Ordinary Homes of the United States

Time period: Late 19th and early 20th century, revived in 21st century. Location: Used to be everywhere.  Today: Seattle and New York City. A mid-rise building with a couple apartments on each floor.   In most cities, you'll find two types of mid-rise apartment buildings in the 4-7 story range. First, there'll be some small historic buildings downtown, side by side like books on a shelf. These are the original point access blocks. Then, there are the big modern buildings taking up a whole block and with long, windowless hallways inside. These are double loaded corridor buildings. Floorplan of a point access block.   Note that apartments have windows facing the front and back of the building.     In contrast, except for the corner units, apartments in a double loaded corridor only have windows facing one direction. Both the point access block and the double loaded corridor were designed to be the most efficient floorplan given the building codes of th...

  Time period: 2020s and onwards Location: California California state law allows a single-family home to become three homes: 1. The main house, which can be whatever size allowed by zoning 2.  An attached or detached Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU). Can be any size, cities must allow at least 800 square feet (enough for a 2-bedroom, 3 if you squeeze it) 3. An attached Junior Accessory Dwelling Unit (JADU), of up to 500 square feet. Example of a house with a Junior ADU and a regular ADU on a 5,000 square foot, 50'x100' lot.  Total of 3,800 square feet of living space with 3 homes with a total of 7 bedrooms (4 in house, 2 in ADU, 1 in Junior ADU). While California state law as of 2022 also allows up to 4 homes ( double duplex ) using Senate Bill 9, the ADU+JADU route is currently more popular, for two reasons: First, fees and code requirements are lower for ADUs. Second, many cities have put up barriers to using SB9 - this is in the process of being corrected by cleanup ...

  Time period: 1950s-1960s Location: Los Angeles and other cities in the Western US 6+ homes and parking spaces, all on a standard house-sized lot, named after the fanciful decor tacked onto the front.  The dingbat was invented in post-WWII Los Angeles to meet the housing needs of a growing city as well as growing rates of car ownership. The standard 50' wide, 150' deep LA lot had been gridded out for detached houses, but many were zoned for low-rise apartments. Before the dingbat, the most popular types of medium-density housing were bungalow courts - a series of houses around a central walkway, as well as multistory courtyard apartments. In 1934, both types were banned by a new zoning law that required parking: one space per unit. Developers solved this math problem by turning the front yard into a driveway, leading to a carport that took up the front of the first floor. To maximize space, the second floor extends over the carport, propped up on stilts. This type of structur...

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: 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: 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...