architecture + infrastructure consultants for real property • expert services

We are in business to solve difficult problems in real estate caused by the architecture and infrastructure of buildings and places. We probably know more about how the design of buildings and places can lead to economic loss than any other consulting firm. We help clients minimize their losses and maximize their gains by providing two kinds of services: dispute resolution and due diligence/ design analysis. The knowledge we gain from one area of work is an input into the other.

In addition to numerous, rapid response projects, the following are representative of more detailed analytic work we have done. Our due diligence/ design analysis work addresses building & place selection, disposition and development including branding, corporate real estate especially for knowledge work, urban planning/design for economic development and very large luxury houses. It takes into account various biases like the endowment effect and overconfidence that can appear in the diligence process and focuses on diagnosing potential problem properties and designs and identifying problems that harm the revenue-generating prospects and the extent these are curable.

Our approach to due diligence is briefly described in Due Diligence is Not Enough.pdf.

We go the last mile of the space market to detect bargains and latent defects in selecting, developing and disposing of properties. Real estate portfolios exhibit higher non-systematic risk than previously realized and selection based largely on property type is risky. In addition, very few real estate analysts understand architectural and urban design, particularly when it is innovative.

Sample projects

Development • Acquisition • Redevelopment

Regional mall redevelopment
Urban configuration analysis for an architectural design competition
Affordable housing in Denver
Historic public space
Hospitality in the Gulag
Spatial patterns and critical communication in the workplace
Highest and best use for an Elizabethan country house
Spatial strategy for main street
Testing knowledge collaboration in the corporate workplace
The most expensive downtown park in America

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

Our extensive dispute resolution work has involved:
1) access takings - eminent domain; police power,
2) intellectual property - architectural copyright; trade dress,
3) owner-builder-designer-user disputes,
4) public space - First Amendment; peddling and vending.

New Areas of work include design immunity, impliled warranty and economic loss doctrine.

Sample Cases

Access takings (eminent domain and regulatory)

Damages from loss of access
Damages from road widenings and pipeline easements

Intellectual property

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

Owner-builder-designer-user dispute

Functional utility and unjust enrichment in a historic gambling town

Structural, functional or aesthetic failure

What makes luxury hotels different?
Was there a contract?
What is an architect, really?

Public space

Public Forum (First Amendment)