Coby
@Cobylefko
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Urbanist, Developer, Writer, & Optimist. Working on creating better, more beautiful, & more thoughtfully designed cities & places to live in.
New York, NY
Joined September 2018
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Walked around some beautiful neighborhoods with my friends at
@commonplaceus
to share a bit about Backyard, the challenges of real estate development, affordable housing, financing, urban planning & more.
Honored to be profiled - check it out!
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Lancaster, CA transformed its downtown in just 8 months by redesigning it's main street from a mini-highway to a tree-lined boulevard.
For the cost of just $11.5M, the project has generated $273M in economic output since 2010, creating 800 jobs, and nearly doubling tax revenue!
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What people What environmentally
think environmentally friendly actually looks
friendly looks like ❌ like ✅
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The fact that it's impossible to walk somewhere as simple as a coffee shop nearly anywhere in the US, because we've made it illegal, is really one of the craziest things about modern America. We have to build walkable cities!
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And for a state or city to let me be the one who develops it, thanks in advance!
This city in this picture is Rovinj, Croatia, a place whose beauty and charm defy imagination. I mean, look at it!
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A near perfect street in Valencia.
Tree lined, narrow street with buildings right up to the property line in a variety of styles, but all at a human scale, and some with commercial uses on the ground floors.
This is a street for people!
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One of the more underrated buildings in New York, The American Radiator Building!
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Exciting News: San Diego's City Council has unanimously approved the creation of a 7-block pedestrian plaza in the heart of the city!
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Utrecht may be the most under-ratedly beautiful city in the world
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Few things make me happier than new townhomes that are really well done
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The city of the future isn't about taller buildings, wider highways, & monumental architectural statements.
The city of the future is more like the city of the past. It's highly walkable, interconnected, community focused, & sustainable. Most importantly, it puts people first!
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Every once in a while a building makes you stop and say "Wait, what? That's real? I didn't know we could make places as magical as this anymore!" and this is one of those for me
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There's something magical about public spaces that feel intimate through enclosure of beautiful buildings and narrow paths. A lovely form of citybuilding!
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Trillion dollar idea:
Tree lined streets where homes are affordable & everything you need is only a short walk away, from grocery stores, coffee shops, work, friends, family, or anything else!
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The design of storefronts is critically important for the vitality of cities.
When the ground level is welcoming, it activates the street which leads to more people walking around, safer neighborhoods, & more prosperous small businesses. When its neglected, the results are sad.
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Vietnam offers a really intriguing vision of what our future cities can look like that's not often considered in the west: colorful, vibrant, full of character, dominated by two wheels (just substitute gas powered motorbikes with electric ones & e-bikes!), and yes, a bit chaotic!
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Americans will travel around the world to live in walkable cities for a week & love it, but somehow think building walkable places here is impossible or crazy
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In the last 10 years, Frankfurt demolished its technical town hall (left) & reconstructed part of its old town that had been previously destroyed (right). There's now more homes, businesses, & vibrancy.
We don't have to be prisoners to the mistakes of our past, we can do better!
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(I wrote the original tweet on my computer and then realized it's incomprehensible on mobile based on formatting, so hopefully the above is easier to see for those on their phones!)
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Can't think of many things that would be better for my mental health than walking down a street like this everyday
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You might not like it, but folks, this is as sustainable as it gets
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If every city’s streets looked more like this, the world would be a better place!
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New York is amazing for many reasons, but particularly because people will pass by a building like this and hardly register it because there are so many exceptional buildings, when it would be on postcards as a defining attraction for almost any other city.
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When we don't build our towns & cities around cars, some pretty amazing things can happen!
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This is the apartment building all other apartment buildings wish they looked like
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A Yokocho is a narrow Japanese alleyway that’s packed with intimate small bars and places to eat.
They’re magic realms hidden away from the world, free from the traffic & anonymity of big city life. How lovely would it be if all of our cities had such places?!
