What's In A Name

“What does Radio [sic] City do?” 

Is a question we hear a lot. And we get it, most people don’t have to think about ratios, unless it’s the ratio of pepperoni to cheese on their pizza.

Unless, of course, you’re in real estate, in which case you probably think our name is clever.

Our “ratio” is the Gross Floor Area (GFA) divided by the size of the land parcel, which gives you a density ratio, aka a FAR. A high-rise building would have a higher density ratio than a single family home. 

Why name a company after a calculation? In real estate and urban planning, ratio density is pretty important. 

Too dense, and you have a hundred hi-rise buildings crammed together, with no public parks and a fleeting memory of what the sky looks like. Not dense enough, and a neighbourhood becomes un-walkable and car-centric (think a cookie cutter suburb). 

An urban designer’s job is to find a balance. Guided by policy, neighbourhoods and cities need to meet the demands of their residents, as well as their future residents: cities must adapt and re-think the policies surrounding density and land use.

All that to say, Ratio.City got its name from the founders’ desire to build better cities through technology. We’ll even do the math for you.