural resource and environment.
this program has been a long time coming. twenty years ago next october,
Peter Allen, who has volunteered countless days of his time to starting a
U(UMrb raena ll aenstda itnes dtietuvetelo) pcmonefnetr epnrocger.a emve, cr osninvceen ethde tnh eh efi rasntd a an nnuuaml bUeMr /oUf loit her a cesare
permanent and adjunct faculty have been teaching real estate courses to angel
oatunhrde sscttouulddleeegnnetts’ss. tPUorr esbstaasnru t+r ae r ffeorogrmmioa nbla oplt rPho lgtahrnean mrine hgaa lP ser sobtgearetaenm ds,et elveaeddl obilpyym bPeuronilfdte icnsosgmo from Mru ynaeirtagyra sr.e t Photograph by
Dewar, developed a curriculum with faculty from the other schools and
successfully won University approval to start a certificate program. a
director was needed, several international searches conducted, and finally
an outstanding candidate emerged and was recruited.
Chris Leinberger, a nationally-respected real estate consultant, developer,
and downtown turn-around expert, was appointed as a part-time professor
of practice last september. he splits his time with the brookings institution
in Washington, D.c., commuting weekly to ann arbor. chris has aspirations
to make this the country’s go-to program for studying “progressive real es-
tate development” and to ultimately grow it into a master’s degree program.
students are genuinely excited about his appointment and about the
program. the initial enrollment quota of 25 students was quickly filled, with
the number eventually to double. chris’ passion for walkable, mixed-use
urbanity resonates well with our urban planning and urban design faculty
and students. he also bolsters our commitment to Detroit and other Michigan
cities, which was the focus of last fall’s Portico. indeed, he hopes to soon
play a major role in developing a strategic plan for downtown Detroit, where
reinvestment is dramatically increasing and showing promise of reaching
the tipping point so long hoped for in that great city.
Why did taubman college take the lead in a real estate development
program at UM? first, we felt a great university should offer a program
in such an important subject. second, there was a growing demand from
students. third, there were many courses already taught across campus
that could be shaped into a more formal curriculum. and last, a school
of architecture and urban planning cannot afford to ignore real estate
development. Developers are like the princely patrons of the past. they call
many of the shots in the shaping of the built environment, which is not only
central to the college’s mission but also society’s biggest asset and invest-
ment—bigger than education, defense, or health care. architects, planners,
and developers need to know how to work together to design and plan better
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buildings and environments, especially the speculative housing, retail, and office developments that make up the
overwhelming bulk of our buildings. there is no doubt that they can learn from each other, starting in their student
years. as President Mary Sue Coleman recently proclaimed: “collaborate or perish!”
as we close out this series of Porticos, let me recapitulate our other four college themes:
• creating sustainable buildings and cities
• Widening the international experience
• leveraging the information revolution
• redeveloping the american city: Detroit and beyond

these themes were developed with alumni, faculty, and student input at the beginning of the Michigan Difference
campaign. they attempt to embody our values and activate our efforts to make our school the best that it can be. We
have scored many, many successes within each theme, as we have tried to convey to you over the last two years.
your advice and support has helped us realize many of these successes, as the college continues its quest to be an
international leader in all of the fields that it touches.
beginning in september and throughout the 2006–07 academic year we will observe the centennial of the college.
(in september 1906, emil lorch founded the architecture program at UM with an enrollment of 11 students. to kick
this off, in lieu of the fall issue of Portico, you will receive a pictorial history of the college. We are also planning two
distinctly different centennial conferences, the first november 3–4, 2006, and the second January 4–6, 2007. the
november 2006 conference, Replay/Pause/Fast Forward: TCAUP@100, will highlight the college: who we are, what
we believe, what we’re doing, and why. the January 2007 event, Global Place: Practice, Politics, and the City, will
bring to our college outstanding scholars and practitioners from around the world.
Please save the date for saturday, november 4, when we hope you’ll join us to celebrate our 100th birthday with a
gala dinner for alumni, friends, and faculty.
Douglas s. Kelbaugh, Dean
these are some of the
hardy staff who committed to
the UM fitness Program.
score: Women: 12, Men: 3
2 Portico 2006/1
The CapiTal Campaign
Developing
gooD places:
The Real esTaTe PRogRam
today, there is rising and justifiable concern among professionals,
academics, and citizens about the declining quality of the built
environment, as well as deterioration of the natural environment. there is
also frustration at the inability of a single discipline or profession to deal
with these problems.
accordingly, taubman college has developed an exciting by taking extra courses—often during an additional term—
integrated program with the schools of business and law. students from the urban planning, architecture, business, and
although existing courses offered at UM deal with real estate, the law programs (plus a few other programs) can earn a graduate
new graduate certificate Program in real estate Development certificate in real estate Development in addition to their
is the only formal, coherent program of study devoted to the graduate degrees.
planning, development, and management of the built environment.
