Housing Design and Consulting

Housing design and consulting services reflect the deep need for a more thoughtful exploration of higher density options for desirable habitation in both older and emerging cities in response to the housing crisis. Never has the need been greater to rethink the process and choices around housing development and the design of multi-family housing.

Services are offered to both private and public sector clients in the areas of multi-family housing architectural design, strategic housing initiative consultation, including housing typology education and options, site development planning and/or feasibility studies, objective design standards for multi-family housing, family friendly building and dwelling unit design approaches and standards, and project level design review. 

Because of the complicated and nuanced nature of high density mixed-use and multi-family housing design, clients are encouraged to consider consultation early in their process so that creative and strategic thinking can be best applied to planning and design challenges.

My practice brings extensive experience in multi-family and mixed-use design and a high level of knowledge of housing typologies—particularly courtyard, row house, and mid-rise podium types—including expertise in site planning, density analysis, and architectural design. Row housing, courtyard housing, and cluster housing concepts offer surprisingly dense alternatives to mid-rise apartment blocks and with many amenities associated with the single-family house so prized by most people. Yet these viable and desirable medium density solutions are underutilized and not adequately considered in land use planning.

Understanding the relationship of housing types to densities to urban form creates a logical point of departure for municipalities to establish land use densities and zoning regulations, including form-based codes and objective design standards. Understanding ways buildings can be configured to create more desirable and diverse units allows private sector clients and nonprofit housing developers the chance for more interesting and marketable products for urban living.

NOTE: SEE DESIGN REVIEW CONSULTING UNDER URBAN PLANNING FOR ADDITIONAL PROJECT LEVEL DESIGN REVIEW EXAMPLES FOR MULTI-FAMILY AND MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGN PLANS UNDER URBAN PLANNING FOR SITE AND NEIGHBORHOOD PLANS.