Nashville Sees Significant Economic Effect in the Wake of Form-Based Code

Read Rick Bernhardt’s article in Better Cities and Towns, “Nashville values, development rise with form-based code,” which discusses the impacts Nashville’s Downtown Form-Based Code has had on the city since it’s introduction in February 2010. Opticos performed a professional review ...

Part 2: Addressing Missing Middle Housing and Missing People in the Queen City: Cincinnati’s Form-Based Code and Transect

As part of a charrette held the week of Saturday April 28th, Opticos Design built upon months of field documentation, including many hours spent on Google Earth, mapping analysis, photography, and an assessment of the existing zoning code to refine an initial calibration of Cincinnati’s Urban-to-Rural Transect. Choosing and refining a form-based Organizing Principle for a city the size of…

Part 1: Addressing Missing Middle Housing and Missing People in the Queen City: Cincinnati’s Form-Based Code and Transect

Cincinnati’s urban neighborhoods are at a tipping point. The City has lost 40% of its population since 1950 leaving suburban densities in the city’s formerly urban neighborhoods. Many residential buildings and lots sit vacant or unmaintained, with over 10,000 historically contributing units in need of renovation. Neighborhood main streets have withered due to lack of people, competition from nearby big…

Transforming an Urban Greenway: From an Unobserved Gem to a Great Address

Opticos led a team of consultants in re-imagining Richmond’s commercial corridors through a public multi-day design-based visioning process called a charrette. The efforts of the visioning done at the charrette will eventually lead to a Form-Based Code for the corridors. As part of this work, Opticos and the consultant team focused on ways in which the Form-Based Code could help…

Missing Middle Housing: Responding to the Demand for Walkable Urban Living

The mismatch between current US housing stock and shifting demographics combined with the growing demand for walkalble urban living has been poignantly defined by recent research and publications by the likes of Christopher Nelson and Chris Leinberger, and most recently by the Urban Land Institute’s publication, What’s Next: Real Estate in the New Economy. Now it is time to stop talking about the problem and start generating immediate solutions! Are you ready to be part of the solution?