A new United Nations research hub celebrating lessons in urban rejuvenation has found a home in Toronto’s Regent Park, a milestone for a neighborhood that began as a mid-century “garden city” before suffering decades of neglect and disrepair.

Built after World War II to provide affordable housing for veterans and new immigrants, Regent Park was designed to resemble a rural oasis in Canada’s largest city, with low-rise social housing projects set amidst sprawling green spaces and narrow roads. But the absence of major through-streets discouraged businesses and cut the community off from the downtown core, creating a haven for crime by the 1980s.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., May 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Meritage Homes, the seventh-largest public homebuilder in the U.S., is pleased to announce it has been selected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as an ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year award winner for Sustained Excellence in 2022. This marks the ninth time the homebuilder has received this honor. Meritage Homes was also recognized for its customer service excellence in the 19th annual Avid Awards. Thirteen Meritage divisions were honored, including Southern California, which won the Avid Cup Award - Production.

"It is an honor to be recognized again by both the EPA and Avid," said Phillippe Lord, CEO of Meritage Homes. "These awards demonstrate the Meritage team's hard work and commitment to building better, more sustainable homes while delivering the industry's highest level of customer satisfaction."

Walt Disney Co. is designating 80 acres of land just outside of its theme-park gates in Orlando, Florida, for affordable housing.

The project, which is expected to include more than 1,300 units, will be available for Disney employees and others who apply, according to a statement released Wednesday. The company will work with a third-party developer specializing in such construction.

(St. Louis, MO, April 14, 2022) Colleges and universities today are looking for sustainable facilities, and a number of them choose to participate in the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) process to obtain a measurable level of sustainability. KWK Architects recently designed residence halls at the University of Missouri and University of Colorado - Boulder that achieved the highest level of sustainability certification, LEED Platinum.

KWK, along with associate architect Lawrence Group, designed Brooks and Bluford Halls at the University of Missouri in Columbia to achieve a LEED v2009 Platinum certification. While the client requirement for the new 198,000 square-foot, 570-bed residence hall project was LEED Certified minimum, the KWK project team was dedicated to achieving the highest rating within the tight budget, and the team looked to maximize energy efficiency in the buildings to achieve this goal.

For more information about KWK Architects' student housing projects, visit https://www.kwkarchitects.com/markets/details/student-housing.

New U.S. home construction rose unexpectedly in March to the highest level since 2006, boosted by multifamily projects as builders seek to replenish housing inventory.

Residential starts climbed 0.3% last month to a 1.79 million annualized rate from an upwardly revised February figure, according to government data released Tuesday. Applications to build, a proxy for future construction, climbed to an annualized 1.87 million units.

ORANGE COUNTY, CA. (March 30, 2022) - The Building Industry Association of Southern California (BIASC), a leading advocate for thousands of building industry leaders who are committed to a better future for California by building communities, creating jobs and ensuring housing opportunities for everyone, recently hosted their 7th Annual Orange County Women’s Leadership Conference at the City National Grove of Anaheim.

This annual event was set into motion under the idea of providing a regular opportunity for men and women in homebuilding to gather, share ideas, work together, and ensure that the homebuilding industry remains inclusive and welcoming to all in the years to come. This year was an especially successful conference, with over 500 attendees and three incredibly inspiring keynote speakers.

About BIASC
The Building Industry Association of Southern California (BIASC) is the voice of the regions building industry, with four chapters offering localized services to building professionals from Ventura to the southern tip of Orange County. Throughout its 99-year history, the association has served its builder and associate members by anticipating, protecting and promoting their common interests through its many programs, services, councils and committees. For more information on the Building Industry Association of Southern California, visit https://biasc.org/.

Hong Kong’s government will ban developers from building nano apartments in a bid to ease the city’s crammed living space.

Private homes will have to be at least 26 square meters (280 square feet), Secretary for Development Michael Wong said at a media briefing on Thursday, extending restrictions to essentially all sources for private residential development. The rule will not affect projects that had already received approvals.

California’s Senate Bill 9, which took effect in January, brings new hope to California’s housing crisis. The law circumvents local zoning rules by allowing owners of single-family homes to split their properties into two lots and build two units on each. The first SB9 project will include four new homes on a one-acre, formerly one-house lot in Palo Alto.

But let’s not pretend that the change lets local policymakers off the hook. For decades, California officials have helped ensure that the state is such an expensive place to live by limiting housing construction with their zoning rules and housing approval processes. SB9 will have far more impact if local leaders cooperate with the spirit of the law by relaxing some of the rules that currently make duplexes less attractive to build.

The U.S. is setting duties on Canadian softwood lumber that would effectively lower the punitive tariffs on most producers as the long-simmering trade dispute drags on.

Average preliminary anti-dumping and countervailing duties of nearly 12% will be levied on Canadian softwood lumber producers, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Tuesday in an email. The move follows the government’s decision in late 2021 to raise the combined duty rates on shipments from Canadian companies. Producers such as Canfor Corp. will see combined duty rates drop from nearly 20% to 6.75%, and Resolute Forest Products Inc. will pay duties of 20%, down from nearly 30%. West Fraser Timber Co. will see its rates rise to 13% from about 11%.

Sales of new U.S. homes rose in December to a nine-month high, indicating firmer demand at the end of 2021 despite high prices and still-limited inventory.

Purchases rose 11.9% from a month earlier to an 811,000 annualized pace, government data showed Wednesday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 760,000 rate, and the December level exceeded all but one forecast.

When Ronnie Martin graduated from high school in Murfreesboro in 1992, the small city in central Tennessee had “the charm of a sleepy town.”

No longer: In the past 30 years, Murfreesboro has exploded in population, growing 20% in just the last five years.

As a banker who does real estate construction lending and a member of the city council (with a former stint on the planning commission), Martin has enjoyed a front-row seat. Growth has transformed strips of farmland lining State Highways 99 and U.S. Route 231 into 200-home developments, which, at the right time of day, boast 40-minute commutes to Nashville. He believes what the city has gained has far outweighed what it lost.