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The OP initial post states:
"Which large cities have the most abrupt transition from downtown high rises to SFH's?"
Every city absolutely has to transition from high-rises to less dense residential/mixed use development, but I would disagree that every city transitions "quickly" and definitely as to primarily sfh's. If you change the thread to include all transitions, including to urban housing stock like attached row homes, multifamily, etc, aren't you making the thread a catch all?
To me, the equally interesting thing about Bellevue is that its big-city downtown ringed by suburbia got grafted onto a small-town/typical suburban Main Street:
The OP initial post states:
"Which large cities have the most abrupt transition from downtown high rises to SFH's?"
Every city absolutely has to transition from high-rises to less dense residential/mixed use development, but I would disagree that every city transitions "quickly" and definitely as to primarily sfh's. If you change the thread to include all transitions, including to urban housing stock like attached row homes, multifamily, etc, aren't you making the thread a catch all?
Well, if you want to be technical about it, rowhouses are still SFH's. Only one family lives in each one.
I do, however, understand your assumption that "SFH" automatically means "detached," since SFHs in every US city save two (Philadelphia and Baltimore) are almost exclusively freestanding. (Actually, New York City and Washington also have a sizable stock of rowhouse (or "townhouse" for the status-conscious) SFHs. But they still make up less than 50 percent of the housing stock in both, while in Philly and Baltimore, they account for a majority of SFRs.)
I disagree. It is clear that the OP was looking for a city that jumps from high density to low ones in the blink of an eye.
Row houses are not low density and Philly is a horrible example of a city going from high density to low density quickly. Philly has a large dense urban core and is one of the top 3 in the country.
Any reasonable reading of the text in the original post would lead one to conclude that the OP isn't looking for the regular dense downtown discussion. That has been done and redone and talked about on here everyday.
Row houses are not low density and Philly is a horrible example of a city going from high density to low density quickly.
While rowhomes aren't low density the transition in Philly is impressive. It's abrupt in that it's a sea of rowhomes against a wall of highrises. The video i posted shows it pretty well.
Well, if you want to be technical about it, rowhouses are still SFH's. Only one family lives in each one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by skintreesnail
Is that the context for the thread though? If it is, fine, but kind of limiting the discussion in my opinion. In my mind a single family home is a structure where a single family lives/occupies the whole structure, which would include rowhomes. I think it's kind of interesting how fast Philadelphia transitions from highrises to rowhomes, particularly in south Philly. Makes for some pretty cool roof deck views too. And Philadelphia has a pretty high % of sfh ownership. I think this Washington post chart may have been shared in other threads:
Most row homes in Baltimore (not sure about Philly) are not singular freestanding structures. The entire “row” or block is technically one building in the sense that the row homes share structural elements (the side wall) for support.
Hence why demoing is so expensive and you can’t just knock “one” down and call it day.
I mean i guess the same logic would apply to Philly too, but people have and do knock one down and call it a day (unfortunately), so it can't be that restrictive. I'm not in the construction biz though so don't know. I still think it's silly to exclude whole cities from the conversation just because they don't include a bit of air between each home/don't adhere to the common conception of what a sfh is.
Last edited by skintreesnail; 08-28-2023 at 10:27 AM..
Is that the context for the thread though? If it is, fine, but kind of limiting the discussion in my opinion. In my mind a single family home is a structure where a single family lives/occupies the whole structure, which would include rowhomes. I think it's kind of interesting how fast Philadelphia transitions from highrises to rowhomes, particularly in south Philly. Makes for some pretty cool roof deck views too. And Philadelphia has a pretty high % of sfh ownership. I think this Washington post chart may have been shared in other threads:
I wonder how that's changes since 2015 when that was posted. I expect that Seattle with its growth spurt, lots of redevelopment including on formerly SFH detached lots, and fairly small city limits will have had some notable shifts.
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