Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 160, Issue 6

[Diana Leafe Christian (diana]

>     Re: Seeking small cohousing communities (10-14 households)
>       with common area inside main building? (R Philip Dowds)
>
> Diana ?
>     Cornerstone is a mixed-building-type community.  Partly because of a
> difficult parcel shape and zoning issues, and partly because of living in
> (and trying to pay for) urban density, our common house includes 13
> dwelling units on four floors.  Multi-family apartment life may seem
> challenging and perhaps retrograde for those accustomed to living in single
> family homes at suburban densities ? but in my opinion, our building works
> extremely well.  My wife and I live immediately adjacent to the main
> commons for all 32 units of Cornerstone, and we wouldn?t want it any other
> way.
>       But you raise also a different and unrelated question, that of
> ?small? communities (never mind design layout).  We all remain wary of
> cohousing that?s ?too small? and ?too big? ? but why?  And what are the
> ?right" numbers, really?
>      You can have your folks contact me if they want some perspective from
> Cornerstone.
>
> Thanks,

Philip Dowds
> Cornerstone Village Cohousing. Cambridge, MA


Hi Philip,
    Thanks very much. I appreciate your reply, and am familiar with the
 common areas at Cornerstone Cohousing as being inside a residence
building, as I've visited your community often and really enjoy it.
    My friends would like to know how or if the common areas for a small
cohousing community situated inside a residence building might be smaller
than or otherwise different from the common areas of a normal-sized
cohousing community. And see floor plans, if possible.
    The four smaller cohousing communities like this that I know of so far
are Doyle Street Cohousing in Emeryville, CA and Nomad Cohousing in Boulder
Colorado, each with 12 housing units; Berkeley Cohousing with 14 units
(though their common house, which I've stayed in as a guest many times, is
a renovated large single-family home and not much like most newly built
common areas); and Capital Hill Urban Cohousing in Seattle, with 9 units.
Capital Hill was designed by Grace Kim of Schemata Workshop architects in
Seattle, and she'll be speaking (I hope about this) at the Coho/US
Conference in Nashville in two weeks. I hope to connect with her and any
other cohousers from smaller cohousing communities to ask about their
common areas.
      And . . . I'm hoping to persuade some of my friends from Highland
Lake Cohousing to attend the conference too. ;)
     Diana