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*Original article was written by Daniel Gehman, AIA, LEED AP and published in Builder and Developer Magazine.
One must hand it to the California State Legislature for its earnest attempts to pass laws that create exciting new opportunities for the production of housing, by right, within existing developed areas. In 2016 the State passed a law to facilitate the production of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and went back for seconds in 2017 to enact additional legislation that removed significant inherent roadblocks that had stifled the hoped-for results of the original bill. Following those amendments, the application of the law finally caught on. In 2018 about 7,500 ADUs were completed in Los Angeles and in 2019, the number doubled to nearly 15,000. This data confirms that it takes a while for the new legislation to filter down to the people who actually design, finance, and construct these dwellings, but once it has been figured out, the numbers climb dramatically.
SB 9 can be regarded as a follow-on to the ADU laws as a tool intended to produce more housing units, including ownership opportunities, for California’s desperately undersupplied communities. Note that the new legislation does not go into effect until January 1, 2022. A caveat to comprehending this bill is that it will take a while for it to be understood broadly enough so that folks spring into action to take advantage of it. It may end up being necessary for the state to enact even more legislation once again to remove the hurdles and roadblocks inherent in the law as currently written that stymy the production of the desired new units.
What will it allow today?
I recently spoke at a meeting that was advertised with the headline “are you going to have a fourplex next to you?” To cut to the chase, the answer is unequivocally “No.” This is at least in part true because the semantics of that headline are inaccurate. A “fourplex,” by definition, is four conjoined units. SB 9 doesn’t allow that. It does allow up to four dwellings on a property that started as a single-family lot, but it must go through a couple of steps to get to the quad of units. Namely, it must be subdivided into two parcels, each one of which may be developed with a duplex and perhaps an ADU, if space allows. This “lot split” is allowed under the law with only a “ministerial” approval, which means no public hearings. This combination of lot split plus new construction is the only pathway to the production of four dwelling units on an existing single-family lot.
Will your neighbor’s property qualify for redevelopment of this nature?
It depends. The adjacent lot needs to be a minimum of 2,400 square feet for the lot split to even be undertaken. While it may be hypothetically possible to split it, it is not practical given the circulation and parking constraints of a site this size. Also, the economics at this scale will likely not make sense. There is a certain parcel size required to make the lot split and resulting units viable, and it is much larger than the minimum the law allows.
Any existing single-family parcel with one residence could be remodeled (within certain proscriptions of the law) to add a second attached but fully autonomous dwelling of at least 800 square feet. Because the lot hasn’t been split, either a Detached Accessory Dwelling Unit (DADU) or an attached Junior Accessory Dwelling Unit (JADU) could accompany this newly generated duplex, leading to a total of three residences on the property. So, in response to the question posed by the headline quoted above, the answer is “No, but you could end up with as many as three units next door, or six if the lot is split.”
In addition to the practical limitations of lot size, SB 9 includes a menu of limitations that could prevent your neighbor from doing this. If their home is in a coastal zone, high fire hazard area, historic district, or on farmland or other sensitive habitat, forget about using the law because it is forbidden. Furthermore, their property needs to be located in a Census Bureau “urbanized area” zone. That combination of factors removes about nineteen percent of California’s 7.5 million single family lots from eligibility. Of those that remain, a multitude of factors influence whether the redevelopment of an existing single-family home to produce the additional units is financially feasible, and where there is not demonstrable financial feasibility, there is no investment.
Naturally there are questions and tensions that arise when single family residents are made aware of the provisions of the law, and the concerns are easy to comprehend. There’s even a movement afoot to qualify a ballot measure that would essentially override SB 9 by returning land use decisions to the local level exclusively through a Constitutional Amendment. Battle lines are being drawn for a skirmish over property rights across the state. As we all wait for the beta applications of the law, watching the evolving controversy will be exciting, and we will continue to learn from and respond to it.
Comfort, Meet Economy
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Comfort, Meet Economy – The High Performance Imperative For New Homes
*Original article was written by Daniel Gehman, AIA, LEED AP and published in Green Home Builder Magazine.
There is a switch in many electric vehicles that allows drivers to toggle between performance modes–one direction is “comfort” and the other “economy.” I’m sure the UX Designers didn’t intend any irony with those identifiers, but it struck me that they are (perhaps unconsciously) highlighting a long-held suspicion or expectation that comfort and economy are at odds with each other or at least at different ends of the scale. On a personal level, I typically keep this setting safely in the middle, where I can offset increased battery life with decreased top speeds and a more moderate interior climate, all of which I can live with and feel pretty comfortable while being slightly more mindful about resources. I’m doing well by doing good, as Ben Franklin was believed to have said. “High performance” in the automotive world typically conjures roaring engines and screeching tires, but in my case it means going just a little further on the same amount of charging.
Merriam Webster defines high performance as “better, faster, or more efficient than others.” Note the significant inclusion of enhanced efficiency as an earmark of high performance. This must certainly apply to homes. I don’t know of many people who would request their home to be faster than others, though I think many would desire a “better” home based on a comparison sample. Everybody wants a more efficient home, a “need” that lands somewhere between levels one and two of Maslow’s hierarchy. Some of this desire could hypothetically be driven by an altruistic appeal to be kinder to the planet through resource conservation, which is great, but in actuality, the more powerful motivator, typically, is a desire to get a better deal: to get more and pay less.
