The lecture notes are here.
We will use this resource about the Coase Theorem in class (courtesy of Professor Frank Buckley at George Mason Law). Alas, Ronald Coase passed away in September 2013 at the age of 102.
To illustrate the Coase Theorem, we will utilize the classic example of the Fountainbleau Hotel in Miami.
Or this related case from Dallas:
The Nasher contends that the developers of the $200 million tower, completed in January, have been intransigent in refusing to modify its reflective glass skin; the Nasher has proposed louvers for the facade.
Museum officials say the garden has had to be resodded twice because of the higher temperatures created by sunlight bouncing off the glass; that some trees have burned; and that light-blocking panels were needed for the roof during a recent Ken Price sculpture retrospective.
And the owners have suggested building screens to block the sun!
Gizmodo has a great writeup of the case:
They also hired a group of designers to study the feasibility of installing a gigantic shading system to block the rays, rather than fixing the problem at the source.
This month, the architects behind the project—a New York firm called REX, which built the (fantastic) Wyly Theater near the Nasher—presented their final proposal, dubbed Surya.
It looks complex, but the concept is actually very simple: The team looked at the annual path of the “death ray” and, based on its coordinates, created a huge shading system to block it as it changes. To lessen the presence of the shade, they also devised a series of umbrella-like devices that only open up when needed. So, for most of the year, these devices look like thin tubes strung up on a massive metal frame—which is better than an opaque surface… I guess?
Coase!
This is like something Mr. Burns would design.
The “umbrellas” open up during different times of the day so as not to obstruct the views.
And they follow the sun’s path through the year.
Images courtesy of dukeminier-property.com, Wikipedia, and Professor Frank Buckley.
Here are the diagrams of the land from Del Webb.
In 1962:
In 1965:
There was massive opposition to the site, which will be completed in Spring 2014 at Bissonnet and Ashby, north of Rice University.