• Transforming an industrial-warehouse district

    Opportunity Zone finance is helping to kickstart development around an underutilized section of the Beltline in Atlanta.
    Southwest Atlanta, near the city’s famous Beltline, is an area in transition. Some of the historic neighborhoods to the north and east, inside this section of the Beltline, have experienced a wave of real estate activity in the last few years—but areas outside of the Beltline are still suffering...Read more

  • Neighborhood additions work against displacement

    Four developments in Deanwood, DC, show the transformative potential of multiple projects that include low-income housing in a single Opportunity Zone.
    Tom Gallas calls it “ADDification:” Adding affordable housing, services, and amenities to neighborhoods with new buildings that don’t displace existing residents. That’s the approach in Deanwood—a neighborhood east of the Anacostia River in Washington, DC. That area long suffered disinvestment and...Read more

  • It was the Boomers, in the cul-de-sac, with a stack of zoning laws

    It doesn't take much digging to find that generational blame for sprawl doesn’t add up and gets us no closer to a solution—for that, we need a more targeted approach.
    I read in The Atlantic’s current issue that Baby Boomers are to blame for a wide range of societal ills, notably restrictive zoning and parking regulations. Lyman Stone’s indictment, in an article bluntly titled “ Baby Boomers Ruined Everything ,” rests on “increasing frequency with which various...Read more

  • Drawing is worth a thousand words

    Nuanced pencil drawings help to graphically explain how a design works holistically. Drawing by hand can be more informative on the design intent and typically elevates the design quality. Hand drawing can even be therapeutic for the designer and the observer. Here is a master plan detail and...Read more