As always Belle, a little different issue put forth in a different manner.

d) Assisted Living/Nursing homes and Singles' complexes. Even these ghastly bastions of polarized age segregation have something to teach us, and they should be studied as models for housing groups of people in community. One doesn't have to be near death or, conversely, swinging from chandeliers to live alone; nor does one have to be single to believe in taking up less space.

In this little mining town in the north of nowhere you find three buildings. One is a tower with something over 100 units, most subsidized. Half of the tenants are handicapped but able to live on their own. Neighbors are assigned to regularly visit some of the more handicapped throughout the day.

The next building is rectangular with a higher percentage of handicapped.

The final building is assisted living.

Less than a block away (these all overlook a pond) are 'luxury' apartments. These include nice porches, bigger in square footage.

Outside the perimeter of complexes are the old single family residences.

This was planned 35 years ago. Poor and middle class all together. I have been more and more struck by this after having spent 50 years in the big city/suburbs throughout my life.

In the middle of nowhere, with government help, the stench of slums is absent. Takes one back a hundred years.

Good post. I digress.

Dick:

The model you suggest -- luxury, handicapped and assisted living housing in one community -- works.

In the mid 70's, Roosevelt Island (formerly Welfare Island) was redeveloped into a mixed-use housing/retail/business community connected to Manhattan by an overhead tram which crossed the East River close to the 59th Street bridge.

The community, which was designed, in part, by Louis Kahn, purposely combined luxury buildings oriented to Manhattan with medium-priced and handicapped housing oriented to Queens. I think it has been quite successful, over time:

http://www.nyc10044.com/timeln/timeline.html

Thanks for commenting.

Why is it Marxists never have dreams about what they can build or create, but only how to dispose of that which others have already built and created??

If you want to convert a 'McMansion' or whole tracts of 'McMansions' into a hippie commune(s), I suggest the first thing you need to do is either build or buy yourself a McMansion(s).

It's not healthy having designs on whole tracts of real estate which belong to responsible adults. They tend to rebel when shelter they've provided their families is threatened.

You really need to stop this fantasizing about what you want to do with other people's property after the government steals it for you. I think there's a biblical edict against that kind of thinking.

What you are exhibiting are the roots of mob mentality which is endemic in Marxism. When you commune with others of your thinking here, you quickly begin making plans for the disposal of that which in no way belongs to you, and you have no concern with. Mind your own damn business.

Highly Rec'd, and really glad you posted this, WW. Right now, a lot of people are still worrying over "financial" shifts - but that stuff is brutally complex, and worse, "intangible" in some sense. As the real economy gets squeezed, and people lose jobs & income, their houses & health care, they MAY receive financial assistance from the State. But more important, I suspect, will be the physical assets which they, their families & friends have gathered. Using those assets fully will be key to financial, and familial, survival.

I have absolutely no expertise in HOW this is best done in general. Each case, each building or complex, with its neighbors, access to stores & schools & work, and each family or group, has to be "wired together" to fit. As in any ecology, i guess.

But. The need for that, the options & possibilities, the examples - for people to be aware of those things is critical. Which is why I'm really glad you posted with examples & unusual categories of conversions. If this economic decline continues very long, I suspect we'll see some of the unusual, larger-scale, changes in use that you describe. Some buildings, some areas, will be knocked down as uninhabitable, unusable. And that'll be a good thing. But I've lived & stayed in a lot of turn-of-the-century McMansions & Hotels, which became wonderful apartments & residences. The fact that these big houses nowadays tend to already have plumbing - plus a half-dozen bathrooms - doesn't hurt either. Thanks again.

I could really care less what idiots think. I just don't like the idea of them drawing checks off me for their idiocy!!! How big a 'nut check' you got coming in???!!!!

Ahhhh,

You're so astute!! You've got me figured out now!!! Sitting here in my underwear in my mother's basement at this PC!!! Waiting for her to call me up for some chicken soup!!!!

I'll bet that job you work at is reading palms, isn't it?? Or those astrology things??? Huh???

I am honored, Spriche. So far my opinions have flown under your radar. I must have said something worthwhile to ping on your scope.

There still are. A disabled friend lived in one. A fully furnished room that had a small fridge and a sink. The baths were shared, and the kitchen was communal. It was a big old edwardian monster of a house that was built as a rooming house, with the rooms upstairs being a bit larger and priced a bit higher. The common room had a fireplace and a few couches.

It was inhabited mostly by the disabled and the elderly, children weren't allowed. They tended to look out for each other. Not a bad place, but it could be depressing hearing the many many hard luck stories that brought people there.

Thanks for posting W. I predict we'll see more 'shared housing' models as well as smaller living spaces in the future. Small co-ops may be de rigueuer by then.It makes too much sense from a resource/energy conservation perspective. I think the viability of those exurbs in the long run will depend largely on available mass transit from there to shopping/work centers. Other than that, the hardest changes in converting the Mcmansion component you covered will be effecting the zoning changes from r-1 to r-?.