This premise is the basis of the most successful strategies for high performance in a home. There is a hierarchy of returns at work when sifting through a multitude of options to find the low hanging fruit. Over time, the low-hanging fruit gets codified, and one’s reach must extend a bit further. To illustrate, improvements to building envelopes in an effort to better manage a home’s interior climate really got rolling about fifty years ago, so there has been plenty of time for those who write codes to make it a standard, so that it would never be considered an option today. Houses are so tightly controlled for air leakage these days, precautions have to be taken to assure that at least some fresh air is entering the home—just when and where we want it instead of randomly. This is an easy concept to reason through: my house leaks less, my heating bill is lower, because I’m using less energy imported from outside sources to make me comfortable—a marriage of comfort and economy! Once we got the bug for lowering energy consumption through heating and cooling, we applied that reasoning to every power consumer in the home, from lights to appliances. These days we still give ourselves a gold star when we achieve minimum levels of compliance with the established high performance standards.
Water conservation has usually gone hand in hand with energy conservation, though the motivation may not have been quite as piqued because water for a very long time was relatively cheap. Then we began to worry about supply issues, particularly in the arid southwest. Of course, when the supply of anything diminishes, the market price increases, and we don’t need a bigger water bill. So after replacing the plumbing fixtures in our homes with low-flow everything and going to drip irrigation outside with possible harvesting of rainwater, we took it up a notch, ripping out miles of manicured lawns to replace them with xeriscape and synthetic turf. Note that the motivation here began to be mixed—it was no longer just about wanting to save money on a commodity; it began to include some element of anxiety about running out of a basic need or having someone else ration it for us. In other words, the cause began to be a bit more global, though self-interest was still alive and well.
On-site energy generation has also been struggling to get traction since about the nineteen-seventies, but lately, thanks to Elon Musk and the rapid development of high-capacity batteries, the trajectory is changing. Solar panels were once primarily thought of as a way to lower our electricity bills, which they did. Then home storage systems, led by technology from our long-range EVs, began to come onto the scene, changing the calculus again. Adapting these home systems could potentially lead to being “off the grid” of whatever utility monopoly has been providing our domestic electricity. Not only does this eliminate the monthly power bill altogether, but it helps everyone else by reducing demand on the existing grid, which can get over-taxed in periods of peak demand leading to rolling blackouts, which nobody wants. Hmmm . . . can you begin to see a pattern of doing well by doing good?
Going off-grid electrically eliminates one outside resource being pushed into our homes. Up next for consideration is water. How would it ever be possible to go off-grid for water? Growing up in rural Michigan, my home was serviced by a well and a septic system; we were off grid for both water and sewer. This was long before off-grid living was cool or trendy—the home was off-grid simply because it worked. Major systems were installed once, typically when the house was built, and functioned largely without issues for years. Neither one was perfect, but neither one required a massive system of municipal infrastructure to keep our showers flowing and our toilets flushing. Necessity was the mother of both those “primitive” systems.
What if we could produce our own potable water by pulling it out of the air? David Herz, an architect/inventor in Venice, California, used existing technology to create a solar powered “point-of-use atmospheric water station” to provide drinking water to individuals experiencing homelessness in an alley near his studio. This endeavor didn’t save anybody any money, but it helped a lot of thirsty folks. Given some more advanced technology and scaling, this system could be adapted to a single-family dwelling to become a modern version of a well. If successful one could produce their own water, which is no small feat. The next step here is addressing waste water–how can somehow avoid flushing a big portion of that precious home-grown water down toilets to carry our waste away? Enter grey- and black-water systems. For decades we’ve had the technology to capture greywater from everything that has a drain except the commode, treat it a little, and use it to flush the toilet when it is finally necessary or water the home vegetable garden. That allows us to use the water a minimum of twice. Advanced technology systems exist that can actually re-claim and turn both of these sources into potable water, creating, in essence, a closed water loop.
What is the common characteristic of the systems described above? They are all most easily deployed in single family homes. We’ve seen these sophisticated systems in space stations and nature conservancy facilities, but that’s an extremely tiny sample, and really, they don’t benefit many people in these “demonstration” applications. It makes all the sense in the world to get these systems into new build homes as quickly as possible. Mass deployment in single family neighborhoods will lead to more rapid widespread embrace of these technologies, particularly by first time Millennial homebuyers who already happen to be early adapters of environmentally conscious practices. It will be far, far, easier to incorporate systems into newly built homes, which can be marketed not only for their earth consciousness, but for the simple reason that they make sense financially in the long run. It’s the ultimate expression of “doing well by doing good.” ESG-oriented lenders may find high performance homes increasingly in line with their corporate values, and therefore prefer to make loans on these types of properties.
