Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Urban cohousing

[Laura Bagnall (Laura_Bagnall]

        Reply to:   RE>Urban cohousing
Well, the NWIS (NorthWest Inner Suburban) CoHousing group (a temporary name
until we agree on a better one), located in Arlington, MA,  is considering
something similar.  Arlington is a suburb just north of Boston, but it is
densely populated enough that there is no free land available for building.  We
are looking at a site consisting of a number of duplexes owned by a single
developer, which we are proposing to buy and convert into a cohousing site by
converting one building (currently containing two living units) into the common
house, and renovating and expanding the remaining units.  The thing that I
really like about Arlington is that it is just close enough to the city that you
can get there quickly on the bus, and there are lots of things in town that you
can walk to, but you're just far enough out that there is a little more
greenspace.  I am also personally allergic to suburbs, and anyplace where you
are forced to use a car to get anywhere.

There is another community in Cambridge (just to the south of Arlington), which
is more what you are talking about.  I can't remember the name of it offhand,
but it was an intentional community of perhaps a dozen families belonging to a
church (or perhaps they were Quakers?  I can't remember).  It wasn't exactly
cohousing though, since I don't think that they have a communal kitchen.  They
converted an apartment building, and have been in existence for 10-15 years. 
Does anybody else know what I'm talking about, who can give more details?  

--------------------------------------
Date: 2/22/94 2:13 PM
To: Laura Bagnall
From: cohousing-l [at] uci.com
I've been lurking on this list for several months now.  I have an
interest in the ideas behind cohousing, but I'm concerned by what
appears to be a trend among the cohousing projects described on this
list.  It seems that many of the cohousing projects I've seen described
involve going out into ``undeveloped'' land in some suburban area and
building new structures.  Now I can understand the desire to build
structures custom designed to your requirements, but it seems to me
that this approach cuts out a lot of potential people.  I for one have
no desire to live in the suburbs, cohousing or not.  I love the city
and all that it offers.  I'm wondering if anyone has any experience
with taking over existing structures in the city and converting them
for cohousing.  [...]
I'm curious if anyone knows of any projects like this.

--DaveH
internet: hurst [at] vistatech.com      "Be excellent to each other!"