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These buildings are new and terrific. We should build a lot more like them, everywhere!
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100 years ago, small towns across the US were building incredible structures like this.
Today, big cities can barely approve cheap one story buildings.
It's time we demand better from our built environment!
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We mourn lovely buildings that have been replaced by empty space & sad structures, but we don't have to accept it. If we're thoughtful enough, we can reverse the tide!
The old Galliard Auditorium & the new Gaillard Center in Charleston, on the same site, just a few years apart!
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There's no good reason why duplexes like this shouldn't be legal in every neighborhood in America
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First snow of the year in my area, so this will be my aesthetic for the next several months
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If you want to create a better city, start by building these on every corner!
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It’s a problem that you can’t walk to do basic things in like 98% of America
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A handsome new 6-story building with 11 homes on a narrow lot.
This should be legal in every city in America by right!
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Some fantastic looking newish townhomes in Columbus. The best part? They replaced a parking lot!
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While the world has been focused on Saudi Arabia’s ambitious (and outrageous) Line & Neom proposals for new cities, they’re quietly building another sort of city, with its foundations firmly planted in Arabic tradition.
Diriyah Gate is a $20B project on the outskirts of Riyadh
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Suburbia at its finest - Park Slope!
This sort of walkable neighborhood with a gentle density, tree lined streets & a robust offering of retail/commercial amenities was the standard for suburban development in pre-war America. We'd do well to re-apply its form today!
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Wonderful new housing in a small city in Indiana.
There's no reason we can't build high quality housing like this everywhere!
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Most people would love to live in a beautiful city where they don't need a car to get around.
The problem is, there aren't many places like this. The few that offer economic opportunity with many things to do are unaffordable because they're so scarce. We should build more!
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Solving the housing crisis in major North American cities will require building a lot of mid-rise buildings across many neighborhoods that are currently low rise
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How to build a beautiful city:
Human scaled, fine grained, walkable, curving streets that provide enclosure & a sense of mystery at what might be around the corner. Throw in some cafes, bars, a few commercial uses, trees, & cap it off with a cute usable covered passage!
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The dream of owning a single family home has historically been fairly narrow: a McMansion or ranch home with a large front yard that never gets used, with a several car garage.
It's high time to update this dream for the 21st century: beautiful, walkable, sustainable townhomes!
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The idea that buildings like this should be illegal in the vast majority of our cities is absolutely senseless. They’re beautiful, economically productive, and lead to far more sustainable cities.
It’s well past time for us to rectify the mistakes of the past
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Our cities are at their best when we unlock creativity to do bold, and sometimes crazy things.
This can result in remarkable places that exist for no reason other than to inspire joy and wonder. We should be encouraging this as much as we can!
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Stringing lights in cities is a simple, but magical way to improve our streets.
The warm glow draws us in, making us feel cozy in places that might otherwise go unnoticed.
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We shouldn't be afraid to take risks with the decoration & ornament of our cities.
Worst case, we can always replace things we don't like. But when it goes right, these little moments of wonder are fantastic!
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Don't lose hope in our ability to do great things.
We can still do fantastic work & create lovely places like these condos in Columbus, Ohio!
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Who says we can't create great new communities in the US anymore?
USC Village is a new mixed-use neighborhood that provides housing for 2,500 students, has shops, grocery stores, & restaurants, & incredible open space!
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We need more housing desperately, but can it please be a bit better than stuff like this?
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Removing on street parking in Toronto in favor of dining parklets led to a nearly 50x increase in revenue as compared to parking fees.
The math is common sense - we should build cities for people, not cars!
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Building like this is illegal nearly everywhere in the US today. We should make it legal.
Thank you for your time
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This is how to create great new buildings in cities. Well done Chicago!
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For those new here - hi! My name’s Coby, and I’m working to create more beautiful, sustainable, & attainable cities.
