Bobby Fijan
@bobbyfijan.bsky.social
📤 2674
📥 2202
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Building Housing for Families
I love townhouses. They're a housing type that has filled the neighborhoods of American cities around in and around downtowns for centuries Smaller, family oriented housing … so the young people who move in to the City for opportunity can have kids and STAY
www.thesisdriven.com/letters/the-...
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The Return of the Townhouse
An endangered housing typology is en vogue once more
https://www.thesisdriven.com/letters/the-return-of-the-townhouse/
13 days ago
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This is what we’re working on 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
add a skeleton here at some point
28 days ago
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Since the Road to Housing ban specifically excludes triplexes … the funniest take is that Warren is actually just trying to promulgate the Boston Triple-decker as the dominant BTR form across the US Imagine if this is how every new suburban community looked!
about 1 month ago
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SXSW Event.
@americanhousing.bsky.social
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 month ago
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Now **that's** a strange floorplan 1BR/1BA, 475sf, $2720/month, Washington DC
2 months ago
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I did a podcast with the Washington Post last week: How cities have become places of demographic churn (young people move in but leave when they have kids) ... and how my company is building housing to fix that.
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2 months ago
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The 3-Story Rowhouse is *THE* American prototype … the perfect starter home
3 months ago
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The best floorplan comment possible …
3 months ago
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I really like this 2BR/1BA floorplan in Kendall Square, Boston 720 square feet ... and deals with a narrow acute corner angle really well Developers don't really building 2BR/1BAs anymore
4 months ago
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Really enjoyed this podcast conversation with Aaron Renn. Any critiques I have of The City, are only because I want them to be great. I think in order to be truly great, they have to designed FOR families. So that young people can have kids and stay.
open.spotify.com/episode/7fUP...
4 months ago
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Wow. Here's an awesome (and efficient) bathroom layout with the separate toilet closet condition ... which I really like (don't need to have the window in the toilet room)
5 months ago
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One of the craziest rules inhibiting “Family Friendly” apartments is the application of Fair Housing Act Here is a (old) Christmas card photo for my family. I’m obviously biased but I also think this is a PERFECT lifestyle photo to illustrate the benefits of living in an apartment building
5 months ago
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In the urban downtown context "Family-Friendly" simply means a house where it's possible for a couple to have a baby ... which means having an extra "room" Like this 1100sf 2BR+Den/Nursery unit ... that also has a dining table instead of an island
5 months ago
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“Bobby Fijan is one of the country’s most vocal critics of his industry’s inertia” I’ll take it!
5 months ago
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We don't built apartments for families. Look at the distribution of units built in Bellevue, Washington. In buildings since 2010 with more than 20 units ... over 70% of new units are Studio or 1BRs, and less than 2% have 3+ bedrooms
5 months ago
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Rachel has been a reliably good and persistent writer on the topic of babies and housing for a long time now.
add a skeleton here at some point
5 months ago
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Cities will always be a magnet for the ambitious & adventurous. A great places to be young - if you don’t have kids Thats the heart of a Vox piece (I was quoted in) which explains how cities grew by attracting millennials but lost sight of the next step in people’s lives
www.vox.com/policy/46981...
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Cities made a bet on millennials — but forgot one key thing
Can cities learn to love kids again?
https://www.vox.com/policy/469816/cities-made-a-bet-on-millennials-but-forgot-one-key-thing
5 months ago
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Building family friendly housing is good people … and good for cities
www.vox.com/policy/46981...
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Cities made a bet on millennials — but forgot one key thing
Can cities learn to love kids again?
https://www.vox.com/policy/469816/cities-made-a-bet-on-millennials-but-forgot-one-key-thing
5 months ago
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The 16-18' wide rowhouse is the perfect "starter home” My company is building this 3-story rowhouse typology is bc it’s beautiful and functional as both detached AND attached … so it works in both urban & suburban neighrbhoods 1200-1600sf, 3-4BR units
5 months ago
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What does it look like for a City to be family friendly? “In the City, I want there to be so many babies, so many strollers … that it is as common for you to see a stroller as it is for you to see someone walking a dog.”
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5 months ago
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"If you want to stay in the city and raise your family there, you should be able to do that” “I think if a lot of these row houses here on Capitol Hill were $300,000 and you could just like buy one if you had a normal job, 80-90% of people would just do that”
open.spotify.com/episode/3bpq...
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A Floor Plan for Making Babies (ft. Bobby Fijan)
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3bpqOaBUCK1ka3SyOUWuRj?si=Q1fSONDGTkyuNnf1LlunlQ
5 months ago
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Wow St. Louis! I was not familiar with your game Might be the most striking apartment building I've seen. And it's 5 years old.
5 months ago
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This apartment building in Sacramento has the *perfect* lifestyle photo as their hero/header image New buildings never include any photos of any children.
5 months ago
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Oversized chess sets are the funniest apartment amenity … that no one ever uses.