Energy from non-renewable sources contributes significantly to climate change. The American west is experiencing extraordinary heat waves accompanied by raging wildfires in places one doesn’t expect them, together with the worst drought in 1200 years. For every one degree Celsius increase in global temperatures, the volume of the Colorado River reduces by ten percent, which has staggering implications. Residential high performance systems are not a boutique item; they are part of a survival strategy. It is time to expect high performance technologies to be included in every new home, just as much as we’d expect insulation. Then they won’t be regarded as an “add-on,” but as standard equipment, especially by young first-time buyers, who will appropriate the expectation and carry it forward to the next generation. We build about 700,000 houses a year; each is an opportunity to move in the direction of meaningful resource management, an opportunity to do well by doing good.
Sustainability or Attainability?
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*Original article was written by Cassie Cherry and published in Green Home Builder Magazine.
While affordability, “missing middle” housing, and the sheer number of housing units needed to keep up with population demands (a-hem… RNHA numbers to anyone in California?) are omnipresent headline topics, I don’t think anyone can argue that these words and phrases have never had a greater heyday than they are experiencing at present. Now add into that mix labor shortages; sharply rising materials costs; increasing governmental, regulatory fees, and land costs; and the rapid drive to make our new construction housing more sustainable and you have a fairly complex equation that must pencil at the end of the day and oftentimes, a longer than expected project schedule.
Sustainability and social impact are homogeneously intertwined with Millenials. As the most recent generation to join the ranks of homeownership (watch out – the eldest ‘Geriatric Millenials’ are moving over for Gen Z who are now starting to make their presence felt on the housing scene) they are strong advocates for sustainable housing options with their choices and preferences. However, when forced to make decisions over housing costs vs. sustainability, price wins out 100% of the time. We all want a great home that lives well and reduces our environmental footprint, but if the alternative choice is simply being able to get into a home, the decision becomes very clear.
Sustainability and attainability cannot be mutually exclusive. Design professionals need to roll up their sleeves and work with their builders to create solutions and opportunities that address both while staying mindful of construction costs.
Having had the opportunity to work with builder clients in addressing this topic, DA’s own Idea Lab Design Studio has become a resource for exploring sustainability solutions while remaining cost sensitive. Passive designs, home orientation, and a bit of creativity can all be applied – there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Recently, our team was tasked to design attainable, workforce housing in a tertiary housing market where energy costs and considerations were a big factor in ensuring housing affordability. At the time of design, this community was set to be the largest net-zero community in California (the great news is, there are even bigger communities on the boards now that can make that claim which means our industry is rapidly changing for greater sustainability). With some clever partners on board, this community will employ flywheels with microgrid technologies to create and send electricity to homes within the grid on demand. Many of our fellow architectural design firms in Orange County and throughout the country are also exploring similar solutions, which is very promising and exciting to see. Additionally, we are seeing greater traction outside the ‘Smile States’ for sustainable home solutions thanks in part to NAHB’s outreach and efforts for the National Green Building Standard (NGBS).
Much of the past year has been spent talking about lifestyle shifts and design solutions regarding the pandemic. While topical, these design solutions are part of a bigger focus on creating timeless home designs that adapt and grow with our living experiences and lifestyles. Creating multi-purpose, flexible spaces with indoor /outdoor connections, recreation and exercise spaces, safe spaces for entry and package delivery, and multigenerational / guest living suites / ADUs allow homes to support changing lifestyle needs over the course of its useful life, effectively creating sustainable homes the gracefully ‘age in place’. Meticulous incorporation of these design elements can be done with minimal impact to budgets. By creating timeless architectural elements at all housing levels and implementing thoughtful sustainable construction practices, one can achieve both an attainable and sustainable home.
Don’t Be Shocked By The All-Electric Future
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Adaptation of new technologies for apartment leasing and management is driven largely by residents’ habits, preferences, and lifestyles. Today’s residents are also, quite literally, driving technology as more and more consumers are opting for the purchase or lease of an all-electric vehicle. These cars, while lower in emissions, place increased demands on the community’s infrastructure—as their paradigm for re-fueling is not to visit the local gas station, but to plug in at home and “fill up” in the evenings. Now is the time to begin to consider how to plan your multifamily residential community to maintain resilience as the world changes around us, to strategize ways to avoid becoming less desirable as a resident option long before the useful life of the building has reached an end. It is necessary to plan for a gradual, then rapid shift to all-electric vehicles, which means the criteria by which residents will choose homes will include the availability of charging facilities that exceed the capacity of a 110 plug. Planning ahead now to anticipate and accommodate this increased demand will help avert the need for an extraordinarily expensive and disruptive renovation down the road.
California is leading the way nationally to a less fossil-fuel-reliant/lower greenhouse gas future. Governor Gavin Newsom recently issued an executive order requiring that by 2035, all new cars and passenger trucks sold in the state must be zero-emission vehicles (the corollary here, of course, is that electric vehicles must be using clean power / green energy so we are not trading one problem for another). While that theoretically includes fuel cell vehicles, they still account for only a tiny percentage of current ZEVs. This target date, only roughly as far in the future as the 2008 recession is in the past, demands some serious consideration of what this trajectory implies.
