i live in a mies designed townhouse in lafayette park, detroit. it's a great, very economical design, and you can't beat the floor-to-ceiling glass. i think the plans are published in the harvard case book on lafayette park. i also have a cad plan if you are interested.

Orenco Station outside of Portland OR has some interesting live/work townhouses where plan/section creates a lower level space capable of being rented out as a studio apartment, small retail space, or being used as a home office.

http://www.tndwest.com/orencostation.html
http://www.orencostation.net/

trace what kinds you looking for?

Looking for something like Pugh+Scarpa's townhome/loft designs, something with innovative or different floor plans/sections.

It seems there is really only so much you can do (stacking stairs, etc.), but I am hoping to find a new idea or two.


Alan - thanks, but probably looking for something a little more contemporary.

I'll look into Lafayette


thanks

there's a nice hard cover type book called the New American Townhouse, it was put together by alexander gorlin. Has a lot of nice projects in it that haven't been widely published.

the townhouses at lafayette park are not doing a lot of spatial gymnastics, but in terms of getting everything out of a 18'x36' stacked floor plate, you can't beat it. mies also very cleverly interlocks the second floor bedrooms with the adjacent unit to get 3 12'x12' bedrooms out of each unit rather than 2 awkward 12'x18' bedrooms. the elegance of design is really in the glass and the details. mies can make the most out of four well-placed recessed lights, instead of the ridiculous excess of lighting you find in most developer-driven contemporary houses. at the same time, mies' minimal design, maximized usable floor space and was really working with the developer's budget. living in this place has been an education for me.

will bruder.

i have the book the american town house that j-turn mentioned and it has good stuff also plans, sections, etc ...some of the projects featured:

city town house, new york-williams, tsien, assoc.
hilpert house, new york-ogawa/depardon
watrous weatherman house, new york-leslie gill and bryce sanders
the new victorian house, san francisco-stanley saitowitz
live/work house-tanner leddy maytum stacy
abbot kinney houses, venice, ca-mack architects
tribeca town house, new york-dean/wolf architects

jafidler, I lived in the single tower in Lafayette park for several years...

It was an amazing space to live in for so cheap... And changed my perspective on architecture.

Theres plans in the book 'Mies Van der Rohe at work'.

in light of recent discussions on atl firms:

ATL

emaze....thanks for the post....enjoyed flipping thru the site.

i have never wanted to live in detroit
until right now

okay, it's gone, but wow: i love lafayette park, that is one to study

check the realtor section of your local newspaper.

i am sure there are some great floorplans and models priced to sell...

(what does ''priced to sell'' really mean?)

try David Baker

ochona, silverlake - lafayette park was a big reason i decided to stay in detroit. where else can you live in mies for 100k? the neighborhood is little overrun with architects. it's an architect commune, but it's also one of the most stable neighborhoods in detroit. i love to point it out as one of the few urban renewal projects in this country that was successful, even fifty years later. mies/hilbersheimer had a lot to do with that.

how 'bout the borneo sporenburg stuff in east amsterdam that was masterplanned by west 8... a lot of that was townhouse style stuff with some interesting spatial things going on... all of the cool dutch firms did projects there... there was a book published a few years ago...

Joesph Lluis Sert