From NYTimes writer Kyle Thomas McGovern: "Two Waverly Avenue townhouses owned by the New York City Housing Authority that have been abandoned for years need extensive repair, but renovating them would not be an efficient use of the city agency’s resources, a NYCHA spokeswoman told The Local. NYCHA recently announced that it plans to put the two townhouses up for public bid by the end of the year. If a private developer buys and renovates them, the units will no longer be designated as city-subsidized affordable housing, Sheila Stainback, a NYCHA spokeswoman, told AOL Patch in March.
"While NYCHA has owned the two townhouses since 1977, buildings such as 99 and 110 Waverly don’t fit easily into NYCHA’s property portfolio. The peculiarities of a particular townhouse’s design features make renovation expensive and time-consuming, she said. 'All of a sudden you have to go re-measure for a window from a unit that was built in 1885,' Ms. Popkin explained. 'That’s not NYCHA’s typical kind of work.' Currently, NYCHA owns only 26 of these multifamily townhouses, said Ingrid Faria, Deputy Director for Special Projects in Development at NYCHA. The buildings on Waverly Avenue comprise only a small number of units compared to those in the traditional housing projects that make up most of NYCHA’s 178,882 apartments. 'When you are sending maintenance or any kind of repair work over there for one or two units, it’s at the sacrifice of many, many scores of units more that need that kind of attention, and on-going attention as well,' Ms. Stainback said." Full article here.
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Goldhagen: "Ever-Larger, Ever-Taller Buildings Never Reliably Serve Public Interest"
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJnOtIGbZDk]From NTYimes op-ed contributor Sarah Williams Goldhagen: "In a recent exhibition at the New Museum, the architect Rem Koolhaas accused preservationists of aimlessly cherry-picking the past; of destroying people’s complex sense of urban evolution; and, most damningly, of bedding down with private developers to create gentrified urban theme parks. Some of Mr. Koolhaas’s criticisms are on target — but his analysis is wildly off-base. It’s not preservation that’s at fault, but rather the weakness, and often absence, of other, complementary tools to manage urban development, like urban planning offices and professional, institutionalized design review boards, which advise planners on decisions about preservation and development. "Some historical context is in order. As American cities expanded rapidly between 1890 and 1930, urban dwellers and municipal governments realized that developers, who were building ever-larger and ever-taller buildings, would never reliably serve the public interest. Professional city planning was born, but systems to vet building and urban design quality at the federal, state and local levels — common in countries and cities across Europe — were never institutionalized. City governments, suffering the economic downturns of the 1970s and ’80s, gave ever more leeway to real estate developers, and ever more voice and political power to hyperlocal community boards; both groups typically focused on their own narrow and usually short-term interests rather than the broader, long-term public good." Full article here, and letters in response here and here.
OTR: Greatest Townhouse Gallery of All Time?
From Steve Mouzon, what may go down in history as the greatest gallery of small urban buildings of all time. The location, of course, is Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, object of my well-documented fascination. I've said it before, this is what neighborhood revitalization should look like. On second thought, OTR is a model of what an urban neighborhood should look like at any stage of vitality. Buy some of these photos today. OTR may yet win the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 2011 This Place Matters Community Challenge, but announcement of the results has been pushed back, due to the large number of votes to be validated, from July 1 to July 6 and now to July 18. (Photo credit: Steve Mouzon.)
Australia Townhouse Demand Goes Unmet
In honor of Townhouse Center's birthday week, total 10,000 hits in the first year! From Australia Herald Sun writers Nick Leys and Karen Collier: "The great Australian dream of owning a house on a quarter-acre block might no longer exist. Instead, Australians want more townhouses and apartments in the more desirable areas, a Grattan Institute report The Housing We'd Choose has found. Just under 50 per cent of those surveyed in Melbourne indicated a preference for detached housing; the remainder opted for high-density housing. Committee for Melbourne CEO Andrew MacLeod said the city had to address the shortage of high-density housing." Full article here.
