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A Paradise of Small Houses: The Evolution, Devolution, and Potential Rebirth of Urban Housing
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?”
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?”
272 pages, Hardcover
First published March 26, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
October 29, 2024
Is it a page turner? No. But for what it is, it's perfect.
The chapters are the perfect length. They hit the interesting points of each city's history but they don't repeat or dwell on anything boring. I think there's one too many chapters, but close enough. Great illustrations. And an actually great, nuanced contribution to the city planning discussion. The Houston chapter changed my mind about zoning.
I'm traveling to some of these cities soon, and I can't wait to be insufferable about everything I learned! "Um actually that's called a worker's cottage and in the 1860s..."
The chapters are the perfect length. They hit the interesting points of each city's history but they don't repeat or dwell on anything boring. I think there's one too many chapters, but close enough. Great illustrations. And an actually great, nuanced contribution to the city planning discussion. The Houston chapter changed my mind about zoning.
I'm traveling to some of these cities soon, and I can't wait to be insufferable about everything I learned! "Um actually that's called a worker's cottage and in the 1860s..."
January 21, 2025
As soon as the introduction began with "our nation's cities are by and large the work of immigrant and working-class people... [this] has resulted in rich and vibrant neighborhoods that are today some of the most beloved in the entire country," I knew this book was gonna be a HIT!
March 1, 2025
This is a book which falls squarely into the category of “guy has idea about the world and warps history to fit it”. There are so many historical inaccuracies that it’s genuinely distracting and difficult to read. Some of the most annoying ones are:
- saying the Draft Riots of 1863 in NYC were a “referendum on the city’s housing”. Get a grip
- a bit about Keith Haring’s work appearing on tshirts as being emblematic of the cultural ascendancy of Lower Manhattan, rather than being a conscious artistic choice by Haring. This one is annoying and poorly framed, especially given Haring’s life and artistic journey through the AIDS crisis
- saying Chicago was part of the Louisiana Purchase
- saying that the elevated railways in Chicago Loop were constructed for streetcars, rather than as standalone innovations in transit
- calling the Panic of 1873 a “mild nationwide depression”
- using SE 16th in Buckman as an example of a place in Portland typified by single family homes with large front yards when it’s just not that
- saying things like “mill workers organized using existing networks of neighbors within the city’s triple decker apartment network” in reference to the Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence, which is I guess true in some sense but the physical characteristics of the housing are not the interesting or historically relevant aspects of this strike
- claiming that Irish immigrants and the WASP elite in Boston coexisted pretty well because of a shared language and culture in the British Isles. Maybe the worst offender here, does the author know that the Irish were subject to genocidal colonization at the hands of the British and spoke a different language?
- claims that Pacific Electric was slow in downtown LA because it ran on the street, when they had a subway connecting to the west side lines and a building called the Subway Terminal
And most annoyingly, it’s a white guy who uses “North America” to mean the US and Canada. Did you know there are at least 10 cities in Mexico larger than Vancouver that don’t have any freeways? Vancouvers urban development is certainly interesting, but we don’t need to do Mexico erasure to show that. And sure, a typical US city in the northeast or Midwest probably has a closer shared history to Toronto than Aguascalientes, but the author is apparently living in LA, which famously was founded by the Spanish and was part of Mexico. This is a longstanding gripe I have with American urbanists, and it’s a shame to see another example of it.
There are interesting things in this book, especially as it relates to the intersection of progressive era reforms, nativism, racism, and housing policy. But the narrow focus on housing types makes it not as well fleshed out as I would have hoped. That said, I did find myself enjoying parts of it - only for that enjoyment to be ruined by some very poorly researched history. Again, the author lives and works in LA, proclaims to be interested in housing, but gives the flatly wrong attribution to “dingbat”. I don’t think this matters per se, it just sort of undermines the legitimacy of the work. How am I supposed to trust his research when I readily identify an error every 10 pages?
