As the year ends, I wanted to provide an update on our quest to build the best new housing in America.

The purpose of this project is not to claim, or be given, this title with objectivity, but rather the pursuit itself. If we aim high, we may well fail, but we will fail well Our aim is to fundamentally reshape affordable housing in the US. We're reverse engineering what a walkable, beautiful, dignified, and genial community looks like, and how we can make that available to the working and middle classes.

This has required some creativity

America needs to return to building aspirational cities.

A century ago, we created average places of such grandeur & consideration, it's inconceivable to us. How could they do so much with so little, compared to what we know, have, and enjoy today?

We must demand better! These pictures are all of Cincinnati, a second (or third) tier city a century ago.

We shouldn't be satisfied with the great 21st century giving us less than the shadows of the middle class of the 20th

What went wrong? We lost our regard for beauty and craftsmanship as virtues.

A question I've spent a lot of time trying to answer these last few years is why so many new apartment buildings (5-over-1s) feel so dissatisfying to so many people

Here, some thoughts: Firstly, there is an architectural quality consideration. Many new apartment buildings are built rather cheaply with flimsy or synthetic materials, and subsequently feel cheap or flimsy.

That there are often many materials, colors, and ideas thrown together doesn't help.

As the quality of our cities & towns have worsened, people are curious why we can't build better, more beautiful communities?

Part of the answer is due to our zoning & building codes, construction & educational practices

But there's another, perhaps more important reason Buildings cost money. Increasingly, they cost a lot of money. Unless you have a lot of money yourself, you have to go to a bank and get a loan.

For most people, this will prove next to impossible.

At first blush, this might not make sense, as one of the main roles of a bank is to lend money to those who need it. But dive into modern real estate finance, and you'll quickly see why

There has been a lot of commentary on the fall of cities since the pandemic.

Anti-urbanites have cheered on negative headlines citing losses in population, increases in crime, & faltering of industries & jobs as justification for their views. But how much of this is true? Let's take population first.

From initial estimates, cities have indeed seen drops in population since the pandemic. From 2020 to 2021, cities around the country registered losses. But this is deceiving. Yes, people have moved out. But many temporarily

brookings.edu/blog/the-avenu…

Rents for apartment buildings have risen significantly around the country over the last decade, but it seems like they've really taken off in the last few years.

What's going on here? Are developers greedy? Are new buildings so expensive that they have to charge up? What is it? Fundamentally, the reason why apartment prices are so high is because there is a mismatch in supply and demand.

If there are more people looking for an apartment (demand) than there are apartments available (supply), the wealthiest will pay what they have to secure a home.

I've tried to stay out of the 15 minute cities discourse, but a quick thought.

Being able to walk or bike to meet most of your needs in a reasonably short time, with many interesting/beautiful things to look at along the way, is good, liberating, healthy & worth pursuing. It doesn't matter what we call these places. As the debate has shown, the name may well be counterproductive.

People don't need to buy into the latest idea pushed by consultants who have a need to justify their services by constantly reinventing centuries old traditions every… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

With remote work here to stay, cities around America are faced with a difficult challenge. Most office buildings won't be redeveloped into residential (floor plates either can't be converted, or cost is prohibitive), but they will also be under-occupied.

What happens then? The first possibility is that the market drives down rents to such an extent that occupancy rises. This won't quite work, however, & will bring great pain.

Modern office buildings are huge & have large fixed costs. Lower rent can't support critical building ops, & likely won't… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Lighting is one of the simplest ways that cities can elevate regular places to enchanting ones.

For just a couple of nails, a few bulbs or lanterns, and string, otherwise ordinary streets can be transformed into attractive places people gravitate towards Why do we like light-filled places so much?

There's a sort of primal response to light. Unconsciously (but sometimes very consciously) we're drawn to refuges in the night that make us feel safe & protected. Who knows what might be out there in the dark, but in the light, we're… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

This post has spread to a staggering amount of people. The jokes & memes have been amazing, but it also seems like it's really touched a nerve. In positive, & more cynical ways.

I'd like to dive into what makes this place special, & why we don't quite have an equivalent. What makes places like Rovinj so special is that they're fundamentally walkable, human scaled, intimate, mixed-use, & very attractive (architecturally and urban design).

The streets aren't rigid, too wide, or dominated by cars. The buildings are lovely.

https://twitter.com/Cobylefko/status/1618752704867876865?s=20&t=WN8o6O2wdWusgk8J_Ohkfg

All I ask is for one city in the US to look like this. Just one! And for a state or city to let me be the one who develops it, thanks in advance!