Baltimore Rowhouses Redeveloped to Own
From Baltimore Sun writer Scott Calvert, an article on the tribulations of large-scale rowhouse redevelopment in the Johnson Square area: "Four East Preston Street rowhouses were overhauled. On the rest of the block, and another nearby, 30 more boarded-up rowhouses will soon be rehabbed. Those houses will then be sold to lower-income buyers at steeply discounted prices. The city housing authority is rehabilitating 36 other rowhouses scattered around the neighborhood.
"The work on Preston Street is led by Washington-based Mi Casa, a well-regarded nonprofit developer chosen in a competitive process by the Housing Authority of Baltimore City, which owns the properties. Elin Zurbrigg, Mi Casa's deputy director, said her group sees potential where private developers may not. She hopes to begin work on the first for-sale houses later this summer. Zurbrigg pointed to Johnston Square Manor, a 1980s townhouse development directly across Preston from the vacant houses Mi Casa plans to restore. Of its 50-plus houses, four out of five are owner-occupied. The 30 for-sale houses on Preston will build on that 'cornerstone' of ownership, she says.
"All told, more than $30 million worth of housing investment is under way or planned for Johnston Square, a battered neighborhood below Green Mount Cemetery where islands of homeownership are surrounded by vacant lots and empty or run-down houses. 'We really think this will jump-start some things,' city housing commissioner Paul Graziano said in an interview. Brett Theodos of the Urban Institute in Washington said while reviving Johnston Square might be a laudable goal, these housing projects likely won't succeed without a broad, coordinated strategy. Graziano added, 'The question is, what's the alternative? Do we just sit here and let these neighborhoods further decline?'" Full article here.
Blog Birthday, Top Stories, and Vancouver
New year, new layout! For looking back on the last year of blogging, Wordpress has some pretty great statistical tools. From Townhouse Center posts, people clicked through to hundreds of other sites and articles about small urban buildings, but the top three links of the last year were about:
- Art Cowie's Struggle for Rowhouses in Vancouver (linked article strangely taken down)
- Miami Townhouse Panel Discussion (linked site and video parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6)
- Brooklyn Historic Brownstone Renovated to Passive House (linked article)
In honor of Mr. Cowie's tenacity, the latest from Vancouver from Straight.com writer John Lucas: "Let’s hear it for the townhouse. For those buyers who are looking for something a bit more roomy than the standard shoebox-sized Vancouver condo but who find themselves priced out of the single-family-house market, the townhouse is often the happy middle ground. It offers more indoor and outdoor space plus your very own front door, but without the price tag of a detached house on a lot. New developments seem to be popping up everywhere. For instance, stroll through the East Van neighbourhood of Cedar Cottage and you’ll notice townhome and row-house projects like the Works, Stories, and Brix [pictured] beginning to dominate the streetscapes.
"RE/MAX’s Ken Leong tells the Straight that he has seen the townhouse market explode in Fairview over the past decade. 'When townhouses came into the West Side, it was probably only 10 years ago. Mosaic Homes did a project at 15th and Laurel [Redbricks?], which is very unique because most of the multifamily stuff that we had was apartments or duplexes. And they’ve become more popular now, because you get the benefits of a single-family house: front yard, back yard, and sometimes attached parking.' Wherever they might pop up, though, don’t expect the townhouse market to dry up anytime soon. 'We only have so much land here,' Leong says." Full article here.
And from Vancouver Sun writer Mary Frances Hill, another benefit of townhouses: compact, dense development can be linked to preserving green space. "It’s a rare thing to find a 1,300-square-foot townhouse — priced at less than $350,000 — that is surrounded by protected green space. That green space, and the trails and creeks that will grace the land, have been a big draw for many buyers and interested browsers who tour Sequoia. [Fairborne Homes] has won respect for its innovations in building neighbourhoods that are sensitive to transit issues and landscape protection." Full article here. If you like insights like these, please tell your contacts about Townhouse Center!
