• Three courts, three conditions, one neighborhood

    Three cottage court designs demonstrate the versatility of this housing type, even within the same neighborhood development and under the same design team. Now becoming legalized more widely, the cottage court offer a housing toolkit of exceptional power.
    Selah is a traditional neighborhood development outside Norman, Oklahoma. Sommer Design Studios was part of the original masterplan team from the beginning — working alongside Brown Design Studio as lead, Moser Kelly Design Group on landscape, and Thompson Placemaking on the urban design framework...Read more

  • Coolest ADU I’ve come across

    This structural brick masonry ADU demonstrates the feasibility of this technique, and it is gorgeous.
    This lofted, one-bedroom accessory dwelling unit (ADU) in Bentonville, Arkansas, is built of true triple-wythe brick construction. According to Alli Thurmond Quinlan of Range Co., the designer, “The design of the building was organized around a salvaged historic white oak arched door, recovered...Read more

  • Citywide strategy to promote Missing Middle housing

    The Sacramento Citywide Missing Middle Strategy uses a sliding-scale FAR system to spur affordable housing development. Opticos Design won a 2026 CNU Charter Award in the Region: Metropolis, City, and Town category.
    Sacramento, California, is implementing a nationally significant strategy to promote Missing Middle housing to meet a target of 45,580 new housing units citywide this decade. As the author of this strategy, which aims to provide more than 25,000 low- to moderate-income living spaces, Opticos Design...Read more

  • Innovative, affordable homeownership in Brooklyn

    Belle Gardens uses creative design of small apartment buildings to provide affordable homeownership in a rowhouse neighborhood in Brooklyn. David Cunningham Architecture Planning won a 2026 CNU Charter Award in The Block, Street, and Building category.
    Along a transit-oriented corridor in Brooklyn, a design and development team is showing how to construct scattered-site, Missing Middle housing with context-sensitive architecture, and some buildings use single-stair construction. David Cunningham Architecture Planning won a 2026 Charter Award for...Read more