5 months ago
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It’s a great time to be looking for an apartment in Nashville. Lease specials: 3 months free rent! A free cruise!
6 months ago
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Heroes
6 months ago
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reposted by
Bobby Fijan
Stephen Jacob Smith
6 months ago
Next Wednesday, November 19, I am participating in a panel discussion at AIA Brooklyn with
@holz-bau.bsky.social
and SO-IL's Jonathan Molloy about building code reform. It will be in-person in Downtown Brooklyn from 6 to 8:30 p.m., register free to attend here:
www.eventbrite.com/e/rethinking...
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Rethinking the Shape of the City: SingleStair Reform in Multifamily Housing
Hear from Michael Eliason, Jonathan Molloy and Stephen Smith.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rethinking-the-shape-of-the-city-singlestair-reform-in-multifamily-housing-tickets-1799392053069?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
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A great new paper on effects of smaller apartments on fertility: “A supply shift for large units generates 2.3 times more births than an equal-cost shift for small units. This analysis concludes the supply of housing suitable for families can meaningfully contribute to demographic sustainability”
6 months ago
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Toddler playrooms are an amenity that could easily be added to any new apartment building. They don't up take much space ... just like kids. Here's a cute (but small) one in a brand new building in DC
6 months ago
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A long, meandering, but fun, conversation I did on family apartments and making cities better for families
open.spotify.com/episode/1qEX...
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24 : Bobby Fijan - Family Matters
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1qEXmwovi5HlLhXNFPKHVH?si=uuUUM_pMTDC3D7kWmPOz6w
6 months ago
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A beautiful, simple, rowhome project I toured in Portland, Maine this year. 1100sf, 3BR+Den/2BA Small, efficient floorplans = affordable
6 months ago
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reposted by
Bobby Fijan
I agree w Emily there needs to be more housing for incremental life stages. I have 0 disagreements w her policy recommendations My emphasis for "family" housing (as a developer) is on building Baby Maybe units rather than Studios, bc I think they are under supplied relative to demand I'll explainđź”˝
add a skeleton here at some point
6 months ago
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I agree w Emily there needs to be more housing for incremental life stages. I have 0 disagreements w her policy recommendations My emphasis for "family" housing (as a developer) is on building Baby Maybe units rather than Studios, bc I think they are under supplied relative to demand I'll explainđź”˝
add a skeleton here at some point
6 months ago
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I normally don’t like painting brick … but these rowhomes in DC are charming
6 months ago
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Young people are increasingly living in larger apartment buildings For those who care about families and people having babies … since young people ARE living in those units, the key is to make it as easy as possible for younger couples to have their first child “Baby Maybe Housing”
6 months ago
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The 3-story rowhome is a Bedrock of America
6 months ago
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This is anti-natalist … and will only make apartments more complicated to lay out cod families People who want to have kids prefer apartments that have extra rooms
add a skeleton here at some point
6 months ago
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There's nothing inherently "better" about a smaller house ... and since a Mcmansion is almost certainly going to be larger (for what you can afford) the attributes of the Mcmansion *will* be better than a rowhome
6 months ago
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We need to build brownstones again. Masonry. Soundproof. Alley loaded. 1600sf, 3BR+Office/2.5BA
6 months ago
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A great end to the work week … riding my bike to my piano lesson
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6 months ago
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More research that supports that American families are willing to rent apartments … if they have extra bedrooms. Even in smaller unit sizes
www.globest.com/2025/10/17/r...
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Renters Say Their Priorities Have Changed But Landlords Aren’t Keeping Up
A national survey finds a mismatch between renter demand and apartment supply.
https://www.globest.com/2025/10/17/renters-say-their-priorities-have-changed-but-landlords-arent-keeping-up/
6 months ago
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Affordable housing in SF … for $670K/unit Insane
6 months ago
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My son had to do a house floorplan project for school … and he picked doing a “Roman style” house with an atrium complete with an arcade room and a bowling alley
6 months ago
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Bring back family friendly *photography* for housing
7 months ago
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It’s not that hard for young, ambitious, 22-28 year olds to live in *any* American City The problem, with affordability, comes when those same people are 30-36 and want to get married and have kids.
7 months ago
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How does a “Baby Maybe” apartment work in real life? Like this …
7 months ago
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“Let’s get you home” THIS is the moment The City loses families … when parents think they cannot *raise* their kids downtown (if moving is inevitable) then they think it’s better to bite the bullet and move NOW to the place they will be long term
7 months ago
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This is why we need to build “Baby Maybe” apartments … to make it easier for couples to have their first child earlier
7 months ago
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The most effective way for parents to be “convinced” to send their children to the local public school … is that when they ask around at the playground “So where do YOU send your kids” is to hear parents of older kids say “We send ours to the local elementary school” Moral shaming does not work
7 months ago
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This is what I want for the City, and why I want to build "starter homes" for young urban families ...
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7 months ago
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