Resources

Online Resources

Affordable Housing Design Advisor

A site sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, showcasing high quality affordable housing. It emphasizes the link between good design and successful housing, featuring a gallery of projects as well as a design checklist.
http://www.designadvisor.org/

Demystifying Density

A lecture series from the Housing Design Advisor web site, making the case for residential density. Streaming video presentations are accompanied by PowerPoint slides.
http://www.designadvisor.org/

Design Matters

An online catalog of exemplary affordable housing projects, similar to the Design Advisor. This one is sponsored by The City Design Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
http://www.uic.edu/aa/cdc/AHDC/website/

Metropolitan Design Center, Center for Neighborhoods Project

Informational sheets (PDF) illustrating density and housing types (Minneapolis examples) can be downloaded from this web site. Especially helpful is the Density Scale Poster. The center is housed within the University of Minnesota College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.
http://www.cala.umn.edu/design_center

Density in Your Backyard

1000 Friends of Oregon has produced several informational sheets addressing the issue of density. They include, "The Debate Over Density," "Why is Residential Density Important?" and 6 PDF files "What Does Density Look Like?" using Oregon examples to illustrate various density ranges.
http://www.friends.org/urban.html

This View of Density

This interactive site, developed by the Sierra Club, shows how density impacts the environment. It compares dense urban San Francisco examples to a low-density counterpart to highlight the differences in the use of land, materials, energy and driving.
http://www.sflcv.org/density/

Urban Advantage

The web site of a firm specializing in digital photo montages shows the before and simulated "after" views of infill development.
http://www.urban-advantage.com/

U.S. Census

Population and housing data for any census block in the country can be downloaded from this site. Visualizing Density Workshop instructions will walk you through the steps for calculating density for US Census blocks from Census 2000.
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en

TerraServer

USGS aerial photographs and topographic maps of the entire United States. Search for location by place name, address or latitude/longitude.
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/

Terrafly

USGS aerial photographs and topographic maps of the entire United States. Search for location by address or latitude/longitude. Although download times can be long, this site offers street names, census tract numbers, block numbers, demographic data and other information when specific map locations are clicked.
http://terrafly.com/

Publications

Visualizing Density Working Paper and Catalog

A description of the Lincoln Institute sponsored research and catalog that led to the development of this web site. Both the catalog and paper, which includes a bibliography, are available in PDF format. http://www.lincolninst.edu/pubs/index.asp

Creating Great Neighborhoods: Density in Your Community

Produced by California's Local Government Commission, in cooperation with the US EPA, and sponsored by the National Association of Realtors. This booklet features design principles, information about the link between smart growth and density, and case studies of projects in 9 communities. A PDF version of the document as well as a hard copy order form can be found at http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/density.htm

The Compact Development Compact Disc (CD2)

A compact disc published by the California Local Government Commission that provides tools for those promoting dense development. It includes tools such as PowerPoint presentations advocating density, case study examples, surveys and a density guessing game to spark public discussion, as well as supplementary information on design guidelines and property values and affordability. An order form can be found at the LGC web site http://www2.lgc.org/bookstore/detail.cfm?itemId=33

"Understanding Density and Floor Area Ratio through Development Examples, Boulder, CO"

The City of Boulder produced this document to establish an understanding of the link between the numbers cited in its zoning and land use regulations and actual built examples around the city. It features both units per acre and floor area ration measurements of density. The PDF file can be downloaded from the Boulder Planning and Development Department web site http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1427&Itemid=1714

"Joint Forum on Housing Density"

An Urban Land Institute Policy Forum Report summarizing a 2002 conference. Perceptions and reality of density as well as overcoming opposition to density are discussed. The PDF file can be found at http://www.uli.org/AM/TemplateRedirect.cfm?template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=11043