Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Retrofit cohousing list / at conference

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

Fred and Kevin – – I'm very excited about this workshop coming up at the 
conference. With the high cost of land and/or building sites in the Washington 
DC area I am now encouraging groups to see this method of creating cohousing 
communities in our area. 

The more I deal with land prices and the massive amount of money it takes to 
begin a cohousing community as new built the more inclined I am to see that 
using existing housing stock makes a lot more economic sense.   There are many 
other advantages one of which is inviting the neighbors who are already 
established in the neighborhood to participate. Can't beat that with a stick.

Where it makes sense, people will continue to pool their resources and build 
from scratch. But in DC where the average cost of a new 2BR condo is 
$440,000... I don't know… I just shake my head.

Maybe I'm totally wrong about all this. I don't like to discourage anyone from 
going after their vision. 

I do see retrofit cohousing as another tool in the toolbox of getting cohousing 
established in DC. 

Thanks for making this offering at the upcoming conference. My guess is it's 
going to be filled overflowing. I'm getting there early…

Ann Zabaldo
Washington DC




Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 22, 2015, at 7:19 PM, Fred H Olson <fholson [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> Kevin Wolf and I will be doing a workshop at the May conference about
> retrofit cohousing which has been discussed here many times over the
> years. (NOTE: by "retrofit cohousing" we mean existing housing that is
> evolving so residents relate like in cohousing - NOT reconstruction of
> a building to form cohousing.)
> 
> In preparation I am trying to put together a list of retrofit cohousing
> communities.  (Unforunately not all are listed in the directory or are
> not listed as "retrofitting".  Below is my current list of existing
> communities including some that resemble or incorporate some retrofit
> cohousing.  Do you know of others?
> 
> (This list is from http://mn.cohousing.org/retrofit/ which also includes
> communities I think are defunct and details including whether
> they were listed in the directory at 5 points since 1997. It also has links
> to info about communities not in directory.)
> 
> 5-plex at Halcyon Commons   CA Berkeley       **
> Kingfisher on Brookdale     CA Oakland
> Los Angeles Eco-Village     CA Los Angeles
> Mariposa Grove              CA Oakland
> N Street Cohousing          CA Davis
> New Brighton Cohousing      CA Aptos
> Renaissance Village Homes   CA Sacramento
> San Francisco Backyard ...  CA San Francisco
> San Mateo Ecovillage        CA San Mateo
> Temescal Creek Cohousing    CA Oakland
> Triple Point Cohousing      CA Oakland
> Mayfair village of Denver   CO Denver
> Green Acres Nbhd Ecovillage IN Bloomington
> Genesee Gardens Cohousing   MI Lansing
> Homewood Cohousing          MN Minneapolis    **
> Dorothy Day Cohousing       MO St. Louis      **
> Terra Firma Drummond Coho   ON Ottawa
> Kailash Ecovillage          OR Portland
> On Going Concerns           OR Portland
> Arboretum Cohousing         WI Madison        **
> 
> Fred
> 
> --
> Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411  USA        (near north Mpls)
>     Email:        fholson at cohousing.org      612-588-9532
> My Link Pg: http://fholson.cohousing.org         My org:
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