#416 - JONATHAN SEGAL , FAIA Architect & Developer
SUMMARY
This week David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design discuss are joined by Jonathan Segal, FAIA architect and developer. The three discussed Jonathan’s early career; his car business; his career as a developer; his thoughts on being a developer; architect-developers; the challenges of being a developer; his future plans; and more. Enjoy!
ABOUT JONATHAN
Jonathan Segal FAIA & Development Company has been awarded six national AIA Honor Awards for their housing work.
They have been responsible for the design and development of over 300 medium to high-density urban residential, mixed-use, and live/work units totaling over 300,000 square feet of construction.
Segal is considered one of San Diego, California's most successful and pioneering residential architectural/development companies and has a reputation for providing superior housing at a lower cost than comparable properties. Their focus is exclusively on urban projects, ranging from 80 to 160 dwelling units per acre.
Segal has been the recipient of numerous accolades including 40 local, state, and national AIA awards for residential and Urban Design.
Over the past twenty years, Segal has created and modeled the unique practice of "Architect as Developer", a prototype in which the architect has the ability to become the owner, therefore eliminating the client and the general contractor from the design and building process.
TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Jonathan's early career.
(04:10) Car business & business thinking.
(08:41) How Jonathan became a developer.
“The budget for 11 units is approximately $1,800,000. What do you think my permit fees are for that work? That's right, $300,000. I paid $300,000 to build 11 apartments that are 600ft² each. And the city of San Diego is wondering, “Why is it so expensive to live here?” If you go and look at some of the ‘affordable housing’ [that’s getting built], let's say up in LA, they are $1 million a unit. I'm building them for $294 per square foot, which I think is insane. So that's around $200,000 a unit for me to build these things because I just cut all the fat out. All those affordable housing projects have just fat, fat, fat, fat...So, they all have to be subsidized by the federal government.” (15:56)
(18:36) Thoughts on being a developer now.
“There's always going to be an opportunity. It's always going to be evolving and different. I think all the generations look back and go, “Wow, it's so much harder now than it was when they started.” When I was starting, the generations that were finishing or moving on probably looked back and went, “Wow, it's so much easier when there was just unlimited land we could just build forever.” In some ways, it's always going to be more difficult, and I think there's always going to be opportunities.” (19:13)
“I believe firmly that the most humane, livable product type is a three-story building. The bottom floor is retail with a two-story residential unit on top of it with exterior circulation, all parking on grade, and nothing underground. The daylight, openness, air movement, cross ventilation...this is the best way to go, versus an eight-story building with elevators and underground parking. It's just inefficient and expensive.” (24:33)
(26:37) Balance design principle and profit.
(33:51) Single-family vs multi-family development.
(49:41) Why aren't there many architect developers?
(56:31) Dealing with risks and liabilities as a developer.
(01:03:30) Construction and property management.
(01:11:14) Future plans for Jonathan.
“Start with building your own house. Start building four units and start working your way up the food chain. Start small and go through the whole process. What happens is that people will start. doing a project and when they get 50% through, they'll start the next one. But they haven't learned if the first one will succeed or fail. Then they both fail because they haven't seen…all the problems that happen and learn to resolve those issues.” (01:13:18)
