What do you think of this?

Or this?

One more: actually, this one isn’t an addition but an entirely new building—the tall one was part of a larger driveway previously!

Here’s an article about these building expansions, which are known as “popups” and can be found in New York City, Philadelphia, and of course, where all these examples are from, Washington, D.C. In other words, everywhere there are blocks and blocks of rowhouses, and housing demand. Here’s a defense of them:

Yes, this property looks silly now. But think about the future. Assuming we can’t (and don’t want to) freeze the city in time, densifying infill on small properties is exactly the kind of development we want. If it’s eventually going to be 5 stories anyway, it’s better that this block redevelop property-by-property than all at once….

[N]arrow 5-story buildings are a great physical form for city streets. That’s the form of some of the best parts of Paris, London, and New York. Although this will look weird with 2-story neighbors, it pushes the evolution of the block in a good direction.

This is an interesting example of aesthetics running up against urban growth. If you don’t like these, is there any other way to allow these neighborhoods to grow over time? This strikes me as basically how cities and neighborhoods grew historically, unless they were expanding outward: often by homeowners themselves incrementally adding density by expanding existing buildings, over time, across neighborhoods, allowing a very similar form to accommodate increasing numbers of people over time.

Some urbanists use the slogan “legalize housing.” More accurate would be “re-legalize housing,” or even better, re-legalize the process by which our cities and towns came to exist in the first place.

Related Reading:

House In The House

Raising The Roof

Were the Beds Like the Walls?

Thank you for reading! Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to help support this newsletter. You’ll get a weekly subscribers-only piece, plus full access to the archive: over 800 pieces and growing. And you’ll help ensure more like this!

Share