IN-PERSON: Livable Cities – New York

Abstract

Despite the clear environmental and economic benefits of denser forms of housing, the ability to actually construct such housing remains elusive. Zoning policies structured to protect the low-density enclaves of the homeownership class and local coalitions of anti-density NIMBYs make the construction of dense housing within established neighborhoods a near impossibility in jurisdictions across the United States. The purpose of this paper is to present two low-rise housing projects that illustrate how architects might leverage community coalition building and the critical interpretation or “hacking” of local zoning ordinances to realize dense, in-fill housing projects even within otherwise highly-conservative policy environments. Using Pier Vittorio Aureli’s history of settlement form and property rights as an initial contextual framework, the paper outlines how each project adopts an alternate view of housing development, subverting the primacy typically assigned to individual private property rights and financial speculation and, instead, prioritizes the creation of communal resources and shared community objectives amongst a diverse set of stakeholders. Sited on infill lots within two of Lincoln, Nebraska’s older neighborhoods, both projects rely on a non-normative, strategic implementation of a Community Unit Plan (CUP) zoning mechanism to enlist neighborhood support and to establish higher levels of allowable density. This, in combination with the implementation of a Community Land Trust, allows both projects to introduce a greater quantity and diversity of housing types that offer possibilities for homeownership, affordable rental opportunities, and even temporary or supportive housing in areas historically dedicated solely to single-family housing models. Ultimately, the significance of the projects rests not in their formal novelty but in their demonstration of an immediate and attainable means through which denser forms of housing might be realized.