And I’ll finish with the most ridiculous quote in the entire book: “the tenements of the late nineteenth century were therefore an artistic provocation, mixing high and low in a way that would not be seen again until Andy Warhol’s soup cans three-quarters of a century later.” If you read this and thought he was cooking, please visit an art museum. I promise people made subversive art in the 75 years between the turn of the century and Andy Warhol.
- saying the Draft Riots of 1863 in NYC were a “referendum on the city’s housing”. Get a grip
- a bit about Keith Haring’s work appearing on tshirts as being emblematic of the cultural ascendancy of Lower Manhattan, rather than being a conscious artistic choice by Haring. This one is annoying and poorly framed, especially given Haring’s life and artistic journey through the AIDS crisis
- saying Chicago was part of the Louisiana Purchase
- saying that the elevated railways in Chicago Loop were constructed for streetcars, rather than as standalone innovations in transit
- calling the Panic of 1873 a “mild nationwide depression”
- using SE 16th in Buckman as an example of a place in Portland typified by single family homes with large front yards when it’s just not that
- saying things like “mill workers organized using existing networks of neighbors within the city’s triple decker apartment network” in reference to the Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence, which is I guess true in some sense but the physical characteristics of the housing are not the interesting or historically relevant aspects of this strike
- claiming that Irish immigrants and the WASP elite in Boston coexisted pretty well because of a shared language and culture in the British Isles. Maybe the worst offender here, does the author know that the Irish were subject to genocidal colonization at the hands of the British and spoke a different language?
- claims that Pacific Electric was slow in downtown LA because it ran on the street, when they had a subway connecting to the west side lines and a building called the Subway Terminal
And most annoyingly, it’s a white guy who uses “North America” to mean the US and Canada. Did you know there are at least 10 cities in Mexico larger than Vancouver that don’t have any freeways? Vancouvers urban development is certainly interesting, but we don’t need to do Mexico erasure to show that. And sure, a typical US city in the northeast or Midwest probably has a closer shared history to Toronto than Aguascalientes, but the author is apparently living in LA, which famously was founded by the Spanish and was part of Mexico. This is a longstanding gripe I have with American urbanists, and it’s a shame to see another example of it.
There are interesting things in this book, especially as it relates to the intersection of progressive era reforms, nativism, racism, and housing policy. But the narrow focus on housing types makes it not as well fleshed out as I would have hoped. That said, I did find myself enjoying parts of it - only for that enjoyment to be ruined by some very poorly researched history. Again, the author lives and works in LA, proclaims to be interested in housing, but gives the flatly wrong attribution to “dingbat”. I don’t think this matters per se, it just sort of undermines the legitimacy of the work. How am I supposed to trust his research when I readily identify an error every 10 pages?
And I’ll finish with the most ridiculous quote in the entire book: “the tenements of the late nineteenth century were therefore an artistic provocation, mixing high and low in a way that would not be seen again until Andy Warhol’s soup cans three-quarters of a century later.” If you read this and thought he was cooking, please visit an art museum. I promise people made subversive art in the 75 years between the turn of the century and Andy Warhol.
March 30, 2024
3.5 stars
November 27, 2024
I love this book even though I'm completely out of my depth when it comes to architectural details. The hill I will die on is that books that rely on key visual elements being understood by the reader e.g. neighborhood layouts, home design, etc., should have images/maps interspersed throughout the book.
This book isn't one I would recommend to an architectural noob - there's just too much to learn by yourself to get up to speed - which is unfortunate because there are important discussions regarding public zoning and the housing crisis.
This book isn't one I would recommend to an architectural noob - there's just too much to learn by yourself to get up to speed - which is unfortunate because there are important discussions regarding public zoning and the housing crisis.
July 6, 2025
Max Podemski’s “A Paradise of Small Houses” is concise and engaging, taking us on a virtual walking tour through 9 of America’s most beloved cities (not San Francisco tho :( lol). He explores how each city’s signature architecture evolved thru social/economic change and how we can leverage these lessons to make affordable/accessible urban communities.