Californians purchase nearly 900,000 personal vehicles in a typical year; the state has about 27.7 million registered vehicles, of which approximately 1,300,000 are “retired” every year—so roughly 1,000,000 units are cycled through annually, equal to about 3.5% of the existing stock. Today the common lifespan of a car is estimated to be about 8 years or 150,000 miles. Gratefully, advances in automotive engineering have expanded that timeframe over the last couple of decades, to give cars a longer life; furthermore, it is estimated that electric vehicles can be expected to last around 12 years or about 200,000 miles. For the sake of simplifying the math, let’s just take the average of those spans and declare that the typical reliable life of a car in the sunshine state is about 10 years. So, every year about a million go away, and another million are added to the fleet—out with the old, in with the new. At these numbers, the complete cycling out of the system of all the cars on the road today would take about 28 years. Mark your calendars: by about 2048, there will be virtually no combustion engine vehicles on California’s roads. While it might be anticipated that sales of gas-powered vehicles may surge in the couple years leading up to 2035, after that it will be only electrical vehicles replenishing the fleet at a million units/year, leading to a tremendous acceleration of the statewide conversion.
If you were to begin planning today to develop and construct a denser, urban infill residential building with structured parking in Los Angeles, the total length of the entitlement/drawing/construction phase could easily amount to 5 years, plus perhaps another year to lease-up and stabilize. Your sparkling new property might be up and running by 2026. Before it celebrates its tenth year of operation, sales of combustion engine vehicles in California will have ceased. Another ten million or so older, mostly combustion engine vehicles will have been retired. Meanwhile, the sales growth of EVs has been continuous; perhaps even logarithmic. A reasonable estimate of the EV share of the total California fleet in 2036 would be perhaps around 25%, or nearly seven million cars.
Not all of these environmentally-friendly vehicles will be parked in suburban garages; an increasing number will also populate denser urban residential communities, and they’re going to want to charge up at home, even if their overnight parking space is in a structure. So, conservatively, one might speculate that by 2036, fifteen years from now, any urban community could have up to 15% EVs. Do you see where I’m going with this? That’s not very long from now, and the building will be perhaps 15% into its projected useful life. As the community matures, the demand for vehicle charging stations will continue to increase. Those communities with insufficient charging facilities for the growing electric fleet will begin to be “unchosen” by discriminating renters.
Luxury apartment buildings coming online in the very near future may debut with up to 5-10% of their parking spaces equipped with charging stations; many have pre-wired for a larger number, even up to 20%. I believe it is time to ramp up the consideration of what may need to be provided in the not-so-distant future as the percentage of EVs grows, and the demand for charging stations right along with it. What’s a reasonable number to aim for? How about pre-wired for 50%, with an initial buildout of 15-20%? Having the infrastructure in place is really the backbone to avoid painful and costly future renovations; maybe the smart move is to go all in and pre-wire for 100% of the spaces. No matter what, you won’t want to have to install the infrastructure as a renovation project; it will be outrageously expensive. Better to overreach now and have a cushion than to go back tomorrow and tear things apart to re-tool.
Incidentally, to allay concerns about how this many EV charging stations will swell the anticipated electrical loads of the building, there are software applications that cleverly gauge the demand and distribute charging in a managed manner so that the fundamental electrical service of the building doesn’t need to increase beyond reason. Besides that, there are third-party providers who coordinate with building owners to supply and manage the stations, collect the fees, and return an income stream to the property, usually with low to no start-up costs to the building owner. The vendor can even make recommendations for the number of chargers to be installed at the time of the project’s grand opening and will drive the build-out of additional charging stations as the demonstrated need increases.
So, please anticipate the all-electric future, and design the infrastructure into your projects today. Your future investment committee will thank you.
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Developers everywhere today are searching for ways to lower construction costs for multifamily projects – not just to make them attainable for folks with lower incomes, most often it’s to make projects even pencil out. Many have looked to off-site fabrication solutions, including volumetric modular and panelization in hopes of saving money, but in too many cases, that promise hasn’t been delivered upon. What are the key things to consider in advance when contemplating a modular or prefabricated option?
First, it is necessary to dispel the myth that if your stick-designed project isn’t penciling, shifting to a modular solution will fix it. That is absolutely not the case. Whereas it is plausible to pull the plug on a modular design that isn’t achieving any one of many project objectives and revert to a stick frame with manageable amounts of pain, the reverse situation—ditching a conventional design in favor of modular, will be a disaster, because in virtually every case, all that was drawn in anticipation of a conventional solution will need to be jettisoned and re-conceived.
That said, there are situations in which modular may really be a preferred solution. For example, if you manage to design a modular building you really like and construct it over and over again it gets better, faster, and hence more cost-efficient with every iteration. In other words, to reap the benefits of an essentially mass-produced product, it is the best case to produce it in large numbers. This is the reason you see so much current modular product going into low rise hotel properties where reliable repetition reigns supreme, and everything is done “by the book.”
