Townhouses on the Edge: Edmonton, Canada Confronts Complex Topic of Suburban Density

The Edmonton Journal has a series of articles called "Living on the Edge" about the region's newer neighborhoods, and the articles frequently deal with making the suburbs more urban, with density, transit, culture, etc.  For example, an article about townhouses in the suburbs, why they happen, and what it is like to live in them, by Elise Stolte: "Steven Dollansky's new suburban front yard has just enough space for two wooden recliners and a tomato plant.  Dollansky drinks coffee out there every morning, and already knows half a dozen neighbours by name since he moved in six months ago, but double walls mean he never hears his neighbours.  The townhouse just made sense 'when it came down to getting the best value,' said Dollansky.

"Developers say the need for affordable entry-level houses is changing the density of suburban neighbourhoods far quicker than targets imposed last December by the provincially mandated Capital Region Board.  The board issued mandatory minimum density targets of 30 to 45 homes per net residential hectare for most of the city, advocating for more efficient use of land.

"The density near their townhouse is already supporting a Mac’s store with a post office.  There’s lots of foot traffic as people walk dogs and bike to the schoolyard nearby.  New residents hope a coffee shop moves in, too, with other small businesses when the townhouse complex is finished."  Full article here.

In a related blog post, Stolte asks: "The big question is how does Edmonton increase density to use land more efficiently. The little questions are, do you own the land your house is on?  When is it so dense I hear my neighbour snore? And do I have enough room for a couple tomato plants?  Were you worried about having good neighbours?  At least those are my questions.

"Basically, I want to know, what’s it like to live in a row house (or fourplex, triplex, or duplex)?  If you live in a house like this – or if you know a friend who lives in a house like this and would be willing to chat – please contact me.  As always, I’m at livingedge at edmontonjournal dot com."

So Hot Right Now: Townhouses in Brownstoner, USA Today, City Data, and CultureMap Houston

From Brownstoner, Brooklyn's State Street Townhouses project, featured in the Hall of Fame, has increased in value and will expand by nine more. From USA Today, a California developer plans townhouses pre-wired for Nissan Leaf chargers.

On City-Data.com, a lively discussion about which are the greatest US rowhouse cities.

From CultureMap Houston, an eye-popping small-lot dwelling goes on sale, 20 feet wide by four stories tall.  (Photo credit: Kevin Alvarado.)

Australian Architect Designs Two Townhouses Adapted from One Industrial Building

From Arch Daily writer Hank Jarz: "Tony Owen, namesake of Tony Owen Architects has shared with us his firm’s latest project, a pair of townhomes in the in the Sydney suburb of Newtown [inspired by] the pocket design solutions of Japan.  The result: a study of sculptural possibilities on a tight urban sight. "The site is located in a dense historic part of Newtown characterized by close packed 19th century 2 - 3 story terrace housing stock and industrial workshops.  The existing structure is 2-story masonry vernacular industrial.  It was intended that the design maintain the robust utilitarian expression of the existing industrial building while maximizing residential amenities.

"The proposal maintains all of the existing external walls and includes light-weight additions. These additions form 2 dwellings with attic-like loft space, rear courtyards, garage, and studios.  The living and bedroom spaces are directed to the courtyards, which provide light and outlook."  Full article with image gallery here.

ULI Awards Include Portland Four-Story, Mixed-Use, LEED-Platinum, Open-Source Infill

From Urban Land magazine writer Theodore Thoerig: "Burnside Rocket is not your average project. The infill development in Portland, Oregon, rated LEED Platinum, has a ground-floor pub, two levels of shared office space, a top-floor restaurant, and a rooftop garden.  The four-story building, which won a 2011 ULI Award for Excellence, is a case study in multi-functionality: operable window panels double as canvases for local artists, the roof garden provides fresh produce for the restaurant,  and water from an underground aquifer both cools the building and yields 4,500 gallons (17,000 liters) of potable water each day — profits from which the developer plans to donate to local public schools. "The designer and owner of Burnside Rocket, Kevin Cavenaugh, is not your average developer, either. He has made a name for himself in Portland designing and building small infill projects in burgeoning neighborhoods.  'My goal is to change the world 3,000 square feet at a time, and the only way that will happen is if others take my ideas as support for their own practice,' explains Cavenaugh.  True to his word, all his work — from computer-aided design drawings to pro formas — is available on his website, a kind of open-source program for real estate developers."  Full article here (requires ULI membership).  Sounds like we have another Hall of Fame-er.