The biggest takeaways I got from this were:
1. Dynamic, compartmentalized/configurable housing like the Philadelphia row house and NYC tenement allow for organic growth. The departure from this to rigid single-family dwellings in the beginning of the 20th century has made growth painful and exclusionary.
2. High density housing and certain design styles were stigmatized when lower class/lower caste/immigrants moved into the abandoned residences of upper class ppl when they moved to the suburbs.
3. Rich (and often well educated) ppl are the problem. Merging multiple units into one single-family residence in a housing-scarce city is messed up. Gentrification and the outpricing/displacement of working class tenants is also messed up.
4. Car-centrism ruined everything frf
Other Ideas/facts worth saving:
* Mass migration to high density cities would have huge environmental benefits— NYC residents have a carbon footprint 30% the size of the national average.
* Ground taxation— a single, encompassing tax on the prospective value of the lot, instead of the traditional property tax model (land value + building value). With ground taxation, the landowner will have to pay the same amount whether or not there is a building there so they are incentivized to develop.
* Morality being assoc with design features… for example, NYC tenements were thought to promote sin/promiscuity bc of the proximity to others and anonymity in crowding.
* The average size of an American house has doubled since 1973, although the average household size has decreased from over 3 ppl down to 2.5 ppl. Why do we need more inside space?? (Though this may be skewed by ultra rich ppl owning disgustingly massive houses)
The biggest takeaways I got from this were:
1. Dynamic, compartmentalized/configurable housing like the Philadelphia row house and NYC tenement allow for organic growth. The departure from this to rigid single-family dwellings in the beginning of the 20th century has made growth painful and exclusionary.
2. High density housing and certain design styles were stigmatized when lower class/lower caste/immigrants moved into the abandoned residences of upper class ppl when they moved to the suburbs.
3. Rich (and often well educated) ppl are the problem. Merging multiple units into one single-family residence in a housing-scarce city is messed up. Gentrification and the outpricing/displacement of working class tenants is also messed up.
4. Car-centrism ruined everything frf
Other Ideas/facts worth saving:
* Mass migration to high density cities would have huge environmental benefits— NYC residents have a carbon footprint 30% the size of the national average.
* Ground taxation— a single, encompassing tax on the prospective value of the lot, instead of the traditional property tax model (land value + building value). With ground taxation, the landowner will have to pay the same amount whether or not there is a building there so they are incentivized to develop.
* Morality being assoc with design features… for example, NYC tenements were thought to promote sin/promiscuity bc of the proximity to others and anonymity in crowding.
* The average size of an American house has doubled since 1973, although the average household size has decreased from over 3 ppl down to 2.5 ppl. Why do we need more inside space?? (Though this may be skewed by ultra rich ppl owning disgustingly massive houses)
May 11, 2024
This book offers a history of American housing compelling enough to engage anyone. I've lived in and visited countless old houses and never understood the reasons for their specific layout, materials used, or how their first inhabitants engaged with their precious space. This book offers an easily accessible and often humorous explanation of all of that. It also serves as a reminder that housing scarcity and inequality is nothing new. We can look to the past for ideas on how to adapt our living spaces and our lifestyles to increase the density in our cities. It's an investment that will make those cities more vibrant and livable for all.
November 13, 2024
Came across this book via the Tenement Museum in Manhattan (also 5 stars). I have such a love for the architecture of "unimportant" buildings. I dont care about the architecture of skyscrapers or monuments anywhere near as much as our homes. And the small historical houses don't get the love or touring opportunities that big Victorian mansions or huge estates do. This book is such a beautiful balance of architecture, history, economics, urban planning, and politics. My only complaint is it needs more pictures to cover everything he references so I don't have to keep putting the book down to Google. But I loved this.
April 9, 2024
3.5 Stars. A good overview of different housing types and regional impact of the need for labor housing across the US. Focus mostly on larger cities, with some medium sized areas thrown in for regional diversity. The writer clearly is interested in the topic, ties it back to his family and did a good amount of research. Would have preferred more illustrations, but overall enjoyed the survey.