I offer a fundamental encouragement to anyone considering a modular project: conceive of it as modular or prefabricated from the very word “go.” It helps to have a passionate advocate on the team. Next, it is essential to be as informed as possible about what modular design “likes” in order to play to the strengths of the strategy. In a word: discipline. Successful modular undertakings have extraordinarily disciplined team members—principally with the developer, but extending throughout the design team, including the construction and marketing people! Finally, it is important to get to know the presumed fabricator as early in the process as is humanly possible, because there are design and production nuances that vary from one shop to another, as well as which member of which team draws what in the construction documents.
Simplicity and repetition are the golden values in keeping a modular design on the straight and narrow. Factory fabrication is necessarily a repetitive process—assembly lines thrive on continuing to crank out the same widget over and over again without interruption. Think about the Model T—Ford’s strategy for mass production is what put that rather prosaic vehicle into the driveways of so many Americans. What this means is the project design must be approached with the goal of having the absolute bare minimum number of unit types. It may not be immediately apparent with this mindset that apartment plans are not mirrored in building plate layouts, but rather rotated. Why? Because that eliminates the need to prepare an entirely new set of jigs for a run of boxes with the guts flipped. This simple rule of thumb for design planning is one of a myriad of guidelines, which, if rigorously held to without wavering will produce the optimum results. With wood modular construction, I like to say the best strategy is to design for the minimum number of maximum sized boxes, which also get the most bang for the buck on the shipping expenses. Steel modular is a bit different but the same simplicity rules govern.
From an aesthetic perspective, I like to say that modular buildings like to be “straight, flat, and rational,” meaning they won’t necessarily play nice with fussy forms or gratuitous façade manipulations. In the language of Robert Venturi, these projects definitely want to be a “decorated shed” rather than a “Long Island Duck.” This doesn’t mean ugly; simple geometric forms articulated with color and strategically placed “building jewelry” like eyebrows and awnings can provide a satisfying look while adhering to the rules. Naturally, this may not fly in every jurisdiction or with every taste maker, but clean, modern lines are growing in popularity everywhere.
What does it take to be able to design within the parameters that enhance the chances of a competitive modular project? I’ll say it again: discipline. The team must be prepared to respond to questions that begin with “Wouldn’t it be nice if . . .” with firm resolve to the mission because they will almost always lead to bespoke solutions that frustrate the original intention of simplicity. One or two little customizations along the way can usually be incorporated, but by about the time of the third one, I alert the team it’s time to pull the plug. Also, production lines hate changes, so a firm resolve in decision making long before fabrication begins is vitally important; stopping a production line to make a change will squander the entire advantage of the process.
There’s a place for modular construction to really stand up as the preferred approach. At this time when we need so much attainable housing to dig us out of a massive deficit, it is perfectly reasonable to contemplate a prefabricated solution, especially if you can settle on a desirable design that will be attractive in multiple markets where you can build it over and over again. Culturally, markets with high barriers to entry, especially core coastal markets where land and labor costs are extraordinarily high may be the golden ticket for modular to deliver on the promise, helping to control expenses and shave time off the project delivery schedule.
Now here’s the kicker to this discussion. Even where the basic economics and constraints might not support an off-site fabricated project, there are many fundamental attitudes and approaches in the modular and pre-fabrication world that can be appropriated for stick building, resulting in more efficient, less expensive products. Simplicity, repetition, and an aversion to fussiness will always result in lower construction costs. And who doesn’t want that?
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Can we agree we’re way past debating that at least here in California, we need to produce a lot more housing than we’ve been doing? Great. So where do we put it? It has been acceptable for a long time to make room for denser communities where there’s convenient access to meaningful transit and close to urban cores, thanks to state bonus density laws and more locally relevant ordinances, such as the Transit Oriented Communities Overlay in Los Angeles. But what we really need is an “all in, all the time” strategy to creatively find as many places as possible to locate new dwellings, urban and suburban. So it’s time to prospect for possibilities everywhere, including existing neighborhoods.
ADUs Are Coming!
The tide is turning for at least a part of this challenge. It has been said that “The single greatest source of real estate for the production of new attainable dwelling units in Los Angeles is back yards.” This has been verified by multiple studies. A few years back California passed laws making the production of accessory dwelling units much easier by relaxing regulations concerning rental restrictions, parking requirements, and even setbacks in some cases. What had been a bit of a cottage industry (please forgive the pun) got an adrenaline injection and really caught fire. As noted by Dan Bertolet and Nisma Gabobe of the Sightline Institute, “Prior to 2017, Los Angeles was permitting 100 to 200 ADUs per year. In 2017, ADU permits leaped to 2,326, and then in 2018 they nearly doubled to 4,171, accounting for one fifth of all permits. In contrast, in the years before 2017, ADU permits comprised a mere 1 percent of the total.” By default, these dwellings tend to be more attainable because they are small, they don’t require much, if any, upgraded infrastructure, and they are not amenitized. They are typically starter or transition homes, for sure. And they have the very obvious benefit of significantly increasing the density of existing neighborhoods.
. . . But Hold On Just A Minute There
Densifying existing single family neighborhoods? Them’s fightin’ words. We love our existing neighborhoods, and we’re highly organized, well-funded, and super vocal, and a substantial voting block to boot, so you don’t want to tangle with us. While we agree in principle that more housing is needed, when the rubber hits the road, we don’t want it in our backyards. Or down the block. Or in the neighborhood at all: “Please build more housing, just not here.” And this resistance is on top of the already excessive regulation and abuse of environmental law (in California) that hampers the production of housing almost everywhere.
