The creeping sameness is true for luxury apartment complexes and low-income housing projects alike.
over the next decade to ease its deepening housing shortage, the bulky designs are likely to become more ubiquitous.
“There is literally a limited number of physical arrangements you can do and meet developers’ goals on a budget,” said Comerio, while noting that cookie-cutter designs, such as for planned single-family home subdivisions going back to the 1950s, are hardly a new phenomenon. Such “multi-use” projects, often boasting artisanal coffee shops and exclusive gyms, have popped up in nearly every corner of the Bay Area. That includes places that have undergone rapid redevelopment in recent years,, where some critics have lambasted them as symbols of gentrification and displacement.
Danny Haber, chief executive of the Oakland-based developer oWOW, said developers today are rarely able to pursue the unique designs that flourished during the 20s and 30s, considered one of the peak periods of American architecture. Instead, they must focus on maximizing the number of units to offset high construction and financing costs, leading to repeatable design plans.
But perhaps the biggest constraint, according to Quigley, is the officials and developers behind affordable complexes who want to stick with familiar design plans, even when more eye-catching options are possible, even within their tight budgets.
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