Brooklyn Developer Proposes Brownstone, City Approves Townhouse, Many People Have Opinion

Who knew one small urban building could cause such controversy?  On August 8, the Brooklyn Paper's Kate Briquelet wrote: "A city panel that had blocked a developer from building a true brownstone in the heart of brownstone Brooklyn now says that a red brick house is just fine.  The Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously approved architect Tom van den Bout’s new design for a Brooklyn Heights townhouse last Tuesday — two months after rejecting his original plan as a 'McMansion' that clashed with surrounding homes. "The result will be a scaled-down and quirkier house on the long-vacant lot on 27 Cranberry St. rather than the architect’s novel plans to use actual brownstone imported from a century-plus-old quarry — a proposal that would have resulted in the first real 'Brooklyn brownstone' in decades.  Van den Bout will use dark red brick rather than brownstone to harmonize with a wooden house next door, and zinc instead of bronze for window frames.  Some community members appreciated the revisions, but said the building’s scale was still too grand."  Full article here.

On August 10, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle's Linda Collins wrote: "The commission approved the revised design for the controversial building at 27 Cranberry St. in a 7-0 vote on Aug. 2, according to Lisi de Bourbon, press secretary for the LPC, who shared some of the 'very positive' comments from commissioners.  Said Frederick Bland, 'It’s a very handsome house. What I particularly like now is that it owes nothing to anyone. It’s not a replica of anything, it’s also not a little of this a little of that — it’s its own thing. It’s an inventive contextual house in the best sense of that definition as far as I’m concerned.'

The four-story single-family rowhouse, a project of developer Lou Greco of SDS Development, will now have a brick façade and less bulk than the original design.  Of the new design, van den Bout said it 'echoes rather than replicates' the traditional row houses that characterize the Brooklyn Heights Historic District. 'The house is composed of traditional elements — stoop, areaway, cornice, base, bay window, punched fenestration — in a traditional composition,' he said."  Full article here.

Curbed and Brooklyn Heights Blog have also chimed in, and the comments are also worth reading.

Entire Infill Development Seminar Series from UC Berkeley Posted Online with A/V Resources

From UC Berkeley, a seminar series entitled "Infilling California: Tools and Strategies for Infill Development", sponsored by the Center for a Sustainable California and IURD, and co-sponsored by the Urban Land Institute of San Francisco, the Association of Bay Area Governments, the California Infill Builders Association, and the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment at BerkeleyLaw.  This seminar-lecture series sheds light on how to advance infill development in California as a viable alternative to urban sprawl. Speakers discuss ways to address challenges and emerging opportunities for infill as California's economic and demographic conditions and environmental mandates change.  Follow the link to the seminar series for podcasts, slides, and other resources gathered from a total of six seminars, each involving several experts.  (Image credit: Calthorpe Associates.)

Adaptable Prototype Is "Tomorrow's Townhouse" Competition Finalist, Pride of Home Town

From the Basingstoke Gazette: "A young, enthusiastic and dynamic firm of architects is going for gold after being shortlisted for the Tomorrow’s Townhouse Competition.  Design ACB, which submitted The Stack House, is in the top five after beating off competition from some of the country’s leading architectural practices in the competition that is part of the British Home Awards, sponsored by the Daily Telegraph, Futureform and British Gas.  Set up in 2005 by Dominic Gaunt, Matthew Chamberlain and David Ayre, the trio at Design ACB, based in Wolverton Court, London Street, Basingstoke, have high hopes and if their design wins, the entry will be built as a prototype and displayed at the Ideal Home Show next year.  Dominic said The Stack House design follows the long and narrow form associated with a traditional townhouse.  Steel-framed modules stack at the front and back with a stair core and lightwell in the middle, creating split-level sections with varying room heights.  'The idea of the house is that it is entirely adaptable, so it can be built anywhere around the country, where you can change the façade materials to suit that environment.'  David said: 'We had a lot of discussion internally about town centre living and family housing.  What we’re looking at here is a family house that can be really flexible in terms of the number of storeys it has and in terms of room layout.'"  Full article here.  The winner will be announced on September 22.

