Ryan Briggs

Ryan Briggs has covered politics and development issues for Philadelphia City Paper, Hidden City, Next City, and Metropolis.

Development and Construction
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Adaptive Use and Building Reuse
Creating an Authentic Performance Space in Philadelphia through Adaptive Use
When events mega-company LiveNation approached Philadelphia design firm EwingCole about transforming the former Ajax Metal Company into a 3,000-person music venue and entertainment complex, it was a daunting proposition, said speakers at a recent ULI Philadelphia event which toured the site. Modeled off the iconic 1960s venue in San Francisco, Live Nation now operates six Fillmore-branded venues across the United States, with a seventh on the way in New Orleans.
October 5, 2018
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Ryan Briggs
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Design and Planning
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Urban Design
In Print: Becoming Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs, best known as the author of Death and Life of American Cities, would have celebrated her 100th birthday this year. A new biography, Becoming Jane Jacobs, by Clemson University professor Peter Laurence purports that the most venerated figure in urban planning today is also among the most underappreciated and misunderstood, even by her staunchest supporters.
May 6, 2016
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Ryan Briggs
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Capital Markets and Finance
Learning in Real Time: Forecasting Three Years of Slower Growth
The economic forecast for the next three years likely will be mixed, panelists said at the ULI Spring Meeting in Philadelphia, thanks to slowing productivity, job growth that is relegated primarily to low-wage sectors, and imbalances in real estate markets driven by shifting consumer preferences and incomes.
April 26, 2016
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Ryan Briggs
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Development and Construction
Developers Seeing Value in Shared Communal Spaces
Concepts like cohousing and similar models of development are poorly understood oddities or pigeonholed as student housing.
April 22, 2016
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Ryan Briggs
Economy, Market & Trends
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News
Inner-Ring Suburbs, Secondary Markets Benefiting from Waterfront Revivals
At ULI’s 2016 Spring Meeting in Philadelphia, three developers explained how increasingly crowded downtown markets are driving denser waterfront projects at marginally built-out sites in inner-ring suburbs. As Jim Tinson, CEO of Hart Howerton, said, his company was honing innovative ways “to unlock the waterfront’s potential.”
April 21, 2016
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Ryan Briggs
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Design and Planning
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Emerging Trends
Trading Parking Spots for More Public Space on Philadelphia’s Grays Ferry Avenue
A decade ago, the 2200 block of Grays Ferry Avenue, the one-third of a triangular intersection girding an inoperative 19th-century fountain, was mostly prized for the handful of parking spaces it offered. Today, the street is closed to vehicular traffic and festooned with planters, painted asphalt, café tables, and a bike-sharing station.
April 14, 2016
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Ryan Briggs
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Design and Planning
In Print: City in a Park: A History of Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park System
Of the hundreds of visitors who climb the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art each day, few are likely aware that they are standing in the midst of a colossal failed experiment in water treatment.
April 11, 2016
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Ryan Briggs
pensions
Capital Markets and Finance
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News
In Print: Public Pensions and City Solvency
A recent study concluded that unfunded liabilities total nearly $100 billion at the city level and nearly $1 trillion at the state level. As the first chapter of this book lays out, the total cost of U.S. pension shortfalls may exceed $4 trillion.
April 4, 2016
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Ryan Briggs
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Development and Construction
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Infrastructure
Contagious Density: Embracing Urban Aspects of Suburban Development
For suburban developers, density used to be a dirty word, but not anymore. “It’s really about using less land to generate more tax revenue and income. I think everybody’s figuring this thing out now,” said James Mazzarelli, senior vice president of Liberty Property Trust, speaking at a recent ULI Philadelphia event.
March 16, 2016
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Ryan Briggs
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Resilience and Sustainability
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Infrastructure
Cities Incentivizing Greener Infrastructure to Better Manage Water
Rather than a prohibitively costly replacement of the existing sewer system, Philadelphia and other cities are undergoing one of the largest green infrastructure projects in the United States.
March 10, 2016
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Ryan Briggs
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