Catholic University of America

Fall Lecture Series 1999

Archipreneurs: Embracing Generalization

Previous Speakers

• Harold Adams, FAIA, RIBA;CE O of RTKL

• An Exploration of Life Beyond the Drafting Table: Edmond Prins, RA; Corporate Asset Advisors

• Rich Architect - Poor Architect: Kerry Levin, AIA; Levin Associates Architects

Entering the Race Before the Final Ten Yards

Tonight's Talk:

G. William Calomiris, AIA

Presentation Overview

• An Architect's Education

• The Leadership Role

• Developers, et cetera

• Entering the Race

• Risk and Return: Commensurate Relationship

Just Do the Math

• "1729 is an interesting number." -- Ramanujan

• Master Builders of Antiquity understood Pythagoras

• Master Builders of the Renaissance understood Fermat, but didn't care

• Master Builders of Modernity understand Ellwood, and had better care

Ramanujan's Cubes

1729 = 103 + 93 = 123 + 13

Pythagorean Theorem• a2 + b2 = c2

• Jacob Bronowski's theory of Pythagoras' proof:

• Confluence of Gravity and Horizon

Pythagorean Theorem• a2 + b2 = c2

• Jacob Bronowski's theory of Pythagoras' proof:

Pythagorean Theorem• a2 + b2 = c2

• Jacob Bronowski's theory of Pythagoras' proof:

Pythagorean Theorem

Fermat's Last Theorem

• an + bn cn, where n>2

• Wiles

• Tanayama/Shimura

• Iwasawa

Ellwood's Mortgage Equity Formula

• r = Y - MC

• R = r + dep 1/Sn

• R = r - app 1/Sn

• Y = annual equity yield

• M = loan to value ratio

• C = mortgage coefficient

• Sn = sinking fund factor for Y,n years

• dep = depreciation as fraction of price or value

• app = appreciation as fraction of price or value

An Architect's Education

"A little learning is a dangerous thing."

-- Pope

Section One

Mathematics and Science

• Pure– Analytic Geometry

– Calculus

– Physics

– Mechanics

– Statics

• Applied– Structures

– Mechanical Systems

– Design

– Economics

– Business/Professional Practice

Art

• Pure– Painting

– Drawing

– Sculpting

• Applied– Design

– Model construction

– CAD

– Drawing

Humanities

• History of Architecture

• Philosophy

• Language– English composition

– Foreign languages• International travel

The Leadership Role

"To be or not to be, that is the question."

-- Shakespeare, Hamlet

Section Two

• "Demand a good general education:"– History

– Politics

– Geography

– Foreign language

– General liberal education

• "Demand a good professional education:"– Design

– Construction

– Duties and responsibilities of a professional

AIArchitect, September 1999

• "Appetite for political activism:"– Involved citizens

– Demonstrate leadership

– Serve on governmental boards and commissions

• "Collective advocacy:"– Membership in the

AIA

AIArchitect, September 1999

AIArchitect, September 1999

"Design theory and integration with business systemsand strategies."

"Descriptive geometry, graphic statics, history, and lectureson European novels."

"Power of the big idea… power of the basic question."

"Problem solving requires integrity, and design is a teamsport."

What's Missing at the AIA?

• Embracing the ENTIRE Development Process

• Ellwood's Mortgage Equity Formulas

• Opportunities for Empowerment– Unfinanced ideas remain ideas

– Financed ideas become buildings

– Some buildings become architecture

Damn fine textbooks on architects

• Real Estate Development: Strategies for Changing Markets, Stuart M. Saft, Wiley 1990– We are defined along with engineers as "the designers

of improvements and their related facilities."

• Modern Real Estate, Charles H. Wurtzebach & Mike E. Miles, Wiley 1991– "A designer of buildings and supervisor of

construction."

Developers, et cetera

"Who are those guys?"

-- Goldman, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Section Three

Who are those guys?

• "The ultimate decision on the appropriate use for a property remains with the developer."– -- Stuart Saft

• Developers decide the big What and the big How.

What and How

Traditional Developers

• Real Estate Professionals - Brokers with access to information on available properties

• Lawyers and other excessively compensated professionals with penchant for speculation

• Architect/Developers-European Tradition

• Lack formal training in finance and development

The New Developer’s Education

• Finance - Investment Analysis

• Real Estate Appraisal

• Construction Technology

• Real Estate Law

• Market Analysis/Marketing

• Managerial Accounting

• Architecture-Process

The Developer Dentist

• "Open wide."– -- Cyrus Katzen

• The most successful developers understand the direct correlation between product design quality and profitability.

The Developer Architect?

• For many architects, developing seems either too daunting or too much a departure.

• If a dentist can do this, why can't an architect?

Entering the Race

"Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

-- Thomas

Section Four

Getting In Before the Last Ten Yards

• The last ten yards is where traditional architecture begins.

• The successful architect understands the first ninety yards.

• Prepare yourself to deal with the big What and big How issues.

Preparing for the Big What and How Issues

• Postgraduate work in finance.

• Real estate appraisal.

• Real estate brokerage.

• Networking with public officials and other governmental organizations.

Risk and Return:Commensurate Relationship

"You Catholic girls start much too late. Only the good die young."

-- Joel

Section Five

Case Study: Penn 24 Chancery

• Issues– Legal: understanding entities– Political: historic and housing preservation– Zoning and Use– Financial– Physical (the last ten yards)

Aerial Photo

Location Map

24th Street Elevations

Pennsylvania Avenue Elevations

Details

Price Grid

The Disneyesque Solution

Penn 24 Model

Garage Plan

Section

Ratio Table

Pro Forma

Embassy of Spain

Embassy of Spain

A Mathematician's ApologyI have never done anything 'useful.' No discovery of mine has made, or is likely to make, directly or indirectly, for good or for ill, the least difference to the amenity of the world. I have helped to train other mathematicians, but mathematicians of the same kind as myself, and their work has been, so far atany rate as I have helped them to it, as useless as my own. Judged by all practical standards, the value of my mathematical life is nil; and outside mathematics it is trivial anyhow. I have just one chance of escaping a verdict of complete triviality, that I may be judged to have created something worth creating. And that I have created something is undeniable; the question isabout its value.

The case for my life, then, or for that of any one else who has been a mathematician in the same sense in which I have been one, is this: that I haveadded something to knowledge, and helped others to add more; and that thesesomethings have a value which differs in degree only, and not in kind, fromthat of the creations of other mathematicians, or of any of the other artists,great or small, who have left some kind of memorial behind them.

-- G. H. Hardy

Embassy of Spain