A Paradise of Small Houses
The Evolution, Devolution, and Potential Rebirth of Urban Housing
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
From the Haitian-style “shotgun” houses of the 19th century to the lavish high-rises of the 21st century, a walk through the streets of America’s neighborhoods that reveals the rich history—and future—of urban housing
The Philadelphia row house. The New York tenement. The Boston triple-decker. Every American city has its own iconic housing style, structures that have been home to generations of families and are symbols of identity and pride. Max Podemski, an urban planner for the city of Los Angeles and lifelong architecture buff, has spent his career in and around these buildings. Deftly combining his years of experience with extensive research, Podemski walks the reader through the history of our dwelling spaces—and offers a blueprint for how time-tested urban planning models can help us build the homes the United States so desperately needs.
In A Paradise of Small Houses, Podemski charts how these dwellings have evolved over the centuries according to the geography, climate, population, and culture of each city. He introduces the reader to styles like Chicago’s prefabricated workers cottages and LA’s car-friendly dingbats, illuminating the human stories behind each city’s iconic housing type. Through it all, Podemski interrogates the American values that have equated home ownership with success and led to the US housing crisis, asking, “How can we look to the past to build the homes, neighborhoods, and cities of the future that our communities deserve?”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Podemski, an urban planner for the city of Los Angeles, debuts with an expansive history of North American housing design. Drawing on examples from nine cities—Boston, Chicago, Houston, L.A., New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Ore., and Vancouver—he outlines how and why certain types of buildings were used for housing in each place, noting both design advantages and drawbacks. For example, the small size of Philadelphia's row houses "force people out of their homes and into the public realm" and led to a vibrant street culture. Meanwhile, New Orleans's susceptibility to flooding and disease resulted in houses "marked by openness to the outdoors" and designed to emphasize airflow, which was increased by elevating them one story into the air. Though he notes the benefits of attractive newer designs, such as Vancouver's point towers, which are surrounded by shorter buildings to preserve air and light, Podemski decries the myopic planning choices of Vancouver and other cities, arguing that by "still banning smaller, more affordable housing options," they continue to exacerbate the affordability crisis. His intelligent analysis and deep research lend strength to his conclusion that what is required to solve the housing crisis is not just more large-scale urban developments but the deregulation of what was once common—small-scale urban home-building by local businesses and families drawing on regional design traditions. It's a must-read for housing advocates. This review has been edited for clarity.
