https://michaelsternjds.com/references/Reference entries for the published pieces of Michael Stern, founder of JDS Development Group.en-ushttps://michaelsternjds.com/references/how-you-underwrite-a-building-with-no-comparable/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/how-you-underwrite-a-building-with-no-comparable/Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTMichael Stern proposes reasoning backward from what a building must achieve to what its ground allows when no precedent exists to extrapolate from.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-some-towers-leave-a-floor-open-to-the-wind/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-some-towers-leave-a-floor-open-to-the-wind/Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTMichael Stern's account of the open wind floor on slender towers: what it interrupts, where it goes in the section, and what it costs.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-excavation-beside-a-landmark-is-designed-backward/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-excavation-beside-a-landmark-is-designed-backward/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTMichael Stern flips the normal sequence of foundation design next to a protected building, starting from how much the old walls can move.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-floor-area-counts-differently-than-it-measures/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-floor-area-counts-differently-than-it-measures/Tue, 22 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTCounted zoning floor area and the space a builder delivers are separate figures; Michael Stern's WordPress post explains why both matter.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/the-order-in-which-a-project-becomes-legal/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/the-order-in-which-a-project-becomes-legal/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTMichael Stern's 2026 Medium piece on approvals as a chain of dependencies, where the order of steps, not one slow agency, sets a project's pace.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/what-a-district-boundary-through-a-lot-does-to-a-building/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/what-a-district-boundary-through-a-lot-does-to-a-building/Sat, 19 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTHow a district boundary that splits one parcel produces two envelopes, as Michael Stern describes it, and why the lower half usually pays.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-floor-height-is-a-structural-decision-in-a-slender-tower/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-floor-height-is-a-structural-decision-in-a-slender-tower/Sat, 19 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTFor Michael Stern, writing on WordPress, storey height, multiplied up a thin tower, is an early engineering number and not an interior finish choice.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/what-slenderness-actually-costs-a-floor-plate/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/what-slenderness-actually-costs-a-floor-plate/Fri, 18 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTOn Medium, Michael Stern traces how wind stiffness eats a growing share of each level as a thin tower climbs, and why that loss is fixed early.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/what-a-retained-facade-asks-of-the-structure-behind-it/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/what-a-retained-facade-asks-of-the-structure-behind-it/Thu, 17 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTMichael Stern on WordPress treats a kept masonry front as structure and its temporary steel supports as the real engineering.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-peer-review-is-bought-on-a-building-with-few-precedents/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-peer-review-is-bought-on-a-building-with-few-precedents/Thu, 17 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTA summary of Michael Stern's case for owner commissioned structural peer review on towers that no code table fully describes.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/building-a-supertall-out-of-a-landmark-savings-bank/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/building-a-supertall-out-of-a-landmark-savings-bank/Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTMichael Stern on Medium explains how a protected bank at a tower's base shapes the paths loads take into the soil.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-a-zoning-change-does-not-always-stop-a-project-underway/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-a-zoning-change-does-not-always-stop-a-project-underway/Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTMichael Stern explains how work already in the ground can carry a building through a rezoning, and why the foundation date drives the schedule.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/how-a-landmark-sends-its-floor-area-across-the-street/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/how-a-landmark-sends-its-floor-area-across-the-street/Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTMichael Stern on WordPress separates lot to lot transfers from the preservation route that lets a landmark's spare bulk cross a roadway.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/what-preservation-review-governs-and-what-it-leaves-open/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/what-preservation-review-governs-and-what-it-leaves-open/Mon, 14 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTMichael Stern argues on Medium that landmark review reaches the listed fabric and the street view, leaving the hidden bulk of a conversion to the owner.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/party-wall-rights-fix-the-edge-of-a-new-building/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/party-wall-rights-fix-the-edge-of-a-new-building/Sat, 12 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTMichael Stern on shared masonry along a lot line, and why an old wall settles the dig, the column grid and the depth of the edge bay.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-a-narrow-lot-decides-where-the-windows-go/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-a-narrow-lot-decides-where-the-windows-go/Sat, 12 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTRules on glazing near shared boundaries, more than buildable area, set room depth on a slim midblock parcel, according to this Michael Stern post.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-two-adjacent-parcels-are-worth-more-than-their-sum/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-two-adjacent-parcels-are-worth-more-than-their-sum/Fri, 11 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTJoining neighbouring lots, as Michael Stern explains it on Medium, pays off in plan width far more than in extra zoning bulk.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/what-a-sending-lot-gives-up-when-its-floor-area-moves/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/what-a-sending-lot-gives-up-when-its-floor-area-moves/Thu, 10 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTMichael Stern examines an air rights sale from the seller's side: once unused area leaves a parcel, its building is fixed at its present height.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/what-a-through-block-site-changes-about-the-building/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/what-a-through-block-site-changes-about-the-building/Thu, 10 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTA September 2026 post in which Michael Stern values a lot reaching two parallel streets for its second frontage more than for any added bulk.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/the-case-for-buying-development-rights-you-cannot-yet-use/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/the-case-for-buying-development-rights-you-cannot-yet-use/Wed, 09 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTWhy acquiring reachable development rights ahead of any design can be defensible, in Michael Stern's September 2026 Medium essay on timing.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/an-easement-can-shape-a-tower-more-than-a-zoning-line/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/an-easement-can-shape-a-tower-more-than-a-zoning-line/Tue, 08 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTMichael Stern's WordPress post contrasts the public zoning envelope with private recorded burdens, and ranks the title report above the zoning study.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/development-rights-transfers-live-in-the-public-record/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/development-rights-transfers-live-in-the-public-record/Tue, 08 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTMichael Stern explains why a filed declaration, checked against the title search, settles how much building a pieced together site may hold.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/how-a-zoning-lot-merger-changes-what-a-site-holds/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/how-a-zoning-lot-merger-changes-what-a-site-holds/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTA reference summary of Michael Stern's Medium piece on zoning lot mergers, which he judges by the footprint they create more than the area.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-floor-area-moves-only-between-lots-that-touch/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-floor-area-moves-only-between-lots-that-touch/Mon, 07 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTMichael Stern argues, in a September 2026 Blogger piece, that a parcel with well placed neighbours can outweigh a bigger parcel standing alone.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-unused-floor-area-hides-on-the-lowest-buildings/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-unused-floor-area-hides-on-the-lowest-buildings/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTA brief WordPress piece in which Michael Stern shows why the squat, overlooked structures on a street often carry the development rights a tower needs.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-the-shape-of-a-tower-precedes-its-architect/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-the-shape-of-a-tower-precedes-its-architect/Fri, 04 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMTParcel geometry and gathered floor area settle a tower's massing before its designer is hired, Michael Stern contends in a Medium essay.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/what-air-rights-actually-transfer-and-what-they-do-not/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/what-air-rights-actually-transfer-and-what-they-do-not/Thu, 27 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMTIn a Medium essay, Michael Stern separates what moves in an air rights deal, unused zoning floor area, from the overhead volume that stays put.https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-a-buildable-envelope-is-assembled-and-not-found/https://michaelsternjds.com/references/why-a-buildable-envelope-is-assembled-and-not-found/Tue, 25 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMTMichael Stern's Medium argument that a constrained site's envelope is built up from gathered floor area and geometry, not read off the parcel.