DesignAddict Forums


	> Edit your post


	title of this thread your message Think about a building. It is not just steel frame and glass skin and some kind of a roof. It is building mechanicals. Linkages to sewer, water, gas, electricity, streets, police service, judicial services, insurance and on and on. A high rise office building is really the physical embodiment of vast constellation of legal contracts not only for construction, but ongoing service and maintenance. And everyone of these service players demand a huge hunk of revenue because they each are spatial monopolists. In turn, they are agreeing to contribute their service to create a spatial monopoly at a given location for a builder and owner. And this building is not a cookie A chair by contrast is a small fungible product, often made in quite large numbers, so the cost of the constellation of contracts can be spread out over more units. Brilliance of design, or stupidity of design, cannot alter the basic, underlying economic and financial dynamics that converge to produce a price range for chair, or any other product. Great design can make it worth more, though often it just makes it more costly. Great architecture, or brilliantly green and efficient building design, can enhance the value of a building, also, but the idea that the cost/value/price relationships can be fundamentally changed is probably not consistent with reality. There are more intractable monopoly players impacting a skyscraper than a chair, or even a whole building worth of furniture. If furniture were a monopoly, then it could impose itself on the skyscraper and be a much bigger portion of the total project value, just as local, organized crime controlled construction companies, and large utility players, which are relatively monopolistic in their impact on the project, presently impact project cost and value. The ultimate game in real estate is to create a building on a site at a location that can be no where else and absolutely has to be there. When this is the case, then all the monopolists that must cooperate to construct and maintain this monopoly building can drive the cost of the building phenomenally high and charge sky high rents, and those rents can be absorbed by tenants, who pass them on to their customers...all because everyone needs to be at that location. I hope, Gustavo, that I have clarified things for you a bit and not just complexified things. It is the best I can do. I've been out of the business for quite a while and knowledge and skills get rusty in a short time. associated web images (optional) associated web link (optional) your email your password create a forums account \| you forgot your password?