Development Time Scale

On the left, a nameless, placeless apartment/condo/something detailed like a caricature of what it's supposed to be and put up in a year or two. Nothing but footprint & parking. On the right, the Cotton District, known to smart urbanists in many parts of the planet. Similar density to the left development, the Cotton District has been maturing since Dan Camp took over a decrepit mill village in the late 1960s and begin refining it into what is now one of the most if not the most notable place in Mississippi.

Remarkably, Dan turned it into student housing with a remarkable mix of uses. It's also the national champion of Missing Middle Housing building types per acre, many of them executed in highly fanciful ways, their architecture a Mississippi version of great places Dan found on his many travels. Today, there are probably thousands of people who say things like "I so love the Cotton District! So many of the best memories of my life are based there!" No kidding... ask around.

The contrast between these two development types couldn't be clearer. One took 20-25 times as long to develop but is deeply beloved and has fans around the world. The other one? Nobody even knows its name. Except the immediate locals, of course. Simply put, if you want to throw up a development fast that need not last longer than its cap rate dictates, go left. But if you want to build a neighborhood, or a town, go right. It will take decades. But if you build a place people love, it may be the only development you ever need to do. Seriously.

Many Town Founders were conventional developers in their pre-New Urbanism years, but when they converted to the New Urbanism, their first NU neighborhood or town became the entire rest of their careers. Robert and Daryl Davis of Seaside are a classic example, working now into their 45th year there with their son Micah taking over much of the work today as Seaside nears completion. Was it worth it? Robert told me "I've made more money on the last 5% of the lots I've sold than on the first 95%. You be the judge; does that sound good to you?

Travel Widely

Dan Camp told me years ago "I didn't dream all this stuff up. I traveled the world looking for great ideas I could bring home to the Cotton District and make them our own." The key was the last four words: "... make them our own." Without making them Mississippian in some way, the Cotton District would have been a menagerie of unrelated artifacts. It takes great patience to pull this off, because asking yourself "how does this idea find a home here" doesn't usually produce an immediate answer. But if you spend enough time with the question, the answer will usually become clear.

Cultivate Curiosity

"How did they pull that off?" In all your travels capturing images of compelling stuff, this is one of the most important questions you can ask. Capturing images is easy; figuring out the process which created this artifact for this people in this place with these materials at hand in these conditions on the ground is where wisdom lies. Most people don't have the patience to distill what can be seen down to the underlying process which cannot be seen, which makes all the difference between the aforementioned menagerie and a truly great place. Be forever curious about what lies beneath the superficial.

In the beginning, curiosity cultivation is a slow slog. But the more you distill, the more data points (I call them "dots") you have to connect, and the greater mental network you'll have into which new dots will find their appropriate places.

Building Type Catalog

This is a compact and clever version of a Missing Middle Housing Upper type located in the Cotton District. I've been tagging images of Missing Middle Housing types for several years, ever since the idea was introduced by Karen and Dan Parolek. I've also been tagging other types from the Pattern Language framework and several other frameworks, including types found frequently within the New Urbanism. A deep understanding of building types is essential to urbanism work, but without the metadata tagging, they would just be pretty pictures and at a glance, I might miss the most important stories of each of them. Tagging takes time, but it's time well spent.

Pattern Catalog

Building types are patterns because they occur again and again, but because they're building-size, they're larger than most. There are dozens of patterns in this image, from several types each of eaves, doors and windows and their surrounds and glazing patterns, to railing types, to pilaster types, and on it goes. Images on which I've taken the time to tag with metadata are very useful in everything from design review to pattern books. But without the tags, they're just pretty pictures, as the building types catalog images would be without their metadata tags.

Tactical Urbanism

Few tools are more patient than Tactical Urbanism because it begins with the leanest of means, like paint on pavement calling attention to crosswalks, and a to-do list of things that can get done on a weekend, or even overnight. And an orange vest is all the apparent authority you need in most places. But from those speedy and humble beginnings, longterm improvements can emerge that might never have been funded or implemented without beginning tactically.

Incremental Development

The Cotton District isn't just the national champion of Missing Middle Housing types per acre, but also a great model of Incremental Development, with everything built in small increments, and all the newer buildings point-access three story walk-ups with no interior corridors or elevators. In short, it's what housing advocates across the country have been seeking to implement for years. And all these measures are afforability tools, which is perfect because nearly all the buildings are housing for Mississippi State University students, with campus just a short bike ride or walk away.