Construction Costs
Los Angeles is grappling with the rising costs of building housing for homeless people. Rethinking the standard process is a way to save time and money.
Los Angeles Times
With the price of steel increasing significantly since the beginning of the year, the construction industry has little choice but to build through a more expensive process.
The San Diego Union-Tribune
The problem of expensive transit investments isn't unique to New York City.
Curbed SF
The California Energy Commission will decide on new energy standards for residential construction this week.
The Orange County Register
Inclusionary zoning hasn't helped as much as the state of Oregon was hoping when it passed a law to lift restrictions on the policy in 2016. Construction excise taxes could be the next policy to catch on around the state.
Mail Tribune
A new report from the Regional Plan Association identifies the nature of the problem with the New York MTA's construction costs, and recommends 11 possible solutions.
The New York Times
The price of a permit to build an accessory dwelling units in the city of Thousand Oaks in Southern California is prohibitive—putting the permitting fee in opposition to the stated intent of the city's zoning code and state law.
Thousand Oaks Acorn
Costs for the initial construction segment, 119 miles from Madera to just outside Bakersfield, jumped $2.8 billion in what the consultant called the "worst-case scenario," to $10.6 billion, or over $89 million per mile.
Los Angeles Times
The New York Times devotes feature-length coverage to the soaring costs of subway construction in New York City, where the cost of construction has reached as high as seven times the average around the world.
The New York Times
Blog post
Rejecting the common argument that cities can never be affordable because of high construction costs.
A new study explains why so many small homes have such a massive price tag in desirable coastal areas: It's not the coast of building; it's the value of the land.
Buildzoom
While productivity improves in almost every sector of the U.S. economy, it's dropping quickly in the construction industry.
The Economist
Portland, Oregon lives up to its reputation as a testing ground for urbanism innovation by approving what will become the nation's tallest wood framed building.
The Oregonian
Four years behind schedule and $50 million over budget, the Silver Spring Transit Center will be open to bus business on September 20, 2015. Eventually, light rail will also serve the location.
PlanItMetro
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is scrambling to resolve a major cost overrun for the planned Green Line extension—in peril is potential rail service to one of the most densely populated cities in the country.
The Boston Globe
One of the reasons for the $6.4 billion investment in the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge was to ensure the safety of the bridge in the even of a large earthquake.
San Francisco Chronicle
Aldo Svaldi reports on the beginnings of a condo boom in Denver, which faces risks of legal setbacks in the "litigious environment" created by Colorado's controversial construction-defects law.
The Denver Post
Instagram images and group bike rides now celebrate the Bay Bridge’s eastern span, but the bridge’s long construction process was a constant source of concern. A new report details what went wrong to (hopefully) prevent future mistakes.
Los Angeles Times
Avi Friedman has some ideas of how to make housing more affordable. He says that the focus is too much on the mortgage and subsidies side and not enough on lower building costs.
Northwest Hub
Spain's booming construction industry was fuelled by immigrant workers, who were encouraged to come to Spain. The economic crisis has now stalled many of those construction projects.
Globe and Mail
