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The Walt Disney Company has announced detailed plans and a developer for its new 1,300-unit affordable housing development outside of Orlando. The company says its latest housing project says will support the local Orange County Housing for All plan that will deliver 86,100 units of... View full entry
California-based housing startup Samara has unveiled further details of their factory-produced studio and one-bedroom units. The company, led by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia and former Flex chief executive Mike McNamara, will now roll out a selection of customizable ADU units, collectively known... View full entry
Dattner Architects recently celebrated the opening of a new 26-story affordable housing project in New York City it says sets a new standard for the application of one of the building industry’s most sustainable techniques in the design of high-rise apartment structures. Located in the Mott... View full entry
A new desktop city-building game has been launched which takes aim at the slow pace of housing construction in U.S. cities. Sim Nimby was developed by Brooklyn-based copywriters Steve Nass and Owen Weeks as a tongue-in-cheek commentary on what they view as 'NIMBYs' (Not In My Backyard neighbors)... View full entry
A new $62 million affordable housing project from Alexander Gorlin Architects has been completed in the Bronx for developers Comunilife, a local nonprofit aimed at improving the lives of vulnerable communities through a combination of housing justice and culturally-sensitive supportive... View full entry
A long-closed Los Angeles County courthouse in Sawtelle that was once a popular draw for skateboarders may soon be redeveloped for affordable housing. The County Board of Supervisors voted to buy the former West Los Angeles Courthouse at 1633 Purdue Avenue for a mixed-use, affordable housing development, City News Service reported via KFI AM 640. — The Real Deal
As detailed by The Real Deal, a motion to buy the courthouse, which has been vacant since June 2013, was proposed, asking Los Angeles County to source funds to acquire the space from the Judicial Council. The County has reportedly, so far, paid more than $3.5 million to the Council to incentivize... View full entry
Construction spending in New York City will reach an all-time high of $86 billion this year, up $38 billion from 2021, according to a new report from the New York Building Congress.
The report finds that despite numerous obstacles from the pandemic and economic uncertainty, construction spending and infrastructure investment in New York City remain positive.
— Construction Dive
The influx of capital, unfortunately, has not impacted the city’s most critical area of need as it was recently reported to have fallen short of its planned goals to construct 25,000 units of affordable housing by 36%. The New York Building Congress says the shortfall will only get worse as a... View full entry
Brooks + Scarpa has released images of their recently-completed Rose Apartments complex, a community housing initiative for formerly homeless teenage youths transitioning into adulthood in Venice, Los Angeles. The 20,900-square-foot, four-story design includes some 35 units of highly affordable... View full entry
MVRDV has completed work on Ascension Paysagère, a residential complex in Rennes, France which takes inspiration from “geological formations.” Designed in collaboration with co-architects ALL, the project delivers 138 homes within the 12-story, 113,000-square-foot scheme, including 37 social... View full entry
Back in June, we covered news of research set to be undertaken at Penn State on the subject of embodied carbon in cities. The research, one of many stories this year focusing on embodied carbon, signals a growing awareness in academic and professional circles of the need to include whole-life... View full entry
Mecanoo is moving ahead with a 28-story tower in north Amsterdam. The mixed-use residential and commercial tower, whose inception we covered in 2020, has been formally approved by city officials and will now move forward to construction later this month. Completion is expected in 2025. Named the... View full entry
California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed into law a major reform to homebuilding in the state. The Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act, signed on September 28th, will override local zoning codes to allow for more affordable housing units to be built on land previously zoned for commercial... View full entry
The Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA|LA) has released an open letter to mayoral candidates Rick Caruso and Karen Bass suggesting 10 fixes to zoning requirements and the approval processes that would positively impact citywide efforts to tackle an ongoing housing... View full entry
Houses of worship in California are now in the position to take on the state’s largest social problem with the adaptation of new legislation that allows for housing development on plots that are, in almost every case, zoned exclusively for commercial use. In July, Governor Gavin... View full entry
The disappearance of such affordable homes is central to the American housing crisis. The nation has a deepening shortage of housing. But, more specifically, there isn’t enough of this housing: small, no-frills homes that would give a family new to the country or a young couple with student debt a foothold to build equity. [...]
At the root is the math problem of putting — or keeping — a low-cost home on increasingly pricey land.
— The New York Times
America has a long history of gradually siphoning away architecture made for predominantly middle-class people (think pre-war buildings in Manhattan or Levittown tract housing on Long Island) and is now simply under-delivering what could otherwise be an equalizing force as a result of prevailing... View full entry