Blog Birthday and Guest Post by Hawes
Townhouse Center is one year old today, the anniversary of the first post! Looking ahead, I'm trying a new blog layout. Looking back at the first few posts, one was about townhouse "ghosts", when a townhouse is demolished and the outlines of slabs and stairs remain on the wall shared with a remaining townhouse. That post was inspired by the writing of Libbie Hawes, preservationist and rowhouse enthusiast, who sent this special birthday guest post:
"I still notice these rowhouse ghost images, a bittersweet byproduct of demolition. I love it when interior finishes and fixtures -- all those personal practical and decorative choices -- are left on the wall, hinting at the stories of the lives lived inside, the hidden city. In dense urban rowhouse neighborhoods there are so many lives close together. Historic rowhouse neighborhoods, resused for centuries, fostered a sense of community by their proximity to local commercial and industrial pursuits, public transit, and green spaces.
"I hate to see new rowhouses designed without porches or built atop first-floor garages that raise facades so far above the street, removing that relationship between home and society. Are we abstracting the rowhouse so much that we've forgotten that part of good design and urban living and requires community to retain quality of life? When developers build new rowhouses, as brand-new neighborhoods or infill, it is important to ensure these designs fit not just the dimensions of the space, but also the character of the neighborhood, both aesthetically and socially." If you like insights like these, please tell your contacts about Townhouse Center! (Photo credit: Sabra Smith.)
Rowhouse Garden Oases in Boston
Boston Herald writer Jennifer Athas on row house gardens in Boston's South End: "Boston’s South End is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the largest Victorian brick row house district in the United States, but today the neighborhood is home to many fine restaurants, a thriving arts community, and dozens of beautiful open spaces. Several South End homes feature garden spaces that would make almost any home buyer’s thumb turn green. 'A 42-by-20-foot garden space is ideal for entertaining and growing flowers or herbs,' said Jackie Jaeger of Sprogis & Neale Real Estate. 'With pine trees, maple trees, cherry blossom trees and lilacs, a small back yard can be an oasis in the city,' said Jennifer Gelfand of Keller Williams Realty. One way to see some of these open spaces and a variety of private and public gardens is the annual self-guided tour. The tour features everything from pint-sized patio spaces to rooftop terraces to neighborhood parks and Land Trust community gardens. The tour is the major fund-raiser for the South End/Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust, which owns and manages 16 community gardens serving over five hundred families or individuals." Full article here.
And in case you were wondering, things are pretty much the same in Canada, according to Suzanne Wintrob: "After living in an apartment for three years, Regina Schafer of Waterloo, Ontario couldn't wait to move into a house with a lush garden. But when she found the perfect three-bedroom row house last year, she had to settle for a back garden featuring nothing but grass and a rhubarb patch. Schafer called on landscape designer Carson Arthur of HGTV fame for advice. Together they drew up a low-maintenance plan featuring shrubs and perennials that produce blooms and colour throughout the year. Now, with the garden making its first summer debut, Schafer's says her job is simply to weed and enjoy the show." Full article here. (Photo credit: Chitose Suzuki.)
New Art Nouveau Townhouses in Leiden
One week to the anniversary of the first post on Townhouse Center! In the meantime, from Digs Digs: "24H-Architects, a Rotterdam-based studio, has designed two amazing townhouses in Leiden, The Netherlands. The facade of each home is inspired by the Art Nouveau style. Both houses are eco-friendly and designed to maximize daylight. A “canyon” flows from the facade, through the house, and encloses the stairs. The walls of the "canyon" are used to divide the house into the necessary spaces, no other walls are placed." Full post with several photos here, and (tiny) elevation studies on the architect's website.
UK Firm Designs New Townhouse Prototype
From loyal reader Natalie Weinberger of the Housing Finance Information Network and Shophouse thesis fame: "A design company based in the UK has developed a townhouse prototype for London; they call their model the 'Rational House'. You'll see from checking out their site that the rationale (pun intended) speaks quite directly to the mission of your blog. If you want more info, Monocle magazine did a story [requires subscription] on them a few issues back." Thanks Natalie, this is one for the Hall of Fame.