June 14, 2024
A very approachable and engaging book that highlights a variety of affordable housing types through the study of 9 North American cities.
Thoroughly enjoyed every chance I had to open this book. It was wonderful to learn about the history of different cities through the types of housing that reflect the unique and diverse needs of the people that lived there.
Well done!
Thoroughly enjoyed every chance I had to open this book. It was wonderful to learn about the history of different cities through the types of housing that reflect the unique and diverse needs of the people that lived there.
Well done!
May 5, 2025
loved listening to this at the start & end of every day. this was so well framed & because housing is so inherent to society, it was such a fun, new way to learn about the history of the U.S. I will never not enjoy learning about why are cities are the way that they are & how that determines the trajectory of our lives both on a micro and macro level. truly nothing fascinates me more aH! I love it!! lucky lil me that I get to talk about this type of stuff all the time at work. there’s always more to learn & the field is ever evolving..I am simply obsessed. done nerding out now! onto the next!
May 8, 2025
nonfiction isn’t really my thing and at times this felt a bit dry to read but overall I found the author’s perspective on the roots of the american housings crisis really interesting and I want to visit all the cities mentioned in the book and see all the different types of houses / apartments he described. I also liked learning about the history of each city and how it developed over time
August 6, 2024
A unique book that appeals to architects, urbanists, and probably no one else. Seeing the interplay of policy, construction techniques/materials, and discrimination combine to create these iconic designs was a fascinating way to learn the history of housing in Northern America.
Quotes that brought me to tears:
“During weekdays, it is possible to board a station escalator while a train is leaving and for another to arrive as you reach the platform.” - pg 190, referring to the SkyTrain in Vancouver
Quotes that brought me to tears:
“During weekdays, it is possible to board a station escalator while a train is leaving and for another to arrive as you reach the platform.” - pg 190, referring to the SkyTrain in Vancouver
July 4, 2025
how fascinating! this book was very well researched and easy to read despite the topic being fairly niche. i had a good time with it and loved learning about the urban history of cities ive been to/have lived in! my only critique is that the information is not given in chronological order, which made it harder for me to picture how the cities were evolving in real time. with that said the author put a lot of dates in here which i really appreciated!
July 23, 2024
2.5!
not a bad read, i think the back half (the portland chapter and onwards) is where the book really shines. the book felt a bit too dense historically without adequate social, environmental, and economic analysis, but i think that might just be a personal taste thing. also i would’ve loved pictures integrated throughout the text instead of that weird booklet in the middle with all of them (hate these a lot tbh but, again, a personal preference). overall pretty decent. good intro to urban planning and i’m glad i read it despite my lower rating—i think now i just need to find what kind of urban planning analysis and media i enjoy and this definitely gave me stuff to work with
not a bad read, i think the back half (the portland chapter and onwards) is where the book really shines. the book felt a bit too dense historically without adequate social, environmental, and economic analysis, but i think that might just be a personal taste thing. also i would’ve loved pictures integrated throughout the text instead of that weird booklet in the middle with all of them (hate these a lot tbh but, again, a personal preference). overall pretty decent. good intro to urban planning and i’m glad i read it despite my lower rating—i think now i just need to find what kind of urban planning analysis and media i enjoy and this definitely gave me stuff to work with
October 12, 2025
Very dense book (which made this a slow read for me), but wow, was it interesting. I had hoped to learn about the different architectural styles of urban housing in various cities, but it went so much deeper than that. This book focused on American history and how immigration, poverty/wealth, racism, transportation, urban policies, and culture all drive how we develop cities, and vice versa, how that developed housing then directly impacts culture, whether positive or negative. Really fascinating to think about what has worked well, and the potential ways in which we could pivot today in our current housing crisis.
Highly recommend.
Highly recommend.
