I lived for many years in Manhattan in a three-story building with two residential units over one of commercial. It has shared walls on either side and windows only in the front/back. These were the workhouse housing units of their era, and they dominated all major cities at end of the 19th and early 20th century. They all looked the same, too!
And in my old neighborhood, zoning allows for lot consolidation and then building upwards, so where I used to live has not lost many of these having them replaced with 20 floors of residential over 1 (sometimes 2) of commercial. Guess what? That works, too!
This gives me the same feels as whenever I hear someone stand up in a meeting and demand shadow studies. Really? The shadows at noon on December 21st. should stop people from being able to afford to live? "Neighborhood character" is the left-coded "I got mine!"
Surprised not to see a mention of single stair reform, which would allow economical smaller apartment buildings that are also likely to be more varied and more pleasing to many aesthetic tastes. AIUI five over ones are so dominant in the multifamily market in part because they are the most economical way to comply with double stair regulations.
I also think there is a role for pattern books in countering aesthetic objections. I wish, like you, that people would see abundance as beautiful and homelessness as uglier than bland corporate apartment design. But we have the electorate we have, and if we can sweeten the pot for them with pre-approved beauty standards that still allow by right development when those standards are met, we might get to abundance faster. I recently read a UK focused article about this that was really insightful -- I wish I could find it now -- I thought it was from Works in Progress but it doesn't seem to be.
I lived for many years in Manhattan in a three-story building with two residential units over one of commercial. It has shared walls on either side and windows only in the front/back. These were the workhouse housing units of their era, and they dominated all major cities at end of the 19th and early 20th century. They all looked the same, too!
And in my old neighborhood, zoning allows for lot consolidation and then building upwards, so where I used to live has not lost many of these having them replaced with 20 floors of residential over 1 (sometimes 2) of commercial. Guess what? That works, too!
This gives me the same feels as whenever I hear someone stand up in a meeting and demand shadow studies. Really? The shadows at noon on December 21st. should stop people from being able to afford to live? "Neighborhood character" is the left-coded "I got mine!"
Noah Smith did it first:
https://open.substack.com/pub/noahpinion/p/yuppie-fishtanks-yimbyism-explained
Surprised not to see a mention of single stair reform, which would allow economical smaller apartment buildings that are also likely to be more varied and more pleasing to many aesthetic tastes. AIUI five over ones are so dominant in the multifamily market in part because they are the most economical way to comply with double stair regulations.
I also think there is a role for pattern books in countering aesthetic objections. I wish, like you, that people would see abundance as beautiful and homelessness as uglier than bland corporate apartment design. But we have the electorate we have, and if we can sweeten the pot for them with pre-approved beauty standards that still allow by right development when those standards are met, we might get to abundance faster. I recently read a UK focused article about this that was really insightful -- I wish I could find it now -- I thought it was from Works in Progress but it doesn't seem to be.