Urban growth requires the replacement of outdated buildings, yet growth may be restricted when landowners do not internalize positive spillover effects from their own reconstruction. The Boston Fire of 1872 created an opportunity for widespread simultaneous reconstruction, initiating a virtuous circle in which building upgrades encouraged further upgrades of nearby buildings. Land values increa...

A house is not primarily a solid building; it is a system of activities. It has to accommodate a broad range of diurnal and nocturnal activities throughout the entire year, and this can best be achieved by means of a flexible spatial configuration. Any changes in the house users and their needs affect the space requirements, but we cannot predict and control these processes. This (case s...

Albany is in a state of transit ion. A hot knife has been thrust into its cancerous guts and is in the process of removing what has been festering there for many years . Where there once were s lums there will soon be m6dern office buildings; lots once crowded with tiny ba r s and soda shops now serve a s parking lots. One must remember , h o w e v e r , that so-called " s l u m s " are not alw...