Multifamily housing: 7 exciting, inspiring innovations [AIA Course]

The multifamily sector is not showing any signs of slowing down. The U.S. market needs to add at least 400,000 rental units a year to serve the nation’s housing needs, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council and the National Apartment Association (see: http://nmhc.org/Apartments-Economic-Impact/).

On the side of homeownership, U.S. Census data shows that three-quarters (76%) of condominium and cooperative units that came on line in Q4/2015 were sold within three months of completion (www.census.gov/housing/soma/).

The demand is being found not just in big cities like Fort Worth, Texas, Charlotte, and Nashville but also in second-tier metros like Charleston, S.C., and Harrisburg, Pa. San Antonio’s Broadway Corridor, Austin’s Riverview area, and Downtown Los Angeles, known as DTLA, are hot markets that have used local ordinances and targeted investment to create 24-hour dining and shopping zones to lure young professionals and growing families into these new residential enclaves.

Let’s look at seven novel approaches developers and Building Teams are taking to respond to competitive pressures and build more quickly and with more attractive offerings in new and reconstructed multifamily developments.

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The Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball team announced that it has reached an agreement with St. Petersburg and Pinellas County on a $6.5 billion, 86-acre mixed-use development that will include a new 30,000-seat ballpark and an array of office, housing, hotel, retail, and restaurant space totaling 8 million sf.

Engineers | Sep 15, 2023

NIST investigation of Champlain Towers South collapse indicates no sinkhole

Investigators from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) say they have found no evidence of underground voids on the site of the Champlain Towers South collapse, according to a new NIST report. The team of investigators have studied the site’s subsurface conditions to determine if sinkholes or excessive settling of the pile foundations might have caused the collapse.

MFPRO+ Research | Sep 11, 2023

Conversions of multifamily dwellings to ‘mansions’ leading to dwindling affordable stock

Small multifamily homes have historically provided inexpensive housing for renters and buyers, but developers have converted many of them in recent decades into larger, single-family units. This has worsened the affordable housing crisis, say researchers.

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Adaptive Reuse | Aug 31, 2023

New York City creates team to accelerate office-to-residential conversions

New York City has a new Office Conversion Accelerator Team that provides a single point of contact within city government to help speed adaptive reuse projects. Projects that create 50 or more housing units from office buildings are eligible for this new program.