Last week, I got a chance to attend Small Scale Development Forum (SSDF) #22 in Kansas City, Missouri. SSDF is my favorite real estate-based event of the year, and reflects a growing, largely word-of-mouth cohort of people from all over the country committed to doing development the right way.
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Towards the end of 2023 our dear friend and former GSP teammate Corey Zehngebot came by the office for lunch. It got me thinking about something Corey said often, which has stuck with me and become part of my own lexicon: “information wants to be freed.” Corey always asserted (and practiced) that hoarding knowledge and […]
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Traveling and exploring is important to our work at Graffito. All of us thrive on it; and I know each person on the Graffito team has missed it dearly these past few years.
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Parklets are having their moment in the U.S., thanks to COVID. At a time when many patrons have been hesitant to dine indoors, restaurants have reveled in the additional outdoor space.
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If you’re curious about how rising food costs (in restaurants) impact dishes, check out this analysis of a cheeseburger’s ingredients.
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My major takeaway of 2021 is that the sense of urgency — the faster is better approach — that is embedded in much of our work is a major problem; and often a massive miss. It spurs project outcomes that are less thoughtful, calculated, and creative. Further, urgency in professional settings, especially at real estate firms, may result in processes that leave critical stakeholders behind, fuel flawed internal decision making, and perpetuate certain aspects of institutional racism in the staffing, permitting, underwriting, design, and marketing of projects.
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As we enter fall and look towards 2022, the Graffito team will be approaching all of what we do with the same intensity, commitment to learning, flexibility, and willingness to pivot as we did in 2020 when the pandemic first hit and these updates began.
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Lots I could write this morning about this study, our work with Wexford, Philadelphia, and what it was like to be out in the world again (this is my first work trip out of Boston since Feb 2020). But instead I’m going to write about the to-go cocktail I was given by the team at Cheu in Fishtown last night.
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We’re excited to announce that Season 2 of The Graffito Podcast will have a diverse, all-female guest list consisting of political activists, government officials, and entrepreneurs.
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2020 was a hard and intense year for us at Graffito, but at the same time it was a year filled with a lot relationship strengthening and a reset of our strategic goals.
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