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Visualizing Density This is where America lives—a neighborhood of free-standing homes built on half- to quarter-acre lots, each with a yard and a garage, located on a sparsely traveled street. It’s a simple con- cept—one family per house, each occupying its own distinct realm defined by an expanse of lawn. When we think of hous- ing, this image usually comes to mind. Many of us live in this type of place, and many others aspire to. It has become a sym- bol of comfort, security, and privacy. Or maybe it’s just where we think we live. Although most Americans occupy single-family homes, a full 40 percent of existing housing units are attached or multifamily structures (U.S. Census Bureau 2000). In fact, many Americans are living side by side in cities or dense suburbs. Their duplexes, town- houses, and apartments make up a substantial portion of the housing stock. Yet, despite its solid presence in the housing market, the apartment building is far from reaching icon status in the American imagination. We can’t seem to get the low-density suburb out of our minds, which makes it easy to continue to build it. It’s what everyone expects—the architects and engineers who design it, the bankers who finance it, the planners who approve it, the developers who build it, and the homeowners who move in. In the past 50 years, we’ve created tens of thousands of these neighborhoods. We can almost do it in our sleep. The low- density subdivision has achieved a kind of inevitability. But despite its hold over our imagination, this type of neighborhood will not serve us well in the future. We simply cannot afford to use the land and resources required to house our growing population at such a low density. Growing Closer Newark, Ohio