Insights
A research hub on housing and the existing city.
Two lines of ongoing research, published as short articles. One asks how much housing our neighborhoods can actually hold. The other asks how far we can push the buildings we already have.
01
Housing Capacity
How much housing could New York's existing neighborhoods actually hold, and what would it take in the systems around them?
01.01
How Many ADUs Could NYC Actually Accommodate?
One ADU is small; thousands are not. What scale asks of the systems around the house.
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01.02
Legal Capacity ≠ Buildable Capacity
Why the number of eligible lots is not the number of feasible homes.
Coming soon
01.03
What Happens When ADUs Scale?
Infrastructure, services, and the cumulative effect of incremental growth.
Coming soon
01.04
From Permission to Production
The distance between legalizing ADUs and actually building them.
Coming soon
02
Retrofitting the New York Rowhouse
How far can a historic rowhouse be pushed toward high performance, and at what cost in carbon and construction?
02.01
Why the Rowhouse?
The typology that defines so much of New York's low-rise housing stock.
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02.02
How Much Retrofit Is Enough?
Component, code, and Passive House, and the trade-offs between them.
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02.03
The Interior Insulation Problem
Moisture, thermal bridging, and the risks of insulating masonry from the inside.
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02.04
The Buildings Between the Policies
Local Law 97 makes large buildings visible; the rowhouse is the dispersed stock addressed mainly through renovation.
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02.05
A New Rulebook for Old Buildings
New York City's first dedicated Existing Building Code takes effect in 2027, and what it means for rowhouse retrofits.
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