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I am excited to introduce our first, family-oriented project. Right now, internally we’re calling it Family-Style, until we think up a better name.
You don’t have to spend much time with LJUrban to realize how integral our families are to what we’re doing and why. Given this love for families and our belief that families contribute life and health to the urban core and make neighborhoods more livable, our hope is that this project will introduce something we think Sacramento is desperate for: urban-core housing that fits the needs of eco-urban families with kids.
The challenge will be to build quality, eco-friendly housing that is large enough for families without pricing it in the stratosphere – but we think we have the spot here!
The project is located in West Sacramento on E and 4th Street in the center of the Washington historic district, which has many fine examples of Victorian and Craftsman architecture. To mesh into the surrounding neighborhood we anticipate a more historic architecture for our project – possibly using some inspiration from the Greene and Greene house across from McKinley Park.
While we are strong advocates of smaller units for more efficient land use, “small” is also relative to the needs of different demographics: families need growing space. So, with this project, the average size of the unit will be a bit more than you might see on some of our other projects (but not by much). At present, here’s a few of the basic concepts we’re playing with:
- 18 homes with 3 or more bedrooms, averaging 1,500 sq. ft. each.
- The units are attached town homes that front onto the street or the community green space.
- Families will be able to have their own private open yard area and also an open space for community activities, which includes one of the largest native Oak trees in the neighborhood.
- We have a new idea for private yard space – a green roof system built over the garage and vehicle access area! Now the kids can play right outside their 2nd floor rooms in a totally secure area!
This is just the start of this project and nothing has been nailed down. Based on the great input we got from our last gathering of eco-urbanists, we’re talking about doing a similar event in August with the hopes of getting some good input on this project as well.
Feel free to chime in with any considerations you think are relevant for family-style eco-urban housing. Unit size? Number of Beds/Baths? Necessary amenities? Name for the project? Anything you think makes a house really work for a family in the core.
Charlie
7 responses so far ↓
1 uneasy rhetoric // Aug 1, 2007 at 11:26 am
Hey! I think 1500 sq is quite spacious while still being much, much smaller than the sprawl-type houses where anything under 2500 sq is considered a “shack” (or maybe the garage). Since I think you could easily squeeze a 3/2 comfortably in the 1300-1400 square feet I’m living in now (a 2/1, go figure), I think you’re plan may even be a bit large!
The green roof idea is too, too cool.
I think 2 baths is plenty and you could probably get away with 1 1/2 if you need to.
How about doing a walking tour of the ‘hood?
2 wburg // Aug 1, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Have you looked at the co-housing community in Southside Park for inspiration on this? They are basically like this: townhouse/duplex style units, typically 2 stories, with a big commons complex and community room (which does get used.)
3 LJUrban // Aug 1, 2007 at 1:23 pm
uneasy, the walking tour is already something in the works: we’re planning something like that in conjunction with some creative stuff we’re going to be doing in the neighborhood in the next couple months…stay tuned.
thanks for the unit feedback: how’s your 2/1 working with a baby?
wburg: we’ve looked at that co-housing project many times but now that you mention it in this context, it might be worthwhile for us to connect with some of the owners there as part of our research. know any of them?
4 wburg // Aug 1, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Paul Trudeau of the Southside Park Neighborhood Association lives in the cohousing project, he’s an excellent person to contact about this sort of thing.
http://www.cityofsacramento.org/ns/nadb … ?orgid=162
5 uneasy rhetoric // Aug 2, 2007 at 12:45 pm
LJ - it isn’t working out too badly, but we have a somewhat unique layout that makes the place feel spacious without sacrificing privacy. A second bath would be nice though. I grew up in a 2/1 apartment though, so I’m used to it.
6 Dan // Dec 6, 2007 at 1:29 pm
were the last two comments really clever spam? “nowadays more and more people drive cars”.. isn’t that kind of the point? - these projects are supposed to help enable people to not need to drive everywhere.
7 LJUrban // Dec 7, 2007 at 1:29 pm
dan, i looked at those comments several times and they came a little too close to our spam-o-meter (both came from the same original site), so I nixed them…while I think we can all handle opposing comments or contradicting viewpoints, the one’s you referred to seemed a little too “look at my site” for our comfort.
thanks for the watchful eyes!
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