Ultimately, we envision as many as three components: a new
this nationally competitive, interdisciplinary program in real interdisciplinary graduate degree program, research, and
estate takes advantage of Michigan’s rich array of resources lifelong learning.
and is devoted to the physical development of places and
communities that are livable, affordable, beautiful, and
sustainable—rather than focusing primarily on finance and
capital markets, as most real estate programs do. CAMPAIGN TARGETS
• support with expendable gifts or endow the Directorship
the program—which enrolled its first class in fall 2005—enables and Professorship(s) in the real estate Program,
students in urban planning, architecture, business, law, public preferably with adjunct or joint appointments in the
policy, and natural resources and environment to begin to schools of business and law
understand and appreciate the interplay of planning and design • support students in the real estate Program with endowed
with economics, politics, law, finance, and business. and annual scholarships
• establish an interdisciplinary research center at
the University.
this page is an excerpt from A Second Century
of Leadership: The Case for Taubman College of
Architecture + Urban Planning. send an email to
[email protected] to request a copy.
3
Wilson
arbogast-
Ken Real
photographs by FoR
richard bole
by Janice harvey, taubman college The focus of students and faculty at taubman college is place-
making; a focus “that extends across all scales—from the careful
design and elegant crafting of building details to the comprehensive
A few of the students enrolled in
planning of livable cities and sustainable regions.” 1 oftentimes, however,
the certificate program gathered the de facto place-makers—those on the ground making the office parks, residential
subdivisions, and shopping malls—are real estate developers. as Drew Deering, an
recently to talk about the places urban design student in the real estate certificate program says, “the developers are
always the first ones in the door and know what’s going on before the elected officials
they love and how the real es- know what’s happening in their own towns.” if we are truly about creating good places,
we must engage in pedagogy and conduct research and train practitioners who will
tate program is equipping them raise aspirations for real estate development as a profession.

with the skills to be better and this spring the first real estate cer- very specific skill set—how to read a lease,
tificates are being issued to students how to finance a project, how to develop a
more responsible developers. receiving graduate degrees in planning, pro forma, etc.
landscape architecture, civil engineering,
urban design, business, and law. the stu- the real estate certificate program evolved
dents come from a variety of professional from the realization that the huge absorption
backgrounds and academic interests of land, especially by residential develop-
—housing and community development, ment, has reached crisis proportions. larger
investment banking, architectural design and larger homes are being built on larger
and construction, journalism, and even lots and more miles of freeways are being
sales. they possess a combination of constructed, facilitating ever-longer daily
idealism and pragmatism. interested in commutes. the by-products of this conven-
downtown revitalization, historic pres- tional development are the degradation of
ervation, and economic and community the natural environment and a cheapening of
development, they talk enthusiastically the built environment. faculty in this college
about place-making and aspire to create and others across campus believe there are
great places. at the same time these ways to maintain and create places that are
students are working hard to obtain a less land intensive and contribute to an im-
4 Portico 2006/1
Real
FoR
micHigan takes on
Development
proved quality of life for their inhabitants. holdings, and real estate has become less
they recognize the University of Michigan about houses and stores and increasingly
is uniquely positioned to equip future about capital and investment value.
professionals with the skills to improve the
quality of the built environment. a few of the students
enrolled in the
Most real estate developers don’t learn certificate program
development per se. Many are architects gathered recently
adept at financing or business profes- to talk about the
sionals with vision and opportunity. and places they love and
few existing real estate degree programs how the real estate
at other universities teach real estate program is equipping
development. Many teach real estate them with the skills
management—how to protect this capital to be better and
asset that represents a huge percentage more responsible
of corporate net worth and how to use real developers.
estate holdings to improve the bottom line
through accelerated depreciation time- studying urban design has given Drew
Drew Deering
lines. Many also teach real estate in terms Deering an appreciation of a wide range
of its investment value and how to make of places. he loves “everything from
real estate profitable. Chris Leinberger, the small hamlet to new york city.” he
director of the real estate certificate says his favorite places are small to mid
program, talks about the introduction, a scale—e.g. a small town of 20,000, or a
half a century ago, of discounted cash transit stop, or a traditional neighborhood
flow, and how this concept enabled inves- center. Drew grew up in an oklahoma
tors to evaluate real property in the same college town, with a mostly homogenous
way they could evaluate stock offerings. population, and graduated with a bachelor
as a result, many successful investors do of architecture. for the last four years,
not have emotional attachments to their he worked for hoK sports, a firm with a
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name for reinventing the urban ballpark, the place-oriented curriculum here at
a typology credited with an ability to spur tcaUP” was important and enlightening.