But to walk for a moment in the shoes of the NIMBYs, they often express completely valid concerns; it is entirely possible and logical that some existing single family neighborhoods are not perfect candidates for the addition of a slew of new ADUs. But plenty are—we just have to be discerning to seek and find them.
In the meanwhile, of course, with the laws in place, it is possible and beneficial to build new houses that come with ADUs already in place. Beyond the most obvious advantage of providing more attainable dwellings, ADUs have other distinct benefits for owners of the homes to which they are attached (or detached, as the case may be), including income to help the primary owner afford the mortgage, or the opportunity to expand the household to include an extended family over successive generations (initially occupied by the owner’s aging parent, moving to a boomerang kid or newly minted young family, until they take over the main house and the original owner moves to the ADU. The possibilities are endless.) When designed into a new master planned community or development, there are often no adjacent neighborhoods to disrupt.
Densifying SFD Neighborhoods
For years, planners, builders, and architects have been reaching for higher densities within single family developments, with 20 DU or more being the holy grail. We’ve come close with products such as 3 story “detached townhomes,” or progressive designs that park less than might be expected, and don’t build bedrooms for cars. But imagine if in the same footprint as a traditional 3-story townhome (with parking), we could develop a townhome over flat combo, each with its own separate entry, with the flat playing the role of the ADU in this situation. That would immediately double the density of the neighborhood, while still parking 2 cars for the townhome and one for the flat—it’s an attached condition that feels detached. And the community would still have the look and feel of a modern single family development. With the current market proliferation of single family rentals, this type of stacked duplex would feel right at home.
Villages, Not Tracts
With tools like these at our disposal, it’s time to evolve our thinking about lower density residential planning to embrace the concept of villages rather than tracts. Denser single family neighborhoods, including those with built-in ADUs, are plotted alongside a variety of attached dwelling concepts, offering a range of price points to attract a broader mix of families; these are adjacent to appropriately scaled walk-up apartments, which is yet another price point on the attainability scale. In a village concept, there are pockets of amenities and open space distributed throughout which are shared and enjoyed by all residents. This type of village, with denser enclaves of dwellings interspersed with green spaces becomes a highly walkable environment when the pedestrian realm is thoughtfully enhanced, in sharp contrast to traditional suburban neighborhoods with vast tracts of detached homes with long driveways and fewer attractions to comfortably walk to. A denser village community is, well, communal by nature, and completely in keeping with the typically younger demographic moving into them.
We need more of everything, everywhere. Each little creative, careful incremental step forward will help us inch towards a state with enough housing for everyone. Let’s work together to find ways to say “Yes.”
Deep Satisfaction to the Mind
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*Original article was written by Daniel Gehman, AIA, LEED AP, for and published in the MFE 2020 Concept Community Report
As we endure this unprecedented global pandemic we have all been in a season of mental reframing—adjusting expectations, strategies, and anticipated outcomes. By the time you read this, I hope the dust will be settling on the qualities and characteristics of life that best provide meaning and definition. With everything still fluid as we struggle to arrive at the “new normal,” I want to seize the moment and suggest we consider altering our expectations of what is beautiful in housing. Gen Z is a generation coming of age and entering the household formation years having been branded not only by this crisis but possibly by their parents’ experience in the Great Recession. This generation has been described as motivated by a heightened sense of pragmatism coupled with “ethical consumption” and a search for “truth.” What will this mean when it comes to their choice in housing, especially from an aesthetics perspective?
Personal pragmatism in action can be characterized by a desire to balance one’s expenses, not over-reaching for either status or luxury before they can be afforded. Partnered with this mindset is often a conviction not to consume more than what is needed, but to understand, without pretense, exactly what it is they will be getting for their money.
When “beauty” and “housing” are mentioned together, most of our minds turn to cosmetic or distinctly surface is-sues. We know that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” but it has also been said that “beauty is only skin deep.” What if the holistic understanding of beauty was expanded beyond mere packaging?
Dictionary.com defines beauty as: “The quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).
“Beauty” in architecture is a wildly subjective topic. There are voices in our industry that pursue “harmony” or “compatibility” of a proposed structure within its given context as if it were the highest imaginable objective. This often gives rise to design solutions, in the quest for community/agency approvals, that unnecessarily complicate the envelope (through excessive ornamentation, geometric modulation, or both), increasing the cost of the building, which in turn raises the rent.
There is also a “keeping up with the Joneses” phenomenon in multifamily that suggests a project’s amenity offerings must be over the top in order to be competitive. But what if I don’t need or ever plan to enjoy a bowling lane or climbing wall? If I don’t use it, I still have to pay for it, along with everyone else in the community, and, again, the rent climbs.
