A Paradise Of Small Houses: The Evolution, Devolution, And Potential Rebirth Of Urban Housing,New

From the Haitianstyle shotgun houses of the 19th century to the lavish highrises of the 21st century, a walk through the streets of Americas neighborhoods that reveals the rich historyand futureof urban housingThe Philadelphia row house. The New York tenement. The Boston tripledecker. 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 spacesand offers a blueprint for how timetested 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 Chicagos prefabricated workers cottages and LAs carfriendly dingbats, illuminating the human stories behind each citys 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?