revitalization in downtown areas.
from the age of five, Alison Ettel traveled
Jenifer Huestis is a second-year plan- in europe every year. her family went once
ning student who grew up, she says, “in or twice a year to visit extended family in
a run down neighborhood in chicago.” germany and england. growing up in “very
but, she says, “i don’t think there’s suburban” atlanta, she didn’t realize that
anyplace i love more in this world the U.s. could have anything like the towns
than chicago. i’m sure it has to do she visited in europe. after finishing school
with the personal connections i at georgia tech., she moved to Philadelphia
have there; but growing up, i didn’t where she worked as a trader for six years.
know that chicago was unique. i “it was very french, very european and i
just thought every place was like was shocked. i lived in downtown Philly
this. i took for granted that you and i would walk to my work a block away.
could just walk places.” she loves i would walk to the gym. i would walk to the
chicago because of its unique mix of grocery store, walk to the cheese shops,
elements—the drama of the skyline; restaurants, bars, and everywhere.” she
the collection of discrete, intimate became interested in historic buildings,
neighborhoods; the beauty of the revitalizing downtown, and eventually
lake Michigan shoreline and its real estate development. looking for a
grand parks—all of which Jenifer “top flight” business school that offered a
believes combine to create a fabric real estate concentration, she decided
that is not found anywhere else. on Michigan where she could pursue
dual Mba and MUP degrees and gain
Richard Bole, a dual degree student at the certification in real estate.
Jenifer huestis ross school of business and in the school
of naturai resources and environment, “the places you grew up in have special
tends to be attracted to depressed connections, so i would say my favorite
downtowns on their way back. “Places like place is san francisco,” says Jessica
Pittsburgh and cleveland, where you can de Wit. “it’s such a small city, really only
see young energy being injected into the maybe seven miles long but every neigh-
city but where you can still find a group borhood is very different. you can walk
of recent guatemalan immigrants playing down one block every day and probably
games with old milk jugs, find an authentic notice something different. Whether it’s the
pierogi at a neighborhood place, and where fog rolling in changing the reflections on
there’s an existing stock of glorious old beautiful, old buildings, or it’s the neighbor-
structures with potential for restoration, hood people walking, a throng of tourists,
along with a mix of new structures.” or a parade or festival. for a small city, it
richard thinks this is a combination unique has a big impact.” Jessica volunteered
to the so-called “rust belt.” after working with environmental groups in the bay area
for two years as an investment banking while working in web development. she
analyst on Wall street, richard, a “hard became increasingly interested in infill
core finance-directed” individual, realized development in inner city neighborhoods as
soon after he arrived at UM, that he wanted one solution to suburban sprawl. enrolling
to do real estate development as a career. in graduate school, she was attracted to
he had the financial background, but “had the interdisciplinary academic environment
no idea about the other 90 percent that it that the University of Michigan strongly
takes to be a developer and so getting ac- encourages. she is studying in the urban
cess to the real estate program, especially planning program but has taken classes at
6 Portico 2006/1
the ross school, the college of engineering, modular, stand alone, car
and the school of natural resources and driven places but we’ve lost
environment. the ability to create place.
Walkable places.”
Kelly Lindland grew up and attended
school in northwest Missouri, majoring the students believe what
in marketing and management. she says they are learning will give
she finds “great places everywhere i go. it them an advantage in real
might just be a tiny part of a city. or a town estate development;
that i think is great. it’s more about how enabling them “to make money while
Kelly lindland
connected i feel when i’m there. how many doing good,” as alison says. they also
different things are going on? how many hope that the presence of this interdis-
choices are there? how do people feel in ciplinary program will infuse ideas about
that place?” she enrolled in the graduate sustainable practices throughout the
urban and regional planning program with disciplines, even for students and faculty
an interest in developing places that better not directly involved in the certificate
express the individuals living and working program. they talk about classmates from The program is “place-based,”
in them. the business school who have worked
at big commercial real estate financing focusing on creating places and
as with other university real estate firms advocating the need to create more
programs, the curriculum of the tcaUP building stock that can be discounted in particular, places that are
program provides an understanding of the (“because you never know what’s going to
basics in terms of finance, law, planning, happen in the future”). this conventional walkable with multiple transporta-
and other functional elements. leinberger thinking leads to a “build cheap and build
says the difference is “the program is fast” mentality. “the concept of creating tion options. But at their base,
‘place-based,’ focusing on creating places special places is lost on most Mbas until
and in particular, places that are walkable they come into one of these classes. they they’re walkable.”
