architecture + infrastructure consultants for real property • expert services

Much of our expertise has been focused on complex, sometimes high profile cases. Our approach is scientifically sound and has successfully undergone Daubert challenges. The following are examples.

Access takings (eminent domain and regulatory)

Damages from loss of access

We provided evidence in the first Colorado access case in over three decades in which a property owner's claim of substantial impairment of access was accepted by the court. We provided evidence in several cases involving a new light rail line that eliminated vehicle access showing improper analysis and inadequate information by the condemning authority on highest and best, larger partial conditions, movement patterns and comparables.

Damages from road widenings and pipeline easements.

In various cases, by making larger parcel distinctions, by analyzing development alternatives and required patterns of circulation, by examining factors affecting how drivers scan and perceive in their cone of vision and by showing the size, shape, position, visibility, internal and external configuration of the use in the before and after conditions, our work showed there were significant changes to the highest and best use of these properties that resulted in economic damage with settlements in favor of the property owners.

Intellectual property

Trade dress (pre- and post-Wal-Mart)and architectural copyright.

Our work addressed one of the most successful outlet malls in the U.S., semi-custom suburban homes, a 16,000 SF great house in Beverly Hills, garden apartments in Arizona and Nevada, high-rise condominium buildings in Miami Beach. We used shape-network primitives to show spatial and visual patterns and to identify similarities and identities that would both constitute signatures and be tacitly perceived by prospective shoppers, buyers, users, etc. We prepared analytic reports and, in several cases, our methods underwent a successful Daubert review.

Owner-builder-designer-user disputes

Functional utility and unjust enrichment in a historic gambling town.

Our work distinguished external (economic) from functional obsolescence by identifying the impact of decreased demand on overall real estate values. Using a financial break-even model equating fixed costs with real estate values and variable costs with casino operating costs, we showed that the design and construction of the building, as it would be on completion, allowed an already contemplated assemblage with adjacent property that would result in a building very similar in functional utility to many successful casinos.

Structural, functional or aesthetic failure

what makes luxury hotels different?

A 22-story, beach front hotel built in Guam in the late 1980s was damaged by an earthquake shortly after it opened. losing most of its stated $90,000,000 value. We provided evidence in the longest trial in Guam history that its functional and aesthetic character was significantly inferior to that of luxury hotels around the around the world and in the same market area.

Was there a contract?

The designer/builder submitted to a bill to a couple planning to build a 15,000 SF luxury house; they refused to pay and the designer-builder sued. We described design and contracting practices for this kind of situation and the case was settled beneficially for the client.

What is an architect, really?

The founder of one of the largest cable media companies was going to build a luxurious, 25,000 SF great house, manager's house, stables, hangar and landing strip in one of the most scenic but undiscovered areas in the West. After little more than year, the project experienced delays, fee and cost increases and after almost another year with the main house barely started, the owner terminated the architect and the architect counterclaimed for unpaid bills and to prevent his designs from being used. The case was settled shortly after we indicated the architect's lack of appropriate experience.

Public space

Public Forum (First Amendment)

We supplied evidence in a nationally known Public Forum case decided in the Colorado Supreme Court as well as others involving peddling, vending and anti-social space.