Legalizing Dense Development is the Single Most Effective Solution to the Housing Crisis

The only way to significantly reduce housing development costs is to radically standardize development and harness all the economies of scale by sharing costs between multiple projects as well as leveraging industrialization and prefabrication, the same way it’s done in manufacturing.

A focus on ‘missing middle’ housing: The plans feature housing that is fairly high density but not high rise — a combination of "row houses" between 2-4 stories high, and apartment buildings going up to 8 stories. This is the type of neighborhood that makes up the most beloved places in the world. Places like Amsterdam, Venice, Santa Monica, Lake C... See more

To consider the grounds and context of creating a new kind of city, this essay outlines the fraught history of urban density in the US and abroad, from its stigmatisation by city officials as a mark of poverty and uncleanliness, to its reinvention as an asset for artists and cultural workers in the post-industrial era, and onward to the continued a... See more