In addition to my own projects, I work with folks around the world to create better places. If you’re interested, reach out!
Book coming soon, should be good!
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Building housing more densely doesn't mean you have to sacrifice open space, light, or air. Older cities have long taught us this. The notion that a private yard is the only way to get outdoor space is wrong & antiquated.
42 newer homes on 3/4 of an acre, with great open space!
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@QuietNotion
It’s not reply bait, it’s an attempt to get people to appreciate and then demand something like this in the US so they don’t have to uproot their lives just to be able to walk to the grocery store or to see friends.
The notion of leaving instead of improving is a big problem!
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Tree lined streets are great, but buildings faced with greenery are often just as good!
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This post has spread to a staggering amount of people. The jokes & memes have been amazing, but it also seems like it's really touched a nerve. In positive, & more cynical ways.
I'd like to dive into what makes this place special, & why we don't quite have an equivalent.
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Public transportation & new mid rise apartments; Portland showing cities how it’s done!
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3 homes over 1 shop in a lovely new brick building.
If we legalized this type of building everywhere, our cities would be more affordable, walkable, sustainable, & dynamic without even having to try very hard. When married with great design, like this, they become even better!
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In the 20th century, we destroyed our cities.
In the 21st century, we have to reimagine them as better than before. It's the only way to rectify the mistakes of the past.
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I rarely see much traditional Chinese urbanism/architecture on my timeline, so here's a bit of goodness from Lijang!
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I’m not really sure why we’ve decided to stop building all of our cities like this, it’s amazing!
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Excellent new building in New York. The curved windows lend such a great personality!
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Density done well. 193 new apartments on the site of a former parking garage
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If your town or city is ever looking for a way to quickly & cheaply become more beautiful, you can hardly go wrong with planting a lot of street trees!
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Simple, but really well done, contemporary missing middle housing on a Single Family lot.
From the street, few would know the site holds 6 homes-and lovely ones at that. I'd think Gentle Density like this would be widely embraced
Designed by Polyphon & built by Ethan Beck Homes
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One of the biggest myths about city building is that it's inherently more expensive to create beautiful/lovely places. It's not.
Most places we love are rather inexpensive to build. But since there's a scarcity of high quality places, & a high demand to live there, prices go up.
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Building more housing decreases the cost of housing, because when there is enough for everyone to go around, we don't have to compete with one another.
This is basic math. Those who dispute this are no different than any other sort of skeptic or conspiracy theorist.
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What we prioritize shapes our world in profound ways. On the same block, with the same amount of homes, we can either have:
1) Car-oriented, anonymous, & imposing buildings
Or
2) A walkable, beautiful, sustainable, fine grained community with lovely character & personality!
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One of my hottest takes on architecture & design is that buildings like this would be much more accepted - if not enjoyed - if they were only 25 or 50 feet wide, as opposed to spreading out across entire blocks
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The answer to a lot of our problems is to build apartments like this everywhere!
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Cities should look more like the picture on the left, and less like the one on the right. Walkable, bikeable, full of greenery, and with lovely architecture!
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Winding streets oriented around people have a sort of magic about them.
When paired with lovely architecture like this, they're some of the most enchanting places in the world!
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This lovely building replaced a single family home (that looked like the ones to either side of it) with 9 new apartments.
When we embrace gentle density, we can make our cities better places & allow more people the opportunity to live in them! The best of both worlds!
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Really inventive and wonderful concept for a new bookstore in Shirokane, Tokyo, by Synthetic Architecture (Ozan Ertug & Pinar Ongun)
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Sometimes the best inspiration for building new places is to look to the past. (Yes, this was built in the last decade!)
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This new wooden apartment building in Paris is stunning!
Even better? It replaced an underused concrete slab of a courtyard and added much needed greenery to an existing housing complex
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Pops of color, a sense of enclosure, greenery, and charming architecture all at a human scale.
These are some really important keys to building great places!
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