Austin is a canonical supply success story! In our odd era, yes, supply is what matters. open.substack.com/pub/kevinerd...

In our odd era, yes, supply is what matters.

Charles Marohn at Strong Towns wrote a post the other day throwing cold water on the idea that Austin’s recent rent reductions are a sure sign of a housing supply success story.

open.substack.com

Talking building code impacts on urban planning Stewart Hicks releases a great video about single-stair point access blocks - "How America Accidentally Banned Good Apartments" www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sfo... @holz-bau.bsky.social

How America Accidentally Banned Good Apartments

YouTube video by Stewart Hicks

youtube.com

"Making Small Multifamily Pencil on Urban Infill Sites" hosted next week by Cedar on 7/9 to highlight the possibilities and hurdles for small lot development. luma.com/vyt6s9mu?tk=...

Making Small Multifamily Pencil on Urban Infill Sites · Zoom · Luma

A number of people asked us to push this back, so we’re moving the webinar to July 9th, and we’re adding Sean Borger, SVP of Capital Markets at WelcomeLend, to…

luma.com

CNU Chicago launched a single stair design competition this week in support of proposed local and statewide single stair legislation - cnuchicago.substack.com/p/join-us-in...

Join Us in Launching Chicago’s Single-Stair Future

With single-stair legislation proposals gracing city hall and Springfield, CNU Chicago’s upcoming design competition couldn’t launch at a better time.

cnuchicago.substack.com

When American egress and zoning codes meet BIG knockoff buildings

Chicago has introduced building code reform to allow scissor stairs in multifamily by right up to 15 floors/150 feet: chicityclerkelms.chicago.gov/Matter/?matt...

The Council just passed legislation to allow single-stair and single-entrance apartment buildings up to six stories in DC. Allowing single-stair buildings: ✅ Reduces housing construction costs ✅ Enables housing on narrow city lots ✅ Facilitates more family-sized units The bill passed unanimously.

'X-MU-X' by Dr. Damian Madigan First Prize - Denver Affordable Housing Challenge The author of 'The Bluefield Housing Book', Madigan lays out a design-led framework for Denver that boosts housing density without losing historic charm. architecturecompetitions.com/denverhousing/

What's nice about working for Nithya is that she's as big of a housing nerd as I am

This month, Colorado's Building Dialogue Magazine is highlighting the housing opportunities created by Denver's new single-stair code. cdn.etype.services/Production_P...

379 affordable apartments and 146 parking spaces in 7- and 9-story buildings on a brownfield site in Zurich for just 150 million CHF – under $300 per gross sq. ft., $400k/unit for a mix of 1-4BR apartments. Completed in July. www.swiss-arc.ch/de/projekt/w...

Great single stair article on Fast Company today highlighting Seattle and the broader movement around the country to change building codes www.fastcompany.com/91513043/the...

The building code rule that lets Seattle turn forgotten lots into housing

Rethinking the building code to allow single-stairwell buildings brought more small-lot, mid-rise apartments to the city—and sparked a wider reform movement.

fastcompany.com

Despite a massive shortage of units, "Affordable" housing is now more expensive than market-rate housing in several major U.S. cities. I'm not an expert but it feels like U.S. housing industry is broken. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

San Jose FD, for the CAL FIRE single-stair report, did a simulation of evacuation from a building, both in a stairway segregated from firefighters going up and then shared. It was an interesting Rohrschach test for the group – the FDs thought it looked really bad, the others thought it was fine.

Ingress of Firefighters conducting fire operations during the egress of building occupants

YouTube video by San José Fire Department

youtu.be

Not the headline I would have gone with. Buildings can be safer with one stair than with two, especially if you reduce the length of the corridor and number of apartments per floor.

Michael Puskar@puskar.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Single stair hitting the big time! Congratulations to @stephenjacobsmith.com @holz-bau.bsky.social and others on getting coverage in the New York Times www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/b...

Today's NYT article highlights this map of dozens of Seattle single stair projects located on small lot across the city that can serve as a model for better livability across the U.S. www.google.com/maps/d/viewe...

Single-Stair Housing - Seattle - Google My Maps

Seattle's single-stair housing taller than 3-stories in height

google.com

Michael Puskar@puskar.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Single stair hitting the big time! Congratulations to @stephenjacobsmith.com @holz-bau.bsky.social and others on getting coverage in the New York Times www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/b...

pretty incredible to wake up and find myself and @stephenjacobsmith.com in the @nytimes.com talking about better and more cost effective housing with point access blocks (single stair apartment buildings) www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/b...