This city in this picture is Rovinj, Croatia, a place whose beauty and charm defy imagination. I mean, look at it!

The design of storefronts is critically important for the vitality of cities.

When the ground level is welcoming, it activates the street which leads to more people walking around, safer neighborhoods, & more prosperous small businesses. When its neglected, the results are sad. When people talk about the need to created more mixed-use communities, it's not as simple as building a box for commercial space on the ground floor, and offices or apartments above.

This sort of utilitarianism will make it difficult to lease retail space, & create dead zones.

A little more than a year ago, I began a journey that I didn’t expect much of. Today, I've finished the goal of that journey, which has taken me far beyond what I ever could have expected.

A Year Of Building Optimism; Inspiring a Better Built Environment.
ourbuiltenvironment.substack.com/p/a-survey-of-… This project began organically, sharing new developments I thought were pretty good. But as I began to explore more, I was surprised to see how few were celebrating the remarkable work that was transforming our country. So I set out to do that.

marker.medium.com/on-building-op…

If your town or city is ever looking for a way to quickly & cheaply become more beautiful, you can hardly go wrong with planting a lot of street trees! Street trees can transform an otherwise average or bad block into an exceptional one.

Any community (however generic) can easily do what's in this picture. A wide, inhospitable road suddenly becomes a path people seek out.

Italian Hill Towns are some of the most magical places on Earth Why do we have such an innate attraction to these places?

There seem to be a few reasons, from their wonderful architecture, organic & highly walkable streets, an intimate human scale, warm natural materials, and the humbling power of connecting to centuries old culture.

One of the biggest myths about city building is that it's inherently more expensive to create beautiful/lovely places. It's not.

Most places we love are rather inexpensive to build. But since there's a scarcity of high quality places, & a high demand to live there, prices go up. Take Warren Mews in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

These "workman's cottages" were originally built as a form affordable housing for the working poor in the late 19th century. They're small & simply built, but are so desirable they now cost well over a million dollars for ~1,000 sf.

A Yokocho is a narrow Japanese alleyway that’s packed with intimate small bars and places to eat.

They’re magic realms hidden away from the world, free from the traffic & anonymity of big city life. How lovely would it be if all of our cities had such places?! Each street & shop has its own personality, but the charm & intimacy of the typology is consistent.

Far from architectural marvels, they excel because of their urban form. With warm light, a sense of enclosure, connection to a community, we’re innately drawn to them!

The last 24 hours have been...interesting, so I'd like to introduce myself to some new friends, & move in a positive direction.

My goal is to create a more beautiful, walkable equitable, affordable, sustainable world. Here's a good place to start!
ourbuiltenvironment.substack.com/p/a-call-to-bu… Our world has many profound challenges. Some are vestiges of historically discriminatory institutions (zoning) that have manifested in new problems (affordability), while others impose a narrow, 70 year old world view (highways, car dependency) that threatens a sustainable future

What we prioritize shapes our world in profound ways. On the same block, with the same amount of homes, we can either have:

1) Car-oriented, anonymous, & imposing buildings

Or

2) A walkable, beautiful, sustainable, fine grained community with lovely character & personality! In just about every conceivable category, the fine grained, people-oriented development outperforms the generic, car oriented 5-over-1. Good city planning is one of the few time we can have our cake & eat it too!

(From the excellent Jenny Bevan & Christopher Liberatos.)

Many people cynically criticize the desire to build a better, more beautiful world as idealistic or overly romantic.

But fewer things could be more necessary than creating the kinds of walkable, dynamic, sustainable, & lovable places of our dreams.

ourbuiltenvironment.substack.com/p/a-call-to-bu… As I argue in my latest piece, we can no longer tolerate the consequences of our destructive, dangerous, and profligate status quo of building.

We need to move beyond a world ruled by codes, theory, and ideological fiat, to one of tested practice, common sense, and humanity.

Terminating sightlines/vistas are one of the most important elements of urban design, but curiously they’re not talked about enough.

They provide a sense of enclosure that makes us feel protected, and comfortable, walking on a street. It’s almost like we’re being gently hugged! They can be as formal as a grand civic structure, or as informal as a gently curving street where your sightline is cut off by the carve of buildings in front of you.

But what’s most important is that streets are bordered on both sides, & the vista terminates in some structure.