From the Rational House website: "Most major world cities have examples of older, classic houses that have been retained over many generations and possess special qualities that make them sought-after and valuable. The Georgian houses of London, the beaux arts homes of Paris, the art nouveau creations of Brussels, the Brownstone houses of New York, the red brick row houses of Philadelphia, and the veranda terraces of Sydney are all good examples - but there are many more worldwide. Rational House was formed because the modern equivalent does not seem to exist. We believe that our prototype building - and the research behind it - is the first step towards the creation of a modern classic.
"We created a blueprint for contemporary living: a modern house that distills the most successful characteristics of family homes of the past. The Rational House can easily be adapted to accommodate a family's changing needs and circumstances. It can be converted into flats, or can be used in part or whole for other purposes, including offices and shops. Houses using the system can be clustered, giving high densities similar to four or five storey blocks of flats. This can be done because Rational House is a repeatable and extendable product. We are constructing a new town house in Hammersmith, London - a prototype for an urban dwelling built to the Rational House brief. "
I'm With Witold: First a Crowd of Townhouses
Well, CNU 19 has come and gone (sadly I couldn't attend), but apparently had only one session on small-scale urban infill development, and even that session you had to pay extra to attend. I guess I'll have to keep blogging. I watched the final session online, and last month's op-ed by Witold Rybczynski in the NYTimes was mentioned: "American cities are always looking for quick fixes to revive their moribund downtowns. Sadly, the dismal record of failed urban design strategies is long: downtown shopping malls, pedestrianized streets, underground passages, skyways, monorails, festival marketplaces, downtown stadiums — and that most elusive fix of all, iconic cultural buildings. It appears likely that we will soon be adding elevated parks to the list.
"And herein lies the problem. The High Line may be a landscaping project, but a good part of its success is due to its architectural setting, which, like the 12th Arrondissement, is crowded with interesting old and new buildings. The park courses through the meatpacking district and Chelsea, heavily populated, high-energy residential neighborhoods. Very few American cities — and Manhattan is the densest urban area in the country — can offer the same combination of history and density." Full article here. I tend to agree with Witold: large, exogenous, non-distributed "revitalization" projects only revitalize surrounding areas if such areas already have a mostly-continuous fabric of pre-existing (but neglected) small, dense, adaptable-use urban buildings. That's why hollowed-out cities first need new townhouses. (Photo credit: Brian Harkin.)
Walmart in a Townhouse? New Mini Prototype
From AP writer Anne D'Innocenzio via the Miami Herald: "In rural Arkansas, the first drugstore-sized Walmart Express store offers a peek at how the world's largest retailer plans to expand in big cities and tiny towns. The long, narrow concrete box, which features a powder-blue Walmart Express sign, is less than one-tenth of the size of a super center. The store, which has exposed pipes and yellow walls, carries most of the basics that its bigger cousin carries, from bacon and milk to socks and DVDs. Wal-Mart is experimenting with a Walmart Express prototype for urban markets in Chicago, to open later this summer. Walmart's U.S. business has been chipped away by dollar stores, which have adroitly maneuvered the post-recession economy. Dollar stores [are] expanding quickly, opening stores closer to customers' homes, an advantage in era of high gas prices. Already, the average round trip to a dollar store is six miles, compared with 30 miles for a typical Wal-Mart trip, Credit Suisse analyst Michael Exstein estimates." Full article here. (Photo credit: Chuck Bartels.)