To Cut Housing Costs, Some States Are Easing Fire Safety Rules

nytimes.com

The report from the State Fire Marshal stresses that IF state legislators want to raise the single stair maximum, they should go no higher than four stories. Meanwhile, @votealexlee.bsky.social has a spot bill to allow single-stair apts "with 4 or more stories." calmatters.org/housing/2026...

California’s fire safety regulators are finally out with a 'single stair' report. They don’t love the idea

California’s fire safety regulators were asked to study whether mid-rise apartments can go with a single staircase like other countries.

calmatters.org

happening tomorrow: "Using Design Competitions to Improve the Quality of Housing: A Roundtable Discussion" Hosted by Harvard's JCHS, the webinar will look at using competitions to improve housing and create opportunities for design professionals www.jchs.harvard.edu/calendar/usi...

Using Design Competitions to Improve the Quality of Housing: A Roundtable Discussion

Susanne Schindler will discuss her recent working paper about how design competitions can address the shortcomings of housing development and design services procurement processes. A roundtable with B...

jchs.harvard.edu

“Rooms to Grow,” KPMB's submission to the National Single Stair Design competition promotes: ☀️ Airy layouts with lightwells 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Generational living using flexible units 🤝 Community-oriented, small-lot development. Read more in KPMB's article - www.kpmb.com/insight/how-...

really enjoyed my conversation for this with christine on single stair, how seattle ended up leading on it, why it matters (and exists everywhere else) - and why fixing building codes is so important for housing. @stephenjacobsmith.com @seanjurs.bsky.social nextcity.org/urbanist-new...

The Seattle Example for Unlocking More Housing, One Stairway at a Time

By rethinking the building code and allowing single-stair apartment buildings, the city made small-lot, mid-rise apartments feasible — and sparked a wider reform movement.

nextcity.org

One estimate suggests that 18,000 homes a year are not being built because of the UK’s new requirement for a second stairway at 18 meters. Some are advocating to raise the limit to 50 meters, in line with global standards. archive.is/2026.02.09-1...

"A close analysis of the US building code development process reveals a system rife ... in which the costs and benefits of regulations are improperly measured (if measured at all)" -UCLA Lewis Center: Cracking the Code (Jan 2026) escholarship.org/content/qt0x...

Wisconsin's 6-story single-stair bill dropped last month with 9 bill sponsors. Oddly, the bill creates a council consisting of industry gatekeepers to author the single-stair code including an IRC expert even though 6-story projects would be under the IBC docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2025/related...

Bringing similar scrutiny to the building code, last year, Utah doubled the allowable number of units permitted under the residential code by allowing 4 unit residential projects. up.codes/viewer/utah/...

Chapter 1 Scope and Administration: Utah Residential Code 2021 | UpCodes

UpCodes offers a consolidated resource of construction and building code grouped by jurisdiction

up.codes

Sean Jursnick@seanjurs.bsky.social · 6mo ago

A California lawmaker has proposed allowing projects up to 10 units be constructed under the residential code. That's 5x more than the current IBC limit of 2 units. leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTe...

A California lawmaker has proposed allowing projects up to 10 units be constructed under the residential code. That's 5x more than the current IBC limit of 2 units. leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTe...

Excited to see The Architect's Newspaper featuring the winners of the National Single Stair Design Competition and their amazing work. www.archpaper.com/2026/01/nati...

Apartment floor plate comparison. Standard double-loaded corridor with single-aspect units on the left. Seattle single-stair project, with triple-aspect units on the right.

This month, ULI's Urban Land magazine is featuring Seattle's BB House adaptive reuse project. Not mentioned in the article is the fact that the compact, 5-story addition is made possible with single stair egress and Seattle's unique building code. urbanland.uli.org/resilience-a...

Project Profile: Why an Ordinary Old Building in Seattle Was Worth Saving

It’s not as if the old two-story building at the corner of 12th and Remington Court, in Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood, was ever particularly remarkable. Even in its original incarnation, it was a ...

urbanland.uli.org

Thanks to Seattle's unique stair code, point access blocks like the Alki Condominiums create density on small beachfront lots Located on Alki Beach, the project adds 10 units to the waterfront At 6-stories tall, the Alki Condominiums are illegal to build in most US cities