Shophouse Preserved, Occupied by Cafe and Office, Named Top 5 Design Space in Hong Kong

From CNN: "For years, the handsome stone shophouse at the corner of Ormsby and Shepherd Streets in Tai Hang stood sadly neglected, a vacant autobody shop on the ground floor and two empty flats above.  Most residents in the neighborhood assumed it would be torn down and redeveloped like so many other old buildings.  Late last year, though, the interior design company Feelsogood rented and restored the building.  Its design studio now occupies most of the space and the back of the building is now home to the Unar Coffee Company, a smartly-designed place that makes brilliant use of the adjacent alleyway, which it covered with an awning and transformed into an outdoor living room."  Full article here.

Old Urbanist on NYC's Grid as Compromise Between Quality of Life and Revenue

Another smart post by Old Urbanist analyzing townhouse lots: "Picking up on the topic of block dimensions and street widths from where commenters left off on Monday's post, I thought I'd share what must be the strongest statement ever made on this seemingly pedantic topic, made by architect Ernest Flagg in 1894: 'The greatest evil which ever befell New York City was the division of the blocks into lots of 25 x 100 feet.  Fires, pestilence, and financial troubles are as nothing in comparison; for from this division has arisen the New York system of tenement-houses, the worst curse which ever afflicted any great community.' (The New York Tenement-House Evil and Its Cure) "The chronicle of New York's tenement laws from 1879 to 1901 shows an attempt by the city to mitigate the effects of these dimensions, which, it turns out, had been chosen by the city's own hand-picked team of commissioners in 1811 as part of the broader grid plan for New York.  In the 1807 state law empowering the commissioners, the New York legislature (at the urging of the city) had set forth certain planning requirements: 1) that no street be less than 50 feet wide, and 2) that once the commissioners had drawn up their plan, no new streets would be opened through city blocks.  The reason for these regulations seems to have been in part, according to surveyor John Randel Jr., to '[avoid] confined air, unclean streets, &c.'

"A prohibition on alleys, however, required that all blocks be fairly narrow, since interior block space in wide blocks, without alley access, would be distant from the street and have little economic value.  But the commissioners could not go too narrow either: due to the minimum street width requirements, a city with square blocks much less than 200' would have as much as 50 percent of its land area occupied by streets – a poor outcome for commissioners concerned with maximizing the amount of land for sale to private buyers.

"In the end, the intent of the city to avoid 'unclean streets' and 'confined air' by banning both new and narrow streets had led, in a lengthy causal chain, to the most filthy, cramped, darkest and least ventilated building type found anywhere in the United States – an urban form so dire that it ultimately contributed to a backlash against the entire notion of a dense urbanism of attached, street-fronting dwellings.  For a some good background on all this, check out Columbia's series on New York apartments here."  Full post here.

More Mid-Rise Madness: Builder Magazine Slideshow and USGBC Competition

Several days ago I posted about the often-neglected (by me) scale of mid-rise, but of course many others got the memo long ago, e.g. from Builder magazine, a slideshow of exemplary mid-rise projects.  Description: "Are we poised to witness a new era of mid-rise construction?  Many industry watchers think so and will happily rattle off the reasons.  A thoughtfully articulated building of four to six stories can add density to an existing neighborhood, in many cases producing the foot traffic needed to support retail or public transit.  As a transitional building form in the landscape, it can smooth the progression from dense urban core to low-lying residential subdivisions."  (Pictured: Union, San Francisco, California.  Developer: Palisades Development Group.  Architect: SB Architects.  Photo credit: Bruce Damonte.) Also, keep your eyes peeled for the results of USGBC's Multifamily Midrise Design Competition, whose deadline for registration and materials was yesterday.  The results will be announced during the 2011 Greenbuild Conference and Expo in Toronto, Oct 4-7.

