California is really beautiful, they should let more people live here

Wow, all of this to replace a parking lot. I'm going to become the joker.

This is a slam dunk. We can easily add 600 homes and a new school building here. Could be like a mini-ecodistrict.

We can have Milk Carton Houses or Perimeter Blocks. Zone accordingly.

It's a challenging site with a large peat settlement area if I remember correctly, but it can yield much more than 32 THs. The plans for these specific THs are also abominable. IIRC, a majority of them had 3 shared walls with windows on a single side, and most of the site was parking.

This site has a long history of development studies. I worked on the latest one, pitching a series of chained point access blocks. It's also been studied with a conventional double loaded apartment and obv with THs. Unfortunately the owner is content to sit on it until a TH builder comes around.

I don't think the unit aspect is affecting the price in a meaningful way. The 3/2 is $3.59/sqft vs the 3/3 at $3.57/sqft.

Many cities across the world have figured this out. We can do it too!

It's actually really easy to recover trees and "green space" while building lots of new housing. Are you willing to remove lots of pavement and reduce the number of cars in your city? Because that's how you do it. You can have nature+housing or you can have personal vehicles for everyone, simple as.

Sorry, that's too high intensity of a use. Instead, we need thousands of square feet of parking lots.

Taller, denser, faster. I was excited to announce at @housingconsortium.org's annual event yesterday that we're going to combine and accelerate Phases 3 and 4 of Seattle's comprehensive plan to achieve more housing near transit and in and around our growth centers.

Seattle Should Follow State's Lead on Inclusionary Zoning—By Funding It - PubliCola By Josh Feit With little fanfare, state house legislators passed a game-changing housing affordability bill out of committee last week.…

The changes, Wilson says, will include:
- allowing more housing within walking distance of transit, not just along busy roads
- upzones in and around growth centers, including new and expanded neighborhood centers
- exceeding transit-oriented development requirements in HB 1491

At the Housing Development Consortium's annual event, Mayor Katie Wilson just announced that the city will "revisit the original phases three and four" of the comprehensive plan "to be far more aggressive with our timeline and scope."

235 votes. That's like 2 apartment buildings when accounting for turnout.

perimeter block diagram by CAST architecture/ Matt Hutchins

perimeter block zoning diagram by CAST architecture/ Matt Hutchins

If we want better streetscapes, more livable units, and more tree canopy in Low Rise, lean into 'perimeter blocks' with interior courtyards.
Push new buildings to the front for full width of lot, allow a little extra building area, and limit how much can be built in the backyard.

Misalignment between zoning and building codes

Proposal: Fund ST3 through a series of limited edition Boop plushie releases

If 1-2 storey straw houses are not high enough for your city, just build them higher: bsky.app/profile/mich...

I love this framing

To Cut Housing Costs, Some States Are Easing Fire Safety Rules

Too bad this good article is marred by such a bad headline.

Fixed it:

To Cut Housing Costs, Some States Are Reforming Fire Safety Rules That Don't Make Buildings Safer

For the record, WA was the first state to pass single-stair legislation, but is now lagging other states in implementation.

@ricoque-opcd.bsky.social
Two blocks is not enough. We want Alternative 5 plus everything within 1/2 mile of frequent transit AS A START.
That IS the “gradual” approach.

Even this approach is too focused on business and not focused enough on families, parks, schools, etc.

Most often 30-45g daily in the Moccamaster. Occasionally 60g if I'm feeling crazy.

I know I shouldn't get mad because it's just a fake argument to block density, but I can't help it lol

As an architect, the whole steep slope thing pisses me off. What's the argument? A slope is too steep for 6 homes, but it's okay for just 1? They treat designing for steep slopes like an impossible task rather than something that has been solved across the world many times over.

@wilsonforseattle.bsky.social and your team …. We continue to get a lot of messages saying “we don’t feel like anything is happening differently under Wilson than happened under Harrell”. It is very concerning that so many people feel disappointed in us for championing you.

I just saw this on an old episode of This Old House. Tom Silva used a wadded up paper bag so it would disintegrate on the roof, spreading the salt around.

Someone who's owned a house for decades and demands their block be preserved in amber for all time vs. someone staring down displacement for lack of workable housing options...these are not equally valid viewpoints. They are not! It's greed and selfishness vs. meeting a basic human need.

Six floors
Single stair
Stacked flats
Social Housing

Surfaces? Permeable
Side setbacks? None

Someone help me continue the alliteration.

Quirindongo needs to go if he considers this a good timeline. Wilson needs to make good on her campaign promises. She's been acting with much less urgency out of the gate than I, and I think many others, anticipated.

*concentration camps