Old Buildings, New Ideas

Jacobs made an economic argument that is frequently misread as aesthetic preference. New buildings must charge high rents to recover construction costs; only established, profitable enterprises can afford them. The experimental restaurant, the gallery showing unknown work, the workshop repairing unusual things — these need old buildings, where the construction costs were paid off decades ago, the owner is content with modest rent, and spaces are flexible enough to accommodate uses the original builder never imagined. The supply of old buildings is the supply of cheap space, and the supply of cheap space is the supply of economic possibility.