In Albany Demand Grows for Infill Townhouses
Four months ago I mentioned these five infill townhouses in Albany, and recently the developer announced that they sold out. Coincidence? Absolutely. From Albany Business Journal writer Michael DeMasi: "The developer of five upscale townhouses in Albany, New York’s Center Square neighborhood said the last of the units was just sold. Michael Crisafulli took on the urban in-fill project because it saw an opportunity to build on a vacant lot in the popular, densely-packed neighborhood near the Capitol. Demand had not been as strong as expected during the initial phases, in part due to the property taxes. But Crisafulli said interest spiked as construction progressed." From Albany Times Union writer Chris Churchill: "Crisafulli Associates began construction on the project late last year, after years of planning (and negotiating with neighbors). The rowhouses, which include about 2,000 square feet of space above parking, are a rare — for the Capital Region — urban infill project. 'It’s huge to have the garages,' Crisafulli said. 'People like Center Square, but they’re afraid of the (lack of) parking.' The project’s apparent popularity with buyers, despite the down real estate market, would suggest there’s demand for more such housing."
More Ontario Townhouse Appreciation
From the Hamilton Spectator: "Urban expert Christopher Leinberger has witnessed a revolution in his Washington, D.C. neighbourhood. Ten years ago, his Dupont Circle townhouse in the historic district of the nation’s capital was worth 25 per cent less per square foot than a house in suburban Maryland or Virginia 30 minutes away. That same townhouse is worth 70 per cent more per square foot today. A key element, says Leinberger, is an urban rail system. The metro region of Washington has more examples of walkable urbanism than any other city in North America, he says, and 90 per cent of them are served by rail.
"The same trend is evident in Canada’s biggest cities of Toronto and Vancouver, he says, and is likely inevitably coming to other metro areas. So what is a walkable neighbourhood? Well, if you have no viable choice but to get in your car to hit a grocery store or a bank, you aren’t in a walkable neighbourhood. According to Leinberger, walkability means there are many destinations within 500 to 800 metres of your doorstep. Leinberger will be the keynote speaker at Thursday’s fourth annual Hamilton Economic Summit. The theme of this year’s summit is focused on bringing people and profits to the lower city, defined as stretching through the downtown and the waterfront." Full article here.
Stoop of Happiness: Ontario Habitat Townhouse
From Mississauga.com: "Today, Habitat For Humanity Mississauga [Ontario] presented the Hussain family with the keys to their new townhouse. 'I’m very excited,' said Shaukat Hussain. 'I never thought I would have a home in Canada when I came from Pakistan.' Habitat provides the Hussains with a zero per cent interest loan for the three-bedroom home. The family was also required to complete 500 hours of sweat equity with the organization. The Hussains' home is located within the Daniels Corporation’s Destination Drive Phase Two townhouse development. Daniels and Citi Foundation are the home’s co-sponsors and provided funding, services and materials needed to finish construction. Habitat volunteers contributed 3,312 hours completing construction of the home’s interior. It's the first time Habitat has acquired a partially constructed townhouse." Full article here.
Townhouse to Five Apartments and Back Again
From New York Observer writer Matt Chaban: "'Doing historic townhouses is basically the same as doing a piece of antique furniture, only bigger,' George Agiovlastis told The Observer last week. The artist-turned-antiquer-turned-home restorer had just sold his third revamped townhouse, 38 Grove Street, for $14 million, according to city records. Mr Agiovlastis purchased the 21-foot-wide redbrick beauty in October 2007 for $6.9 million, and then undertook a $3 million renovation. It had been divided up into five apartments, but the builder gutted the place and began a meticulous renovation based on clues found in the home. Behind a facade of expertly matched brick—500 are new, but it's impossible to tell—and a reconstructed stoop lies six bedrooms and seven baths, as well as nine working fireplaces. 'This was not going to be one of those homes with a terrible double-story glass wall in the back,' said Mr. Agiovlastis, referring to some of his overly modern neighbors." Full article here.
Miami New Zoning Impact on Small Buildings
From New Urban Network writer Tony Garcia: "We can all breathe easier one year later — the doomsday predictions offered by land-use attorneys during the final push to implement Miami 21 never materialized. As most of us in the land-use world know, our work takes generations to mature, and is measured in such small increments that we don’t even realize that urban change is happening until we look back on where we started. In spite of the ongoing economic doldrums development has continued, and one can already see the impact the code is having on city’s landscape. The shift is most notable outside of the urban core, where small residential projects are being built in accordance with the code with noticeable impact. In the instant gratification category, count the death of the 'snout house' as one of the most visible successes of the code to date. 
