Micro NY apartments
feel less itty-bitty.
unsustainable parking demand and even stress an area’s sewer line because
of the large number of individual bathrooms required.
“There’s no valve controlling how many of these there are,” Ed Cum-
mings, a Seattle strategy consultant who has watched micro-living devel-
opments go up in his neighborhood, told Seattle Magazine. “I own a
multifamily property myself. Apparently I could go from four to 24 units,
and tough luck on my neighbors.”
But in New York, a city that’s already accustomed to incredible popu-
lation density, there’s been precious little opposition to My Micro NY.
“Folks were calling and saying, ‘I’m only in my apartment to sleep and eat
breakfast anyway,’” Mr. O’Hara says. “To them, it makes perfect sense.”
—Brigid Sweeney
TECHED OUT FROM
HEAD TO TOE
IMAGE COURTESY OF GOOGLE
Wearable technology is the new frontier for companies looking to
expand in smartphone-saturated markets. The trend toward embedding computing capabilities in everyday accessories is fueled by
consumers’ increasing comfort with personal gadgets and the exponential rise in software and GPS sophistication.
In February, news broke that an Apple project team is developing a wristwatch, dubbed the i Watch, with computing capabilities, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. Last year, Nike
launched the FuelBand, a wristband that wirelessly syncs with
an online platform to track fitness goals and activity levels.
The device also marries personal data-mining and social
media: Users can post stats such as caloric burn or goals
achieved and compete with friends on Facebook and Twitter.
Of course, a product that’s new in both function and form presents novel
challenges for project managers. Google’s Glass project, still in development,
resembles a pair of eyeglasses with a built-in screen that allows users to view
maps, take pictures and capture video using voice-recognition software.
Developing the technology took “hundreds of variations and dozens of
prototypes,” Google project manager Steve Lee told Fast Company. Early
versions of the project weighed 8 pounds ( 3. 6 kg), but the current
version is lighter than a typical pair of sunglasses. “There are all
kinds of challenges and issues that are new to the majority of
us, though we do have some people who have been doing these
types of projects for decades,” he said.
The Wearable World
Based on consumer demand, these types of projects are expected to multiply
in the future: Wearable-device sales are projected to reach nearly 70 million
units globally by 2017, up from almost 15 million in 2013, according to market firm Juniper Research.
“There are
all kinds of
challenges and
issues that are
new to the
majority of
us, though we
do have some
people who
have been doing
these types
of projects for
decades.”
—Steve Lee, Google, San
Francisco, California, USA
