Jason M. Barr August 13, 2025 Say an apartment building begins to decay visibly, does it increase the likelihood that buildings around it will also decay? We know that tough economic conditions can impact landlords’ ability to keep their apartment buildings in good working order. As discussed in a previous blog| Building the Skyline - The Birth & Growth of Manhattan's Skyscrapers
Jason M. Barr June 30, 2025 What is the best way to keep housing affordable? Well, to the former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (2014-2021), the obvious answer was to restrict landlords’ ability to raise rents. Given the severe housing shortage, building owners are seemingly in […] The post Harming Tenants: The Impact of the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act on New York’s Affordable Housing first appeared on Building the Skyline. The post Harm...| Building the Skyline
Jason M. Barr October 29, 2024 Let’s travel back a century—to New York during the Roaring Twenties. On our journey, we will see a very different Gotham–not just flappers, speakeasys, and the new jazz–but more importantly massive housing construction. Arguably, 1921 to 1929 was the greatest housing boom in New York’s history. Units of all […] The post The Housing Twenties: New York’s Biggest Building Boom and Its Lessons for Today first appeared on B...| Building the Skyline
Jason M. Barr March 6, 2025 Note: This post is the second of two on the drivers of Gotham’s historically low vacancy rates. You can read Part I here. New York’s rental housing vacancy rate is 1.4%—the lowest since 1969. The lack of available housing means that Gotham remains in a “housing emergency”—defined, by […] The post Why Has Gotham Been in a “Housing Emergency” for 80 Years? (Part II) first appeared on Building the Skyline. The post Why Ha...| Building the Skyline
Jason M. Barr January 22, 2025 If you google the definition of “emergency,” the search engine provides a response from the Oxford Languages Dictionary: “a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action.” Merriam-Webster comes in with similar wording: “an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action.” […] The post Why Has Gotham Been in a “Housing Emergency” for 80 Year...| Building the Skyline
Jason M. Barr September 10, 2024 Note: This post is part II of an on-going series on the past, present, and future of urban land reclamation around the world. Part I is here. Cities Drive History When we study who we are—our ancient histories and how we arrived at the present moment—we tend to […] The post To Boldly House Where no Housing has Gone Before (Part II): Land Reclamation and World History first appeared on Building the Skyline. The post To Boldly Hous...| Building the Skyline
Jason M. Barr August 5, 2024 A few weeks ago, I was walking in Central Park on the Upper West Side. As I strolled past some benches near the Diana Ross Playground, I saw a young man, likely in his late twenties, with his face buried in a huge, white-covered book. When I got closer, […] The post The Power Author: Robert Caro, Robert Moses, and the “Fall” of New York first appeared on Building the Skyline. The post The Power Author: Robert Caro, Robert Moses, and the “...| Building the Skyline
Jason M. Barr (@JasonBarrRU) November 1, 2021 If you ask someone familiar with New York City real estate about the birth of modern zoning, they’ll point to 1961, the year the city implemented the floor area ratio (FAR) as the primary method to control building density. Sixty years later, the FAR is still going| Building the Skyline - The Birth & Growth of Manhattan's Skyscrapers
Jason M. Barr August 5, 2024 A few weeks ago, I was walking in Central Park on the Upper West Side. As I strolled past some benches near the Diana Ross Playground, I saw a young man, likely in his late twenties, with his face buried in a huge, white-covered book. When I got closer,| Building the Skyline - The Birth & Growth of Manhattan's Skyscrapers
Jason M. Barr July 15, 2024 Many cities around the world are facing housing affordability crises. In New York, for example, a majority of renters are rent-burdened, meaning their housing costs eat up more than 30% of their income. Even worse, nearly one in three low-income renters are severely rent-burdened, spending more than 50% […] The post To Boldly House Where no Housing has Gone Before (Part I): New York’s Land Reclamation History first appeared on Building the Skylin...| Building the Skyline
Jason M. Barr July 1, 2024 Note: This blog post is based on the research discussed in my book Cities in the Sky: The Quest to Build the World’s Tallest Skyscrapers, as well as my working paper on the subject, which includes references to the original sources and archival documents. Part I of the series […] The post The Jenney Myth: How the Home Insurance Building Falsely Became the “First Skyscraper” (Part II) first appeared on Building the Skyline. The post The ...| Building the Skyline
Jason M. Barr June 24, 2024 Note: This blog post is based on the research discussed in my book Cities in the Sky: The Quest to Build the World’s Tallest Skyscrapers, as well as my working paper on the subject, which includes references to the original sources and archival documents. What was the first skyscraper? […] The post The Jenney Myth: How the Home Insurance Building Falsely Became the “First Skyscraper” (Part I) first appeared on Building the Skyline. The...| Building the Skyline
