Our last section deals with infill development.  Infill is a loosely defined term that refers to development projects on vacant urban land or the redevelopment of a blighted building or neighborhood.  Another way to look at this is how the neighborhood evolves over time.  Infill development within existing urban areas conserves environmental resources, economic investment, and social fabric, while reclaiming marginal and abandoned areas.  It is crucial for new buildings to fit in with existing structures; this can be done successfully using the design principles discussed in earlier sections.

Here is a house just down the street. Notice that this house and the one in the previous picture have many design features in common:  it’s also a bungalow and has one- and one-half stories, a similar roof, central dormer, brick pillars with columns, and the front porch across the front.  They look like they were built around the same time, in the early 20th century.  They’re so similar that this house was listed as a “contributing structure” when the research was being done to add this neighborhood as an historic district—meaning that the preservationist thought it was the same age as the house we saw previously—even though it was just one year old at the time.  This is a great example of infill construction that blends in with the neighborhood.

In Greensboro, the Fisher Park historic district has many lovely older homes including this one, built in the Arts and Crafts style in the early 20th century.

This Fisher Park home, which incorporates many of the neighborhood’s architectural elements including setback, roof pitch, materials and proportions of neighboring homes, was constructed in the late 1990s on the site of a house that had burned.

This inviting single-family home is located in Southport, NC.  With porches on both the first and second floor, it provides many opportunities to enjoy the weather outside.

This house is just around the corner and shares many of the same design elements—but it is a four-unit dwelling.  Careful attention to detail enables it to fit in with its neighbors.  

This modest home is located just a few blocks away from downtown Davidson NC.  

The demand for in-town housing led to the construction of these homes across the street.  They are built close to the street and have porches, which creates an opportunity for more interactions with neighbors.  

Parking for these houses is provided at the back, off an alley.

In Asheville NC, this newer home sits on a lot in an neighborhood with a variety of houses…  

In another neighborhood in Asheville, there is a great example of careful attention to detail making infill work well.  This house, built at the turn of the 20th century, is directly across the street from…

Unfortunately, not all multi-family projects have tried to fit in to the surrounding neighborhood, where right across the street is this apartment complex, built on the site of several homes that were torn down to make room for this project.

Not only is the architectural style completely unlike all the homes and apartments around it, the view of the parking lot is also unappealing.  A “seamless fit” with the neighborhood it is not.  

This turn of the 20th century home in Raleigh is in a neighborhood that experienced a decline…  

…but is in the process of revitalization. Known as Edenton Place, a number of houses have recently been constructed…  

…that respect the character of existing homes…

…and create a new neighborhood…

In another Raleigh neighborhood, the architects of this seven-unit townhome development made an effort to blend with the diverse architectural styles of the neighborhood.  There are three attached condominium units that face the street…  

… with a brick and iron fence that creates welcoming yet still private space from the street …  

In Charlotte NC, these townhomes known as Cedars Mill are attractive both from the street…  

Parking is in the back, underneath the units.

Dilworth Crescent is an urban in-fill project located in one of Charlotte’s oldest in-town neighborhoods, Dilworth. Careful design, landscaping and recessed garages helps create a spacious feeling to the street…  

… even though the houses are attached.  The project is 3.62 acres in area with 39 attached homes, or a density of 10.8 units per acre.  

Infill development can involve the redevelopment of land already built upon.  In Charlotte’s First Ward, a 36 acre deteriorating public housing complex has been recently redeveloped into a model mixed income neighborhood.  The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) department has called this program “HOPE VI”.  It replaces traditional public housing barracks-style complexes with mixed-income communities. Pictured here are existing units that were re-designed to add porches.  

This is what the area looked like before redevelopment.

Here is another view of the area before redevelopment.

The barracks-style configuration is apparent from this “before” aerial view.

One notable feature is that while some of the units are market rate and others are subsidized, the units are indistinguishable from the outside.  In other words, no one is stigmatized as being “low income” because not everyone who lives there is low income…  

…and the location is so close to downtown that it is a highly desirable place to live.  Now that the public investment has been made, the private development market is getting involved and additional market-rate housing is being built in the First Ward area.