NYC: A Model For the Future

New York City has always been a model for getting things done, usually in a big way. Whether it's real estate development and construction, creating and growing businesses, the arts, or winning the World Series, the energy and excitement of New York is hard to beat.

In 2023, Tishman will be celebrating its 125th birthday and so will Greater New York, which was incorporated in 1898. I truly believe we will have a great deal of which to be proud.

Various office, residential and retail buildings, cultural venues, and a memorials - all having outstanding design and meaning - will have filled the void that we so painfully feel today at Ground Zero.

The new housing and many transportation and infrastructure improvements that will be accomplished for the hopeful Olympics of 2012 will add to the overall attractiveness and functionality of all of our great city's boroughs.

The reborn Lincoln Center will be an architectural showplace as well as the largest performing arts center in the world, as it is today. The Javits will be expanded to accommodate the largest shows and conventions on the circuit. And Times Square and Tishman's Westin New York hotel will continue to shine as beacons of a free society.

Based on the inroads we have made in the last few years, 'green' design, construction methods and building systems and equipment will have long been the norm and will greatly improve the overall environment and our general well-being.

Visually, New York will become even more of an international showcase - the way Paris, Berlin, London, and Hong Kong have evolved - for major architectural statements the likes of which we have never seen before, but which are about to burst on the scene.

As we witnessed since the last recession, design, construction, real estate, investment and finance have become inextricably intertwined.

Our industry made a major paradigm shift. Few people really realized that the foundation to a good real estate deal is the construction process.

Construction is not simply a commodity that can be bought for a cheaper price or produced faster. As a member of both industries, I have always said that while a building is being built, the constructor is managing the most risky financial transaction that a developer is undertaking. It forces us to consider our buildings to be other than just a box in which to put a business, but rather to be an integrated part of the business. This is true for all types of properties: tenant-specific, spec space, institutions, etc.

The end result of this shift is that the real estate and construction industry will be a more economically attractive and stable one and it will gain a much improved image and newfound respect.