Colorado Townhouses "Plucked from Brooklyn, Plopped in Suburbia", Compact Regardless

From Colorado's Lone Tree Voice, news of a massive subdivision that includes townhouses: "RidgeGate is a six-square-mile development that straddles both sides of Interstate 25 south of Lincoln Avenue. The New Urbanism-style community, which may take 40 years to complete, likely will include 12,000 homes and about 20-million square-feet of retail and office space.  At a quick glance, the tall, narrow dwelling units look as though they were plucked straight from a Brooklyn street and plopped down in suburbia.  It’s part of an overall look and feel Coventry Development planned with great care, and one that will become more cohesive with time and further development.  'The objective was to use the land more efficiently and in a more responsible manner', Coventry’s development manager Darryl Jones said.  'More homes in a smaller amount of land.'  The New Urbanism theme calls for a variety of housing styles, already very much in evidence within RidgeGate.  Miramont Apartments, with retail space on the ground floor and three stories of dwelling space above, also exudes an urban feel."  Full article here.

Harlem Townhouse That Was Set for Movie "Royal Tenanbaums" Gets More Star Treatment

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG9LfXVZJOM]From the Onion A.V. Club: "The Royal Tenenbaums is set in New York, but not really. The city viewers see in the film certainly looks like New York, but the names have been changed. Consequently, the house that Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) bought in the winter of his 35th year is located on Archer Avenue in the film, not in Harlem on Convent Avenue at 144th Street, as it is in real life. "Like its cinematic counterpart, the house is a private residence—but it’s a big place, so it’s also home to the Lana Woods Gallery, which specializes in 'African-American masterworks.'  The gallery’s schedule unfortunately precluded us from getting interior footage, but Associate Producer Will Sweeney told us that the inside is much the same as it looks in The Royal Tenenbaums.  With the exception of Anjelica Huston’s study, all of the interiors were shot in the house—as well as the exteriors.  Luke Wilson’s rooftop birdcage was on the roof, Owen Wilson’s apartment is across the street, and the embassy is next door.

"The house had been in foreclosure until the current owners purchased it, but tracking them down was so problematic that director Wes Anderson finally just left a note on the front door—which surprisingly worked. The new owners hadn’t moved in yet, and the house needed major repairs, so the director really had a blank canvas. The house being empty also helped the production make some structural improvements so the building could sustain the strenuous filming process."  Full article here.

Vancouver Council Votes to Promote Mid-Rise Development, Sees Benefits of Non-Towers

This blog is about townhouses, but it is also about other small urban buildings, including the mid-rise scale ("T5" if you're a New Urbanist), which I often neglect but not today.  From New Urban Network writer Philip Langdon: "Vancouver, British Columbia, is known for glassy residential towers that rise from podiums containing housing, stores, restaurants, and other pedestrian-scale uses.  Now Vancouver is eyeing a different form of development — one that achieves substantial density, but in buildings closer to the ground. "In May the City Council approved the Cambie Corridor Plan, which over the next 30 years should fill much of the Cambie Street corridor between downtown and Vancouver International Airport with buildings of four stories and higher.  Rather than letting building heights spike at the stations and then fall off sharply, the objective is relatively consistent heights (and substantial density) along the bulk of Cambie, part of which is a historic boulevard.  For the most part, the corridor — served by a $2 billion rail line that opened in August 2009 — will top out at the twelfth floor.

"Many of the residential buildings will be 6 to 12 stories, achieving a net density (not counting streets and parks) of 110 to 170 units per acre.  Other buildings, slightly farther from the subway, will be a mix of 4 to 6 stories — high enough to generate a net density of 80 to 130 units an acre.  Still farther away, but within a 5- to 10-minute walk of the transit stations, the intensity of development will step down to avoid overwhelming the existing neighborhoods. Toderian envisions these peripheral areas as achieving a 'gentle density' associated with rowhouses, duplexes, and possibly low-rise apartments.

Vancouver Planning Director Brent Toderian sees the combination of 'mid-rise urbanism' and rail transit as 'a new North American best practice.’  Mid-rise development — in many cases a few stories of housing over ground-floor retail — has proven popular along thoroughfares in Vancouver in recent years. Many of the mid-rise buildings have been just four stories, rather than the 6-, 8-, 10-, and 12 floor configurations anticipated on Cambie Street.  According to Toderian, 'Our mid-rise projects do very well in the city.  They can be more sustainable.  They can even be more affordable, and they are more acceptable to the public, which tends to be more negative to height than they are to density.  That helps with our entire discourse on densification in the city.'

