Ordinary Homes of the United States

  Time period: 1980s to present Location: Older cities, especially in the Northeast and Midwest A way to preserve historic churches. Key features - Main entrance of church is preserved, interior spaces are divided up into apartments or condos. - Works best with large units, as standard compact apartment plans rarely fit efficiently into existing layout of a church building. While organized religion remains popular in the United States, the location and type of buildings has changed over the years. Today's biggest churches are suburban megachurches, located in the middle of mall-sized parking lots, attracting members from across an entire metropolitan area by car.  In contrast, many of the larger churches in major cities, which once served dense immigrant communities in the late 19th century and early 20th century, now find themselves in neighborhoods that are less dense and less religious. Buildings that used to serve hundreds of people every Sunday now only have a couple doze...

Time period: 1990s to present Location: Southern California, Inland Empire especially Riverside County Small trailer parks for farmworkers Key features - Allowed in agricultural zones - Utility connections have been a challenge Cities get the spotlight in discussions of the housing crisis, but in California, where a million people work on farms, there's also a rural housing crisis. Here is a story of the polancos: farmworker communities named after a California Assemblymember's landmark law.  California's fruits and vegetables are grown mostly in the San Joaquin Valley, the Imperial Valley, and the Central Coast. Work is seasonal but labor intensive - during harvest, dozens of workers are needed on each farm. However, while there are lots of farm jobs, there isn't much housing in this area. This is especially true in eastern Riverside and Imperial counties, where there are few cities and towns. Rural land did not allow more than one house per farm. Many farmworkers...

  Time period:1990s to present Location: Washington, DC metropolitan area, also found in other places. Twice the density, half the land cost: a 2-story townhouse on top of another 2-story townhouse Key features - Family sized housing, with 3+ bedrooms. - Marketed as townhouses, cheaper than regular townhouses . - Also known as a "2 over 2" Rowhouses and townhouses historically have been a popular housing type in the Mid-Atlantic region, stretching from New Jersey down to Northern Virginia.   The stacked townhouse is the latest version of this type.   The Washington DC are has become one of the fastest growing and wealthiest metropolitan areas in the country in the last 20-30 years, boosted by the growing role of the federal government. Many businesses that are heavily affected by federal regulations and/or reliant on federal subsidies, such as healthcare, defense, and telecommunications, have decided to have their headquarters in or near DC, even if manufacturing ta...

  Time period: 1980s to present Location: Southern California, especially Beverly Hills Live like royalty on a sixth of an acre Key features - Grand entry - Large space with high ceilings for parties and events There's a saying that in real estate, the best deal is to buy the worst house in the best neighborhood. This is especially true if your plan is to knock down the house and build something larger.  When zoning prohibits more than one home per lot, that means a mansion. In 1979, after the Iranian Revolution, people fled Iran and moved to Los Angeles. After rebuilding their lives, by the 1980s, some had started successful businesses, and were at the point where they wanted to build a big house with room for entertaining and extended family. At 5,000-6,000 square feet, Persian Palaces are comparable in size to a McMansion in the outer suburbs where lots are 1/2 acre or larger.  However, Palaces are located on smaller lots - a typical lot in Beverly Hills is 50'x150', a...

    Time period: Late 19th century and 1970s to present Location: Urban Chinatowns, especially California's Bay Area and New York City Asian-style mixed use in the US Key features - Housing on top of space for small businesses - Financed by a mix of foreign and domestic investment In the United States, Chinatowns are some of the most densely populated neighborhoods. The origins of this dates back to the late 19th century, when racist laws and violence forced Chinese Americans into limited areas in each city, being unwelcome elsewhere. Out of necessity, these neighborhoods contained both housing and businesses and grew upwards as population increased.  During this era, many tong halls were built.  Financed by tongs (organizations made up of a group of Chinese Americans from the same family, occupation, region, or other affiliation), tong halls had businesses on the lower floors, sleeping rooms on the upper floors, and a meeting hall on the top.  Many continue ...

  Time period: 2010s to present Location: North Dakota and other oil fields  Portable dorms and apartments for oil field workers Key features - Modular building made up of sections that can be transported by truck - Usually built in large complexes housing 100-2,000 workers, with dining halls, laundry, gyms, medical clinics, and other amenities Starting in the 2000s, high oil prices made hydraulic fracturing - also known as fracking - profitable in many parts of the United States. This process involves drilling lots of wells and pumping high-pressure liquid to crack the rock, releasing oil and gas.  Fracking helped relieve the energy crisis, but also created a housing crisis. Once an oil field was discovered, fracking the oil required a lot of workers - but only temporarily. Existing hotels and housing in remote oil field towns could not meet the demand, and were a long drive from the drill sites. Building new apartments was also challenging since anyone who might otherwi...

  Time period: 1990s to present Location: Houston, Texas In a city with few zoning restrictions, this is the housing type that the free market found most profitable. Key features - Detached 3-story house on 1,400 square foot lot (such as a 35' by 40' lot) - Typically built by subdividing a larger lot into 4-10 lots, with larger subdivisions containing up to a few dozen houses. Small lot homes answer this question: Why should one be required to buy 5,000 square feet of land, if they only want 2,000 square feet of house? Houston is famous as by far the largest city in the US that doesn't have zoning. However, while there are a few odd sights, such as skyscrapers next to single-story houses, for the most part, it looks like any other US cities.  That's because while Houston doesn't limit building height or what type of business or home you can build, it does have development standards. These include minimum parking requirements, which are similar to most US suburbs, as...

Time period:1990s to present Location: Northern New Jersey The Bayonne Box combines urban living with parking.  It is named after a North Jersey city located across the Hudson River from New York City. Key features - Large house with parking on a small urban lot (typically a 25 foot to 40 foot wide by 100 feet deep lot) - Three-story building with garage and front yard parking - Typically has a large home, may also have additional apartments North Jersey cities were built out like most northeastern US cities: neat rows of narrow houses.  Faced with a few decades of falling population caused by factory closures and white people not wanting to live in racially integrated cities after the Civil Rights Act banned housing discrimination, there was very little new housing construction from the 1960s to the 1990s. Boosted by new immigrants plus city living becoming trendy again, North Jersey's urban cities started to grow again in the 1990s. Whether it was suburban dwellers returning...

  Time period: mid-late 2010s, 2020s Location: Los Angeles The double duplex is a rooming house pretending to be a bunch of houses.  Key features - Four homes, each with 4 or 5 bedrooms that are designed to be rented out to 16-20 separate households. - Since each building only has two homes, it's built to the simpler standards of the Residential Code instead of the Building Code.  This simplifies approvals, saves costs, and means more small contractors know how to build them. - Since it's technically only four units, it doesn't need to provide as much parking. The double duplex is a pair of duplexes on a single residential lot.  In South LA and Central LA, where this type of housing was invented, it is a pair of boxy 3-story buildings on a 50' wide x 150' deep lot, replacing an older house.   These are not fancy buildings. While rents in California are high, so are construction costs, and every expense is spared when it comes to designing a double duplex. A...