Why America's New Apartment Buildings All Look the Same
Why America’s New Apartment Buildings All Look the SameCheap stick framing has led to a proliferation of blocky, forgettable mid-rises—and more than a few construction fires.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-02-13/why-america-s-new-apartment-buildings-all-look-the-same
These buildings are in almost every U.S. city. They range from three to seven stories tall and can stretch for blocks. They’re usually full of rental apartments, but they can also house college dorms, condominiums, hotels, or assisted-living facilities. Close to city centers, they tend toward a blocky, often colorful modernism; out in the suburbs, their architecture is more likely to feature peaked roofs and historical motifs. Their outer walls are covered with fiber cement, metal, stucco, or bricks.
They really are everywhere, I discovered on a cross-country drive last fall, and they’re going up fast. In 2017, 187,000 new housing units were completed in buildings of 50 units or more in the U.S., the most since the Census Bureau started keeping track in 1972. By my informal massaging of the data, well over half of those were in blocky mid-rises.
The number of floors and the presence of a podium varies; the key unifying element, it turns out, is under the skin. They’re almost always made of softwood two-by-fours, or “stick,” in construction parlance, that have been nailed together in frames like those in suburban tract houses.
The method traces to 1830s Chicago, a boomtown with vast forests nearby. Nailing together thin, precut wooden boards into a “balloon frame” allowed for the rapid construction of “a simple cage which the builder can surface within and without with any desired material,” the architect Walker Field wrote in 1943. “It exemplifies those twin conditions that underlie all that is American in our building arts: the chronic shortage of skilled labor, and the almost universal use of wood.” The balloon frame and its variants still dominate single-family homebuilding in the U.S. and Canada. It’s also standard in Australia and New Zealand, and pretty big in Japan, but not in the rest of the world.
In the U.S., stick framing appears to have become the default construction method for apartment complexes as well. The big reason is that it costs much less—I heard estimates from 20 percent to 40 percent less—than building with concrete, steel, or masonry. Those industries have sponsored several studies disputing the gap, but most builders clearly think it exists.
They’re also comfortable with wood. “You can make mistakes and you can cut another piece,” says Michael Feigin, chief construction officer at AvalonBay Communities Inc., the country’s fourth-biggest apartment owner. “With concrete and steel, it’s just a lot more work to fix problems.” If supplies run out, adds Kenneth Bland, a vice president at the trade group American Wood Council, builders “know they can run to the nearest big box and get what they need.”
They can also run to the nearest big-box store to find workers. Stick construction allows builders to use cheaper casual labor rather than often-unionized skilled tradespeople. And it makes life easier for electricians, plumbers, and the like because it leaves open spaces through which wires, pipes, and ducts can run. Still, there’s a reason why stick wasn’t the default for big apartment buildings until recently, and why these buildings are limited in height: Sticks burn.
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If you want affordable housing, you need to accept economies of scale. And at least those developments have some articulation of the facades and aren't completely dominated by carparking.
You could have:
or:
or:
Plus the examples have at least have a unifying theme. Everyone who goes to Paris remarks on how great it is to have perimeter blocks with a distinct architectural style. It's just not economically feasible to have bespoke medium density housing that is also affordable.
No excuses for cheap or unsafe materials but from a pure design perspective the examples you've posted are probably in the top 10% for medium density developments.
apartment building with parking rather than a first floor. poles or walls hold up three side of the buildings.
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Built in the last ten years:
You'll be shocked to learn that many of these developments struggle to find responsible tenants who take care of the place.
Ugh...
Historic district custom built arts and crafts (1909) Tudor house with plaster walls and a brick foundation. Because - it doesn't get better than weird angles, oblong rooms and zig zag hallways. 
PS - my third floor has the original cast iron bath tub that we simply had re-glazed.
Am seeing that happening here in Philly - notably the "East Falls" section of the city right near the Schuylkill River -
Condos -
(above is under construction)
Before that, there were a spate of this style of apartment about 30 years ago (where yup, the "sticks" burned too) -
It's almost like trying to mimic something like this, minus the arched windows and ornate facades, here in Philly (except the below buildings were actually built in 1852 and the one here on fire had to be demolished this past year) -
at some of these complexes. I saw a apt. tower in Fort Lee go up, with wood frame. All the fire proofing and sprinkling isn't going to help in some of these 10 or 12 story building that become 'wind whipped'.
[link:https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/news/multifamily/wood-frame-apartments-gaining-popularity-with-developers-despite-fire-risk-74533|]
Avalon River Mews apartment in Edgewater, New Jersey, In 2000 this was completely burned by fire, they rebuilt again when this fire happened.
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