Quinn:
Speaking of unusual categories of conversion -- one of my big lifetime regrets will always be that, after the hurricane, in what may have been my last chance for personal architectural expression, I lost an opportunity to convert a small former lobster processing warehouse on the waterfront in the village of Victoria-by-the-Sea in PEI.

I still dream about it, because it was waterfront, as it was an integral part of a functioning village in which there were people I grew to love, and the project was just quirky enough to promise real pleasure.
In fact, my foray into the Maritimes in 2005/6 was precipitated by identifying it as a surprisingly affordable property for sale, online. I fell head over heels in love with it because:
a) I was enchanted by the village pop-up drawing website: http://www.victoriabythesea.ca; then click on "how to find us;" then click on the gumdrop dot on the PEI map...
and,
b) it offered me the perfect opportunity to adaptively re-use it for: i) living space for me (including a deep indoor pool -- the former lobster tank); and, ii) income-producing rental space that I intended to limit to either a summer farmer's market, or lobster shed stalls for artists.
It was a solid idea, filled with hope and adaptive re-use of my energy as well as the building. Unfortunately, the real estate agent failed to tell me that she was also one of three Vendors, and that the property had not one, but four title conflicts, one of which belonged to the province. So I left my hurricane house and headed north, having transferred my remaining cash, the requisite amount of cash to buy the property outright... only to discover that it was all for naught.
The good news? I rented a house in Victoria for several months waiting for the title issues to cleared, or not cleared, and met some of the best friends I have ever had. And, when nothing happened during that period, I thereafter went to Chester, NS, where I met and fell in love with a province, a village, an obscure family connection, and met people there, and in Halifax, I care about with whom I exchanged emails as recently as today.
So, life was better to me in the areas that count that I envisioned.
But still, how fabulous would the winter have been on the waterfront, in a traditional face to the village, but Modernist glass and steel face to the waterfront warehouse, complete with a heated lobster tank, filled with friends?
Never mind.

I think there some big problems converting large lot single family housing into a different function. The way they are laid out makes it very difficult to break the structures up into smaller units. Services in the area are set up for rich people and the zoning for commercial would have to change radically.

If the properties became cheap enough on the market, maybe a developer could demolish them with an eye toward salvaging the material and remodel the whole neighborhood with a different acreage to people ratio.

Full disclosure, I come to the question from a Paolo Soleri perspective.

Oh I almost forgot, thanks for talking about this.

Make that "a warehouse with a traditional face to the village, in deference to their renovation guidelines, and a steel and glass facade facing the waterfront...."

Prosperity and suburbia that it brought. Now neighbors aren't neighbors any more and if you have the wrong kind of crabgrass, or anything in your yard that CC&Rs prohibit, you can be asked rather directly, to leave.

C

"Business plan for combined housing project"

I have been interested in just this kind of project. Are you willing to share details?

Karen
Please reply to

ksslampwork at gmail dot com

Children raised by villages are usually happier. In this age of one or two kids, we would do well to encourage as much interaction as possible, and not in only some competitive sport. It's been shown that people who grew up with nore siblings are better able to get along with others. It's those who grew up isolated that are intolerant or oblivious to the plights of others.

It is my son-in-law and his partners who own the project, which was proposed for construction in Madison, WI. He has since moved to Montana. I will see if he (they) will release the business plan for your benefit. I will then get back to you at the e-mail address provided.

wwstaebler,
I think like this and wonder how to make it happen, first on my own small property.

But my eighty year old father is not ready to leave a modestly sized four bedroom, two bath home with his beloved workshop in the basement.

And my twenty year old son, who travels over an hour each way to get to evening classes in Cambridge, still needs the attentions of invested parents. He'd overwhelm his beloved grandfather who lives much closer to town so we forgo an opportunity for them to be together.

My husband, I, our daughter the cocker spaniel, our cat who is really in charge, and our grey and white spotted pony need to stay together ten miles further outside of town than my father.

What to do?

I look for family compounds that would appeal to all. My siblings and their children have stayed in the area around Boston and I dream of ways to share the care for our extraordinary father and his future great grandchildren. I search for the most clever ways to educate and care for those I love. I'm the idea person.

You have inspired me to look at buildings I hadn't considered. A failed assisted living home with a commercial kitchen and shared dining and living rooms as well as the extra baths might serve the purpose. It might have grounds big enough for our gorgeous girl, recently widowed by the death of a proud and bossy racehorse.

If there were a separate entrance for the private comings and goings of a college student and friends, so much the better.

You may not want to be kindred spirits with me, but I sure as hell feel it for you. And don't give up on that northern part of the world. I have friends who are builders residing here whose families and hearts are there. They are looking for ways to build a small community by the sea. The last one fell through, but there will be a next.

Hope this makes you feel good to be an inspiration to others.

Just saw your comment, Boston, and promise I will get back to you this evening, after work.