OurStory

A house as housing

Type Attainable, Age-Ready Housing
Location Omaha, Nebraska
Status In progress
Project Partners
Partners for Livable Omaha:
Jessica Scheuerman, Founding Director

Project Advisors:
Manne Cook, Senior Planner, Lamp Rynearson (leader of the aspiring urban design cohort)

Amy Augustyn, Director of Owner’s Representation, Blair Freeman
Matthew Cavanaugh, Executive Director, Holy Name Housing
Scott Dobbe, AIA, Executive Director, Omaha by Design
Meridith Dillon, Director of Strategic Growth & Innovation, Blair Freeman
Tori Dunston, Project Manager/Creative Lead, Blair Freeman
Adrian Hernandez, President, Dundee Bank
Abram Lueders, AICP, Director of Urban Design / Affordable by Design Fellow, Omaha by Design,
Kirk Meisinger, Real Estate Attorney and Broker Associate, The Meisinger Group, Keller Williams Realty
Wayne Mortensen, AIA, NASW, President, Public Square Development Services
Jed Moulton, Manager of Urban Design & Preservation, City of Omaha Planning Department
Todd Stubbendieck, Nebraska State Director, AARP Nebraska

Consultants:
Cost Estimation Consulting and Training, JE Dunn
Andrew Johnson, Structural Engineering,TD2
Jerry Reif, Assistant Director, Nebraska Innovation Studio

FACT 30 – Active Project

How must we address the housing crisis? Affordable or attainable housing occurs at the intersection of policy, finance, and design. This studio focuses on the detailed design and construction of a house, called OurStory, in collaboration with outside partners and advisors who will bring expertise in policy, finance, age-ready design, constructibility, and a range of other necessary inputs. The project is led by Partners for Livable Omaha, the creator and manager of FACT’s Omaha Mobile Stage. In addition to the subject matter experts advising the project, the OurStory design process will be followed by a cohort of existing and emerging small home developers creating infill housing and accessory dwellings in the Omaha metro and beyond.

The OurStory home fills the gap in the local market for constructible and financeable designs that can function as standalone small homes on odd sized lots, accessory dwelling units to existing homes, or as part of dense cottage courts and cluster communities using community land trusts or other innovative land tenancy regimes.

Beginning in Fall 2024 FACT will research, design, and document the project with the goal of producing a highly detailed set of construction documents and installing a public exhibition at Omaha by Design.

> This is an active project, check back periodically to see progress

Approaches to the Housing Crisis

What makes a house housing? Following a 2019 Brookings Institution report that argues “replacing detached single-family homes with ‘gentle density’ could increase the number of homes available and bring down average housing prices in high-cost locations, while retaining the physical scale of the neighborhood,” this project will explore a housing solution based on the single-family house. While affordable housing needs in urban communities benefit from multi-family complexes, or smaller “missing middle” housing types and the high density these types bring to a city, there are many communities where the single-family house and its variants are still relevant, or necessary. Thus, this project is not an argument against density or collective housing, but for the house to be one of a broad set of solutions to the housing crisis. The project argues for a repair of the single-family house to address housing needs in existing neighborhoods, vacant odd-lots, new dense developments and to uncover new opportunities for the type. As one example of its use, OurStory provides a new option for housing older adults wishing to downsize and remain in their neighborhoods as they age.

Project Team

students (Fall 2024):
TBD