January 11, 2025
I enjoyed this book a lot. I really appreciate the themes of iteration vernacular architecture, and the sort of stress between distributed, developers versus concentrated, large developers, and how that impacts what gets built and where and who gets served.
this book was really tough on Houston in our townhomes, which I think have a lot of value, though I do agree with a lot of his criticisms and I think a lot of of Houstonians do.
It’s a fun short read I think it’s worth a a scan.
this book was really tough on Houston in our townhomes, which I think have a lot of value, though I do agree with a lot of his criticisms and I think a lot of of Houstonians do.
It’s a fun short read I think it’s worth a a scan.
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February 14, 2025I listened to this book, and honestly, it was mostly background noise during drives. It’s not really nonfiction that reads like fiction. It was like having a lecture going on in the background, but that isn’t a complaint.
Books about housing and planning like this remind one of how local decisions (like how far back buildings must be from the street and how many buildings can be on a lot) make a huge difference in people’s lives.
Books about housing and planning like this remind one of how local decisions (like how far back buildings must be from the street and how many buildings can be on a lot) make a huge difference in people’s lives.
August 9, 2025
I really enjoyed the way the book was divided between different cities and established how important immigrants and the middle class are to the nations housing. My favorite chapters were Philadelphia and New Orleans. While a bit slow it was very informative and I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot.
April 13, 2025
If you hate single family home zoning and parking requirements, this book is for you.
November 5, 2024
Originally read on Kindle, which is obviously the subpar experience. However, it’s so good that I do want to buy this book. Phenomenal. So interesting and easily digestible.
November 15, 2025
The writing is a little uneven and repetitive, and the images could have been chosen and distributed a little better. But it's an interesting topic, clearly well researched, and from time to time I was pleasantly surprised by a bit of snarkiness and tongue-in-cheek commentary. The author is extremely enamored of tall, thin buildings, which I agree are efficient uses of space, but he overlooks their obvious downside when it comes to disability-friendly living and aging-in-place. I'm also someone who still dreams of the standard suburban house with a yard and garden. Still, it got me thinking quite a bit about the ways that we could provide denser, more affordable housing and architecture that encourages community engagement -- two very important main themes of the book.
January 15, 2025
Very informative, everyone should care more about affordable and dense urban housing 📢
December 9, 2024
Nice review of different housing types in the US and their evolution. Chapter on Houston was a little light but I think the author did a good job with the history of the homes, the public's perception of them, and the pros and cons that come with the various housing.
July 31, 2024
A tour of distinctive housing styles from various cities—Philadelphia row houses, New York brownstones, Chicago workers houses, New Orleans shotguns, Portland bungalows, LA dingbats, Vancouver’s slender high rises, Houston townhouses. The tour is largely historical, but also brings up some very recent developments. The endnotes show that the author drew on a wide variety of sources, from history, architecture, urban planning, and other fields.
It doesn’t give us the solution to the housing crisis, but it does offer interesting observations about housing styles from North American cities.
It doesn’t give us the solution to the housing crisis, but it does offer interesting observations about housing styles from North American cities.
September 8, 2024
I didn't realize how much geography and culture have determined what housing looks like in different places.
June 14, 2025
Cool book. It’s about the evolution of homes in North American cities and the part they play in urban design. Each chapter discussed homes in one city and how they have changed in the 20th century.
I was most interested in how some styles of house facilitate social connection. For example, houses with front porches / row houses create a gathering space while houses that are built on top of a front facing garage (a classic in Houston) don’t - the garage entry prevents neighborhood residents from encountering each other.
I would have liked the book more if it had provided some up front context / structure to help tie together the themes across the cities. Some of the insights did appear pretty self evident (like the porch vs garage one) but others were a real lightbulb moment for me (like a property’s setback aka distance from the street / sidewalk deterring foot traffic).
I came away more attuned to the ways that home type impacts urban design (and vice versa) and social interaction. I also felt inspired when I read about groups that are trying to change the default home types and create cities that have more neighborly feeling and common space (like the example of garage restaurants and bars that made a car centric LA suburb into a place that had thick social connection).