What if we shifted the lens of our mental cameras to view the values of simplicity, commodity, functionality, and an agreeable atmosphere as beautiful? Over 2,000 years ago Vitruvius, the Roman architect, engineer, and soldier, argued for the beauty of simple but pure forms and pleasing proportionality, suggesting that abundant ornamentation was superfluous or even distracting. He also valued “functionality” (or “commodity”) along with strength and beauty. In fact, in his well-known statement of what defined quality building design, “commodity” precedes firmness or delight, so maybe he was on to something in his order-ing of priorities by putting usefulness upfront.
In a search for a home that fits, could focus on a dwelling that provides what one needs without pro-viding (and charging for) things one does not need be of high importance to a Gen Z? What if a developer, propelled by passion, intention, and discipline, deliberately chose to pursue functionality first, including only the most necessary components of functional, comfortable living to deliver homes in the most efficient manner that cost less to rent, accommodating many more households? What if being disciplined in every aspect of the community design and construction could allow this type of development to be done while still making a modest profit, without subsidy? Wouldn’t making housing for many more people pro-vide a deep satisfaction to the mind? What if all this disruption by the pandemic and its lingering impacts caused this kind of thinking to lead to a huge increase in the amount of housing being created that is attainable for many at manageable costs? Now that would be a thing of beauty.
Increasing Demand for Attainable Housing
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In our recent industry-wide survey, nearly 50% of Millennials who identified as “currently renting” said they plan to purchase a home in the next two years despite the pandemic and economic uncertainty. With many individuals riding out quarantines in one-bedroom apartments or living with roommates, will this be the catalyst for additional first-time homebuyers entering the housing market, effectively further increasing demand for attainable housing? There was already a significant shortage of this product type across many markets, and we expect to see strong demand continue to grow.
Sales in this product segment have remained strong throughout the first half of 2020, with lower price point homes outselling move-ups and other products nearly 3 to 1. Ali Wolf, Chief Economist for Meyers Research, reported this week how low mortgage rates and the strength of the ‘hypothetical buyer pool’ will continue to fuel demand.
Our team has been hard at work designing homes that provide first-time buyers with purchase opportunities and offer alternatives to apartment living. Take a sneak peek at one of Danielian’s iDA Lab concepts designed to help meet the growing demand for attainable housing.
Danielian iDA Lab ‘Attainable Housing’ Concept Plans
Originally designed to provide Millennials an alternative to apartment living, these floor plans were created to maximize interior square footage and provide meaningful outdoor space thanks to use easements and alternative parking arrangements. Open floor plans with flexible spaces provide the homebuyer opportunities to create their own personal living experience that is best suited to their individual needs.
The above floor plan concepts take advantage of 34 x 40 lot dimensions while yielding 1,075 SF in Plan 2 and 1,000 SF in Plan 1.
In order for these small footprints to feel open and liveable, we focused on maximizing indoor / outdoor living connections and placed them off both the living rooms and kitchens. These outdoor spaces are then interconnected, to maximize yard size and usability. Plan 1 uses a single car garage along with an outdoor parking space that shares outdoor flex space that can also be used for outdoor dining. Plan 2 focuses its outdoor space off the front yard and utilizes a tandem outdoor parking layout with a sizeable storage room, in lieu of a standard garage. Of course, municipalities and local buyer demographics would factor into actual parking considerations.
These plans represent just one of our many R&D solutions we have developed in response to today’s homebuilding challenges. These plans can be adapted to meets the needs of both for sale residential and single family rental communities, with elevation styles tailored to meet local buyer demographics.
The Danielian Team is very excited to announce that we have several of these plans under construction with builder clients in various locations and look forward to sharing details of the built communities in the very near future!
‘Safer at Home’ Shifting Ideas of Design
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*Original article was written by Cassie Cherry, LEED AP, for and published in the June 2020 issue of Green Home Builder Magazine:
For over three months now our industry has been making it happen. We have been inviting colleagues, clients, and competitors into our homes virtually. We have learned to adapt, be resourceful, and leverage technology at a speed we never thought possible.
From a sociological impact, there have been some profoundly positive aspects that have come alongside the ‘safer at home’ orders. In a recent poll, half of all Californians have reported enjoying the increased family time, a third reported they were more self-sufficient, and another third reported a greater sense of community spirit and altruism. With the abrupt stop of life’s hustle and social activities, there has been an increased sense of grounding and mindfulness taking root. Safety, security, and well-being have become central to our daily lives while we slow down and search for new ways to communicate in genuine and meaningful ways with those around us.
When asked how future home designs may look in light of these sociological changes, Louis Bretaña, Senior Designer and Associate at Danielian Associates shared, “This is a reset button for our industry and will produce a longterm shift in how we practice architecture.” One thing is certain, the idea of home has changed. How will the effects of this pandemic shape home design in the future?
The Danielian Team has been hard at work in our iDA Lab studio, designing for the future and exploring that very question. We recently reached out to the industry and conducted a survey, investigating how the idea of home has changed and what that means for the future of residential design.
Over half of all respondents said that the pandemic has shifted what they prioritize in a home – a substantial impact. Particularly noteworthy was our demographic sampling was well distributed at nearly a third each for Boomers, Gen X’ers, and Millennials. Meaning, this information will have an impact across all product types.
