Alec Baum

LA real estate advisor | Sotheby’s IR | DRE 02235233

[Eric Spiegelman @ericspiegelman]

I wrote a poem. It's called, "LA Restaurants with Four Letter Names"

Alma
Alta
Etra
Dune

Yala
Ryla
Orla
Woon

Anzu
Nobu
Maru
Gwen

Dama
Noma
Noya
Shin

Sora
Sogo
Soko
Shor

Capo
Kato
Little Door

[Cassy Horton @Cassy_Horton]

A big W for LA. What a stunning space. The project is beyond anything I imagined. Mellody Hobson is a major force in her own right, and I didn’t realize the extent of her involvement. I’m excited to have this kind of new, ambitious civic and cultural investment in our city.

[Lucas Shaw @Lucas_Shaw]

The movie business has been lurching from one existential crisis to another since the pandemic.

This year, for the first time in seven years, people feel... hopeful?

@tgbuckley

https://t.co/2afvSwkxZm

[John Bistline @JEBistline]

Texas just passed California in utility-scale solar. And it's not close in wind or energy storage.

[sam @sam_d_1995]

you may not like it but this is what peak speed limit enforcement looks like

[Neo @NeoWokio]

me trying to find the HDMI port on my TV

[Lucas Shaw @Lucas_Shaw]

Netflix has increased its prices by 150% since 2013.

The price increases will continue until customers tell the company to stop.

https://t.co/2R8oGAahLC

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

A cluster of oil platforms off the California coast has begun selling crude for the first time in over a decade, shipping supplies to a Chevron refinery near Los Angeles, per Bloomberg

[Jon Lovett @jonlovett]

HEY, you should check out this story by Julia Wick in the five days before the filing deadline in the LA Mayor's race. And if you live in Los Angeles or care about Los Angeles, you should subscribe to LA Material - incredible team of reporters and editors launching a brand new news outlet in LA that you will love and that this city needs.

[Ramez Naam @ramez]

Texas is the clean energy capital of the United States. And a chunk of that is because of their easy permitting, relatively ample transmission, and highly deregulated electricity market. Abundance thinking in energy works.

[Yoni Appelbaum @YAppelbaum]

This is shaping up as the most consistent finding in housing studies: Building lots of luxury housing can reduce rents at the top of the market—but the people it helps most are renters struggling to afford even the least desirable units

[Alec Baum @alecbaum]

👏👏

[Joe Cohen @CohenSite]

WTF. The random 35-story ED-1 project in Hollywood, which at 1,441 du/acre and 31 FAR is going to be the densest building in LA history, apparently broke ground this morning??

[Alec Baum @alecbaum]

@j_kalla @verasight_data @mcuban My dad has been saying “but I wanted Mark Cuban….” since 2016 😂

[systemlayers @systemlayers]

@drvolts A few years ago UCLA did a study on room usage. I often think about how useless a porch/dining room is. Why hasn't there been more innovation around how people ACTUALLY use their space in their homes?

https://t.co/fGtbLCTDjB

[Tope Dada @TopeDada17]

Can we please bring back glass bricks

[Jeff Morris Jr. @jmj]

The whole “Death of SaaS” thing and the “American Shenzhen” vibe have gone from niche Twitter debates to very real momentum over the last few months.

It’s pretty obvious LA is shaping up to be one of the most important startup hubs in the world.

A couple years ago, I wondered if it was a mistake not to live in SF full-time. I grew up in the Bay Area and I’m still up there all the time, so it felt like the center of gravity.

Now it feels flipped. Not spending real time in Los Angeles might actually be the bigger mistake.

[Alec Baum @alecbaum]

Downtown Long Beach erasure 💔

[y - Conor Hurley @CHurls13]

hell of a turnout at O’Brien’s in Santa Monica at 4:57 AM PST. USA hockey is do or die

[Joe Cohen @CohenSite]

Why is your street flooding?

From Dr. Grace Peng (no longer on here): "The buried waterways of Los Angeles-Orange County"

[Daniel Pourbaba @DPOURBABA]

A lot of developer friends ask how we design and build beautiful buildings with budgets that beat far less attractive projects.

There are many levers.
But most deals quietly die in one place:

Structure.

Here are some pro tips, particularly for multifamily podium design:

Column grid
Keep it tight: 24–28 ft max.
Go wider and you trigger thicker PT slabs, drop panels, punching shear steel, and endless MEP conflicts. The last one might be the most painful, but the first two are the most expensive.

Load path
Never shift columns between floors.
Transfers = heavier structure, more rebar, slower schedules, real money burned. Don’t approve a schematic design layout before this is flushed out.

Slabs & soils
Bad soils force thicker slabs, mats, piles. Foundation costs can jump 2–3×. Choose sites carefully. Get good soils. Expansive soils? We’re out.

MEPs
Stack wet walls. Have dedicated plumbing walls with no structural value. Lock sleeves early. Another killer: Bathrooms over columns or even electrical rooms. Late MEP coordination are how “on-budget” jobs blow up in the field.

Shear & hold-downs
Maintain continuous exterior wall zones (~12–16”) from podium to roof.
Clean load paths = less steel, simpler inspections, better seismic performance.

Wood framing
Align shear walls with column grids.
Misalignment adds transfer forces and structural weight you don’t get paid for. Again, don’t even go past schematic phase until this is sorted out. Only exception. Facade area.

Cost effective constructions isn’t about cheap finishes. They’re about disciplined structure, driven by architectural design logic. Get this right, you’re half way there. Get it wrong, no amount of value engineering will save you.