I was most interested in how some styles of house facilitate social connection. For example, houses with front porches / row houses create a gathering space while houses that are built on top of a front facing garage (a classic in Houston) don’t - the garage entry prevents neighborhood residents from encountering each other.
I would have liked the book more if it had provided some up front context / structure to help tie together the themes across the cities. Some of the insights did appear pretty self evident (like the porch vs garage one) but others were a real lightbulb moment for me (like a property’s setback aka distance from the street / sidewalk deterring foot traffic).
I came away more attuned to the ways that home type impacts urban design (and vice versa) and social interaction. I also felt inspired when I read about groups that are trying to change the default home types and create cities that have more neighborly feeling and common space (like the example of garage restaurants and bars that made a car centric LA suburb into a place that had thick social connection).
June 20, 2025
This book is a marvel. Describes the messy, glorious diversity of all the "unremarkable" urban housing that has populated our liveliest city neighborhoods for generations. Combines urban planning, housing policy, and regional history into essentially the perfect book for better understanding working class urban housing in the U.S. & Canada, from the birth of our urban centers to the housing market crisis playing out in these cities today. For urban design read Soft City: Building Density for Everyday Life. For housing policy read The Affordable City: Strategies for Putting Housing Within Reach. For a history of urban housing and the working class, immigrant neighborhoods that have built it, read this.
November 20, 2025
This author has an evident love of homes and cities, but that doesn’t mean he knows how to write about them. It's the work of an enthusiast rather than a historian. At least once a chapter I’d encounter a statement that seemed wrong, so I’d look it up and discover that yes, it was completely incorrect. Chicago was part of the Louisiana Purchase? The Loop was built for streetcars- is he thinking of the 8th St Viaduct in Kansas City? The 1905 Portland Exposition was the third U.S. World’s Fair after Philadelphia and Chicago- did he confuse it with the 1904 fair in St. Louis? These are entry-level facts!
I did enjoy most of the book, though, and I learned a lot about the other (i.e. non-Chicago) cities while reading it. But I often suspected that the research process for this book involved more movies and video essays than primary sources. It even quotes that Every Frame a Painting video about Vancouver (without attribution!). I suppose it's good enough for a general audience but not remotely thorough or academic enough to be useful as a learning tool.
I loved the drawings, though!
I did enjoy most of the book, though, and I learned a lot about the other (i.e. non-Chicago) cities while reading it. But I often suspected that the research process for this book involved more movies and video essays than primary sources. It even quotes that Every Frame a Painting video about Vancouver (without attribution!). I suppose it's good enough for a general audience but not remotely thorough or academic enough to be useful as a learning tool.
I loved the drawings, though!
January 28, 2025
“A Paradise of Small Houses” by Max Podemski gives a detailed architectural history of working-class homes in many large cities throughout the United States—from the Philadelphia row house in the east to the Portland bungalow in the west.
Sometimes speaks beyond its light and overstates the importance of architecture in housing affordability. All examples given are privately owned with their price determined by market forces. Despite what the introduction claims this is a history of architecture not how to provide housing for all.
Podemski’s strongest arguments are aesthetic. Building codes, land use codes, and related laws limit what an architect must design around, and what a construction company can legally build. Weakening those regulations will create more beautiful spaces to promote a sense of pride and identity with place.
Architecture alone cannot cure the housing crisis but too often beauty is relegated to practicality leaving all city residents spiritually diminished.
Sometimes speaks beyond its light and overstates the importance of architecture in housing affordability. All examples given are privately owned with their price determined by market forces. Despite what the introduction claims this is a history of architecture not how to provide housing for all.
Podemski’s strongest arguments are aesthetic. Building codes, land use codes, and related laws limit what an architect must design around, and what a construction company can legally build. Weakening those regulations will create more beautiful spaces to promote a sense of pride and identity with place.
Architecture alone cannot cure the housing crisis but too often beauty is relegated to practicality leaving all city residents spiritually diminished.
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