Following a period of successful operations and subsequent decline, the Beaugrenelle shopping center in the 15th arrondissement of Paris was demolished to make way for a new-generation venue by making the most of the existing raised slab—a significant constraint left over from the utopian style of architecture of the 1970s.

Each year, ULI’s impressive lineup of global meetings kicks off in Europe with our real estate investment and development conference, held in Paris during the winter. The 2013 event, held February 5 and 6, drew more than 500 industry leaders from 24 countries around the world—reflecting a steady increase in the geographic diversity of attendees since we started hosting the meeting 17 years ago.

New lending by European banks is likely to remain strictly conservative, limiting liquidity for the European property market.

The problem of city making today does not so much concern making new ones as it does transforming those that already exist-especially suburbs-and edge-city developments. What can the United States learn from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his goal to remake Paris?