Below are some notable findings from our research endeavors:
By a wide margin, the single biggest demand is for open floor plans with flexible spaces. With homes now currently tripling their job descriptions, flexible spaces in all product types will become an even greater focal point. Our design studios have been utilizing flexible spaces in smaller lot floorplans for many years to maximize space. These spaces at all scales can be used for family time and entertaining as well as at home workouts, school time activities, hobby space, impromptu jam sessions, quiet reading corners, extra office and study space, and group “zoom rooms.”
Nearly 50% of Millennials we surveyed who are currently renting said they plan to purchase a home in the next two years, despite the pandemic. With many individuals riding out quarantine in one-bedroom apartments or living with roommates, will this be the catalyst for more first-time homebuyers entering the housing market? There was already a significant shortage of this product type, we expect to see the strong demand in this market segment continue to grow.
Truly, there is never enough storage in a home. While this doesn’t come as a surprise, the idea of being able to store bulk purchases and supplies is now more appealing than ever. Closely behind flexible space, more storage was the second biggest feature that survey respondents were looking for. Additional storage opportunities that make organization easy and leverage clever use of space are a perfect way to set your home apart.
67% of our survey respondents had a dedicated work space in their home, yet over 90% said these spaces were lacking or not ideal. Among the increased home technology and Wi- Fi, will we see a return to formal office spaces and more reliable hard wire connections?
Simple details in the fit and finish of homes like antimicrobial fixtures and finishes, air filtration, and water purification systems can help differentiate products in a competitive market. We have seen very recently that these small details are making positive impacts in sales velocity where they have been implemented.
Meaningful outdoor space with indoor/outdoor connections in the home is always in demand, but again here, we expect this to become an even bigger focus. Sufficient outdoor space rounded out the top three demands in our survey. This becomes a bigger design challenge in smaller lot and single family attached products. Approaching outdoor spaces with potential homeowner uses in mind (outdoor cooking, space to work out, designated areas for gardening even if it is small, etc.) will help maximize opportunities to create these experiences even when lot space is constrained. They say what is old eventually becomes new again – will we see a return of sleeping porches where opportunities for private outdoor space is limited?
To view the original article, please visit Green Home Builder Magazine.
The Future of Home Design – Entry Context
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Health and Safety: The Entry Context of a Home
The idea of “home” has taken on a new meaning with health, well-being, and safety at top of mind for both consumers and homebuyers. Commitment to safety and well-being starts at the front door, and as such, the DA Design Team began here with our deeper dive into the future of home design.
Last month we conducted an industry-wide survey to investigate this topic further, discovering how the idea of home has changed and what that might mean for the future of residential design. Over half of all respondents said that the pandemic shifted what they prioritize in a home, certainly a substantial impact. Particularly noteworthy was the sampling came back nearly equally distributed across each age demographic – Boomers, Gen X’ers, and Millennials. Meaning, this information will have an impact across all product types.
12% of respondents indicated they had either a mudroom or a ‘transition space’ within the entry context of their home. This number contrasts sharply with the nearly 70% who indicated that having this space was either desirable or highly desirable (for reference – 78% of total respondents indicated they had purchased a resale home vs. 22% purchased a new home). With older housing stock making up the bulk of home sales along with the fact this design feature is often overlooked in temperate West Coast housing markets, reshaping the entry context is a great opportunity to differentiate current products lines and adapt these design elements into homes for greater living experiences at all scales and price points.
Thinking of the home’s entry as a ‘transition space’ and what daily activities transpire here is the inspiration for our design solutions. How are we currently using these spaces and what are they lacking in order to better suit our daily lives? It is also important to ensure that design solutions are scalable and adaptable for future use.
As ‘safer-at-home’ orders are eased and we begin to venture out more frequently, this transitional entry space or “Well-Way” will be central to keeping our home’s interiors and occupants safe and healthy – akin to scrubbing in to our homes when we return from work and essential activities. Places to safely and elegantly store shoes, clothes, purses and totes, etc. should be easily accessible in order to avoid tracking these dirty items throughout a clean and secure home. Locating the powder room and laundry area near the entry is important for handwashing and clean up. In larger homes, an opportunity to have a full bath or shower near the garage / secondary home entrance would be ideal. Think of all the essential workers and health care providers that would appreciate that extra bathroom right now, not to mention how convenient it would make cleaning up from routine household chores and weekend work. A secure package reception space can be upgraded with technology to handle both parcels and perishable food deliveries. Lastly, a control hub can be integrated for centralized access to smart home technology as well as news, weather, community alerts, temp scanning, etc.
Anecdotally, taking a quick look back at history shows an appreciation for Janus (the god of beginnings) reaching as far back as prior to the city of Rome. This symbolic nature was often applied to doorways and passageways for safety and protection and has echoed throughout society since. Janus is typically depicted as having two faces looking at opposite ways, one towards the past and the other towards the future. It is often said that history repeats itself, will we see an appreciation for Janus and the concept of passageway safety and protection return within the home?
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The Danielian Associates Team is working hard to provide our clients with creative solutions for current challenges. Contact us today to start a conversation and see what our iDA Lab studio can do for you.