A new crop of developers are delivering fine-grained urbanism. Ben Brown checks into their boot camp and provides an update on the movement.
"For lots of reasons, including the ones PlaceMakers’ Scott Doyon explains here, Seaside, on the Northwest Florida Gulf Coast, makes a great place to talk about the appeal of small-scale dwellings in small-lot neighborhoods. Certainly, hanging out in a place where the real estate market has bid up the price for small wooden houses without lawns or garages to six and seven figures makes it harder to argue that nobody will pay for the privilege."
"Location, then, partially explains why some 30 prospective developers — and Bandit, the dog — arrived over the weekend to drill down on how-to topics related to just such places."
Brown goes on to cover the developers' boot camp, including videos with key points from the coaches: designers John Anderson and David Kim; Dallas developer Monte Anderson; and Mississippi architect/planner/developer Bruce Tolar. They are helping developers understand how to build somewhere in between the "mega-buck downtown development and mega-acre suburbs."
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This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
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