You’ve seen these structures before: a duplex or attached home whose façade is dominated by a protruding, snout-like parking garage. Miami 21 tackled this problem by restricting the amount of parking in the second layer to 30 percent of the total building frontage." Full article here.
Two Is Most "Civilized" Number of Stories?
From New York Times writer Christopher Gray: "Herkimer Street, from Bedford to Nostrand Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, is a perfect urban jumble: old frame houses smothered in aluminum siding; apartment buildings jammed in next to tiny brownstones; an empty mansion; a Baptist church in the Islamic style. Development reached Bed-Stuy after the Civil War, and most of the block’s buildings went up around 1880, including the standard brownstone row running from 13 to 27. There is a corresponding brownstone row on the south side, Nos. 18 to 26, still fairly unchanged. Over time, each one was treated to a different color: salmon, ivory, buff, gray, a chromatic miscellany far more charming than the original uniform brown. Back on the north side, the long row at Nos. 45 to 55 are two-story brownstone dollhouses with arched windows.The usual tall rowhouse imposes a tyranny on its owner -- lots of space, but just where you don't need it, four or five flights up! The two-story version is an exceptionally civilized solution. A curious thing is these were built in 1880, just like the taller houses on the street -- usually the smaller the building, the older it is. " Full article here. (Photo credit: Michelle Agins.)
New Era Statistics: Townhouses May Lead
I recently posted about Arthur Nelson's article that has sparked debate on the future of cities and suburbs. Predicting is fun, but what are the article's underlying statistics? "What do households want? Housing preference surveys routinely find that most people prefer single-family detached homes on large lots. But such surveys conducted since the late 1990s come to reasonable consensus on demand for other options. (See Malizia and Exline (2000) and Myers and Gearin (2001) for reviews.) The Fannie Mae Foundation (1997) found that between 16 and 19% of a national sample of households preferred townhouses, while a survey by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB, 1999) found 15% preferred townhouses. The NAHB study also showed that up to a quarter of people over age 55 preferred townhouses over other housing types.
"Although there have been no comprehensive surveys of housing preference since 1999, one recent stated-preference survey conducted in 2002 appears to corroborate the demand for small lots. Levine and Frank (in press) conducted a survey of 1,455 metropolitan Atlanta households to assess, among other things, their willingness to trade-off larger lots and cul-de-sac streets for more amenities (sidewalks, narrower connected streets, shops and services, parks, sense of community, etc.). Among those living in single-family detached neighborhoods (most on lots of over one quarter acre, which the study defined as large) they found that about 40% would trade large lots for smaller ones in exchange for those amenities." (Photo credit: NY Daily News.)
No Trouble for Iowa Brownstone Sales
From the Des Moines Register: "Hubbell Realty says the second phase of its downtown Des Moines brownstone project has sold out, and the West Des Moines developer will start the project's third phase. The project's success comes as sales are slow for downtown housing, hampered by the recession and financing challenges for some projects. 'It's a little unusual, but if you have the right product at the right location, it clicks, especially if you can get financing,' said Re/Max Real Estate Group's Jay Snyder. Hubbell said it's pre-sold 16 [three-story] townhomes in the second phase of its Brownstones on Grand project, located between Second Avenue and Third Street. Construction is under way on the [third phase] two-story townhomes, called Riverwalk Brownstones, on Watson Powell Jr. Way. Rachel Flint, Hubbell's sales manager, said buyers run the gamut - single professionals, young families with children, couples in their 50s and 60s. 'The common trait is that they all want downtown living,' she said. It also helps that the townhome project - viewed as a single-family home - is one of the few downtown housing projects that qualify for FHA financing, Flint said." Full article here.