Cinnamon Janzer wrote:

Tucked into the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay, Norfolk, Virginia, is a city of neighborhoods that range from beachfront enclaves to suburban cul-de-sacs and turn-of-the-century historic districts. What they all have in common, though, is a missing middle—housing that is neither a single-family home nor a massive apartment building, but smaller multi-family units like duplexes and fourplexes.

The term “missing middle housing” was coined by Dan Parolek who wrote a book of the same name. Parolek’s work charts out how these slightly more dense, walkable, and desirable middle housing options can not only help address the country’s housing crisis by providing more affordable options, but how they can be brought back after the boom of car-centric, single-family development that flourished after World War II.

Drawing on Parolek’s work, Norfolk approved a Missing Middle Pattern Book in June that provides free architectural plans for one, two, and three-bedroom units that can easily be mixed into existing housing. Each of the floorplans consist of modular components that can be shifted around to create side-by-side duplex, triplex, multiplex, or townhouse units with configurations that can fit on different lot sizes. Depending on the size of the project, developers can expect to save around 15-20% on the design fees that constitute roughly 10% of the overall cost of a project’s construction, says Mel Price, a principal at the firm behind Norfolk’s new pattern book, Work Program Architects.