“'This is the first time the mid-rise scale has been so explicitly deployed over such a vast area,' says Patrick Condon, a professor at the University of British Columbia and author of the 2010 book Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities.  He sees it as similar to the form of development traditionally associated with streetcar lines — a pattern with 'an inherently fine grain, with small-footprint buildings competing from frontage on the arterials. While full-block buildings are possible in this form it is much more typical for buildings to occupy a half, a quarter, or even less of the block face,' Condon points out.  'The smaller scale has the advantage of resiliency over time, and allows smaller developers and more architects to participate in the construction of the city.'"  Full article here.

New Construction Delaware Townhouse with Four Stories Is Star of Design Reality Show Episode

From Delaware Online, a website of news from the state where I was born: "The new HGTV reality show competition 'Showhouse Showdown' will feature two townhouses in the Claymont development project as the site for one of its episodes.  Two designers with very different approaches to style will take on two identical townhouses with the same budget.  After the designers work their magic, they will ask the public to determine a winner.  In Claymont, the twist will be the unique townhouse situation: The houses on Worth Lane are stacked, meaning two townhouses within a four-story building.  The site of the old Brookview apartments, Darley Green was developed by the Commonwealth Group and built by Montchanin Design Group."  Full article here.

Baltimore Rowhouses Increase Privacy with Window Screen Paintings, Create Folk Art

From therethere.com, a bit about one of the contributions of Baltimore's rowhouses to urban culture: "Imagine this: it's a sweltering mid-Atlantic summer afternoon, back before the days of air conditioning.  You need the windows open for some fresh air, but you don't want your neighbors peeking in to see your pit stains.  Back in the early 1900s, a local shop owner came up with a clever  solution to this problem: screen painting.  He covered his window screens with images of his wares, wiping away the excess paint to make sure they still let the breeze in.  The practice became a sensation — people liked being able to look out on their block without being spied on by their neighbors.  At one point, over 100,000 of the city's homes had scenery painted on their windows.  These days, the screens are recognized as folk art — local groups are uniting to preserve the tradition, and the American Visionary Art Museum even hosted a 'Rowhouse Rembrandts' exhibit to show off the city's best screens.  Leave it to Charm City to beat the heat by turning every block into an outdoor art walk."  Full post here.  I think the desire for privacy in dense townhouse neighborhoods was probably also a large contributor to the Belgian mastery of lace, which they used as curtains in first floor windows.  Necessity is the mother of both invention and art.

Hoboken Example of Townhouses Capable of Higher Density Than Apartment Buildings

From Old Urbanist, Charlie Gardner's blog: "In Hoboken, New Jersey, the fourth densest incorporated place in the United States, there is a two-block stretch between 6th and 7th Streets where the 'hypertrophic' fabric of the great majority of the city, consisting of walk-up apartments and large brownstones on wide streets, abruptly gives way to a series of smaller rowhouses on narrow streets cut through a single larger block.  The five-story brick apartments lining one side of the block are the so-called tenements of the type which Jacob Riis wrote about and which menaced the Little House in the animated Disney film of the same name. "On the other side, the standard Hoboken city block has been subdivided into three smaller blocks by use of two narrow streets along which, with no setback, are built a series of modest two- and three-story rowhouses more typical of Philadelphia or Baltimore than the New York area.  The stark juxtaposition of these characteristic urban forms virtually begs a comparison of the densities in play here.  Since population figures aren't available, I use the objective substitute of bedrooms instead, counting northwards from where the rowhouses begin:

• Rowhouses: 2.5 blocks of 32 rowhouses each = 80 total units x 3 bedrooms apiece = 240 bedrooms
• Apartments: 17 apartments (10 and 8 unit) + 13 brownstones (2 unit) = 182 units x (169 1br + 13 4 br) = 221 bedrooms

"Consider also that while 3 bedroom units are capable of hosting both families and individuals (as roommates), the typical American family will find it intolerable to live in a studio or one bedroom apartment as their immigrant forebears did, no matter what urban amenities are nearby.  Given that family households, averaging 3.2 persons each, continue to outnumber non-family households more than 2-1 in the United States, the rowhouses are better suited to contemporary American demographics and living preferences."  Full post here.