with multiple transportation options. but come in wanting planners and architects
at their base, they’re walkable.” to give to find a way to get it done in two weeks!”
students some of the basics and teach says richard.
them how to “speak conventional develop-
ment”—a language understood by real he says, “i’m pleasantly surprised by the
estate investors, contractors, and financial curricular focus here. i would expect that
institutions—they learn how to make a you’d go to a business school or an urban
strip retail center in leinberger’s finance planning school and learn to do the type
class. Progressive development (well- of development that dominates 95 percent
designed buildings, good urbanism, patient of the market. here we’re carving out this
capital, and environmental stewardship) critical niche that hopefully will soon grow
is not as apparent or transparent as the to be 30–40 percent of the market. that’s
conventional. Understanding both types will a pretty bold step. We’re doing something
help progressive developers present their that’s not big yet. it’s there but just barely.”
projects in terms banks can understand.
leinberger works under the assumption 1. from the college’s campaign case statement,
Century: A Second Century of Leadership
that “[progressive development] is going to
constitute the majority of the demand over
the next 20–30 years. not the vast majority
but the majority.” he fears that “we in real
estate have lost the knowledge, passion,
and patience for doing this type of develop-
ment. We’ve learned very well how to do
7
Real estate aDvisoRy
Robert Fishman
professor of architecture and urban planning
committee anD Faculty
robert fishman teaches in the urban design,
architecture, and urban planning programs.
he received his Ph.D. and a.M. in history from
Peter Allen harvard and his a.b. in history from stanford
lecturer in urban planning University. he is a nationally recognized expert in
Peter allen has 33 years of experience as an the areas of urban history and urban policy and planning. he has
ann arbor area real estate developer, consultant, authored several books regarded as seminal texts, on the history
and University of Michigan educator. allen has of cities and urbanism including Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise
developed, brokered or leased major properties and Fall of Suburbia (1987) and Urban Utopias in the Twentieth
in the area, mostly commercial downtown Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier
rehabs. additionally, allen has chaired or (1977). his most recent work is on “ex-urbs.”
founded numerous local and regional conferences highlighting
public policy issues relating to development and the local quality Christopher B. Leinberger
of life. he founded the UM/Uli real estate forum and served as director, graduate certificate in
its executive director for 10 years. real estate development
professor of practice in urban planning
Dennis R. Capozza chris leinberger is a land use strategist, devel-
professor of finance and real estate oper, and author helping to make progressive
dykema professor of business administration development profitable. he is a visiting fellow
Dennis capozza’s research activity is currently focused on real at the brookings institution in Washington,
estate and consumer finance. recently published research D.c., focusing on research and practices that help to transform
includes articles on real investment, capital intensity and interest traditional and suburban downtowns and other places to provide
rates; income taxes and housing prices; the dynamic structure of “walkable urbanity.” leinberger has written award-winning
housing markets; and debt, agency, and management contracts articles for publications such as the Atlantic Monthly, Wall Street
in reits. Journal, and Urban Land magazine, among others. he has been
profiled by national broadcast and print media such as cnn
Lan Deng and the today show, among others. leinberger is a graduate of
assistant professor of urban planning swarthmore college and harvard business school.
lan Deng’s teaching and research interests are
in the areas of housing economics and policy, Jonathan Levine
urban economics, real estate development and chair and associate professor of
finance, and local public finance. her current urban + regional planning
research includes: the economic efficiency Jonathan levine teaches courses in transporta-
and neighborhood outcome of various federal tion policy and planning, public economics
low-income housing programs, the supply dynamics of multifamily in urban planning, and quantitative planning
housing production, the relationships between macro-economic methods, in addition to several doctoral semi-
growth, regional investment, and neighborhood change. she nars. levine’s published work has significantly
currently teaches: real estate and urban development, housing influenced the field of transportation policy. his research focuses
systems, and fiscal planning and management. Professor Deng on the relationships between transportation systems and land
holds a Ph.D. in city and regional planning (2004) from University use in metropolitan regions, factors that drive the development of
of california, berkeley, an M.s. (1999), and b.s. (1996) in such systems, and the efficiency of public transit. he is the author
geography from beijing University. of Zoned Out: Regulation, Markets, and Choices in Transportation
and Metropolitan Land Use.
8 Portico 2006/1