Townhouse Living, Ask for It by Name: Calgary Developer Builds Brand on Townhouses

From Calgary Herald writer Kathy McCormick: "Like a true mosaic, the pieces fit together to create a unified whole that is esthetically pleasing.  But Brookfield Homes multi-family has added one other important ingredient: practical living space.  The condo developer has made Mosaic a household name in Calgary, building the townhouse units throughout different communities around the city, and they have been snapped up eagerly by buyers looking for that special combination at the right price.   'Since our inception in 1995, we've built 2,600 multi-family homes in Calgary alone,' says Wendy Jabusch, vice-president of Calgary Housing for Brookfield.  'This is our 19th multi-family project, and only three were not Mosaics.  It really is a true mosaic, a connotation that, to me, means differentiation of product that's inclusive to all buyers.'  The Mosaic Mirage template for its latest development, the last multifamily property left in the popular McKenzie Towne in the southeast, will reflect that.  It is a 286-unit complex -- the largest ever built so far -- that consists of the traditional two-storey row townhomes that are the trademark of Mosaic, but it will add new models."  Full article here. In The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb describes how mass production and marketing consolidates profits in a few companies, e.g. consumers are entertained by Hollywood stars on video rather than thousands of actors in community theaters.  A well-designed townhouse or other small, adaptable-use, urban building prototype, inherently repeatable, properly branded and marketed, could become a blockbuster product for a lucky company.

Home Builders Predict Townhouses Continue Long-Term Growth of Market Share

From Eye on Housing, the blog on which the National Association of Home Builders discusses economics and housing policy: "One of the impacts of the Great Recession was an interruption of the long-term growth trend in the construction of townhouses (attached single-family units) as a share of all single-family homes built. From 1990 to 2007, the share of townhouses constructed grew from 6% to 16% of single-family housing starts, as reported by the Census Bureau.  As of the first quarter of 2011, townhouse starts neared the record low (set in the first quarter of 2009), standing at a 9,000 non-seasonally adjusted starts rate. This is a decline of 87% from the peak rate of construction set in the second quarter of 2005.  We expect the share of townhouses constructed to continue its long-term growth trend, as homebuyers of the future seek higher density, inner suburb locations and somewhat smaller homes."  Full post here.

Building Inspired by Townhouses, Ultimate Background Buildings, Takes the Foreground

From WSJ writer Dana Rubinstein: "When a building project has been cloaked in controversy for the entirety of its creation, it should come as no surprise that its architect would opt to design something extremely demure.  So it was with the new Wilf Hall, a quiet building that seems to want nothing more than to be left alone.  'This is more of a background building that fits into a neighborhood,' says Morris Adjmi, the architect who designed the 53,706-square-foot structure at the southwest corner of Washington Square Park.  Mimicking the original four dilapidated townhouses that the new building replaced, Mr. Adjmi created what, upon first look, appear to be four new red brick townhouses.  Unlike its predecessors, the structure is also exceedingly green. Its bricks are made from recycled waste, and it has bike parking, bike showers, high-performance windows, and three green roofs planted with golden stonecrop, sweet woodruff, Allegheny foamflower and Solomon's seal."  Full article here.  (Photo credit: Philip Montgomery.)

IDEO Designer Proud of Shophouse Office in Singapore, Curious About Adaptable Use

From the Curiosity Chronicles writer Paul Bennett: "I’m sitting in one right now writing this, so it seems to make sense that today we take a look at an Asian architectural curiosity, the shophouse.  A shophouse is a vernacular architectural building type that is commonly seen in many parts of urban Southeast Asia.  Typically, shophouses consist of shops on the ground floor which open up to a public arcade or 'five-foot way', and which have residential accommodation upstairs.  The shophouses would abut each other to form rows with regular facade, fire walls and adherence to street alignment.  A key development was the Raffles Ordinances (1822) for Singapore which stipulated that: 'all houses constructed of brick or tiles have a common type of front each having an arcade of a certain depth, open to all sides as a continuous and open passage on each side of the street'.  What Of It?  We’re very proud of our shophouse here at IDEO in Singapore: it has architectural integrity and feels like a great human scale for a small office.  I am curious about the origins of architectural vernacular, the use and reuse of buildings, the inherent value of creating homes that businesses work inside, as opposed to offices filled with workers."  Full post here.