Robert Sharp

Architect specializing in New Urbanism, energy efficient housing, walkable neighborhoods, and regional culture.

[Robert Sharp @sharp_architect]

"The architect alone is responsible for what leaves his drawing board and carries his signature. No politician or developer will bear the architect's guilt for a botched environment." Rob Krier

[Robert Sharp @sharp_architect]

@UrbanCourtyard I love the term "Austerity Facade" and I will be using it in the future.

[Incremental Development Alliance @IncDevAlliance]

We've made the cheapest forms of housing illegal, difficult, or financially impossible to produce, then we are shocked when the poorest folks can't find housing.

If we want fewer people living outside, we need to rebuild the housing ladder from the bottom up.

[Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist @UrbanCourtyard]

That’s interesting about the difference in rent control affecting flat development.

Another way the post-war Spanish development differs from pre-war is that the roads and buildings are much larger. The pre-war developments are finer-grained, have smaller lots, smaller buildings.

[Samuel Hughes @SCP_Hughes]

Almost all of the cities of the West sprawl, with high rise cores giving way to mid-rise blocks, to rowhouses, to detached homes, to exurbs and only then to countryside. One country stands out as an exception: Spain.

Even today, Spanish cities expand in mid-rise blocks including shops and businesses, served by extensive metros, and structured in traditional courtyard blocks. The style of the facades has changed, but in other respects they are still close to the urbanism of Barcelona’s nineteenth-century Eixample neighbourhood.

This is extremely distinctive. Americans often imagine that all European cities are like this, but actually most Europeans switched over to car-dependent suburbia in the twentieth century, much like the American norm.

https://t.co/0Z7tN9KTkC

Why did Spain diverge?

- Spain remained very poor until late in the twentieth century, limiting suburbanisation. By the time Spain was rich enough for suburbs, new urbanist ideals were already beginning to appear.

- Traditional Spanish flat-building practices were not decimated by rent controls as they were in France and Germany, avoiding a forcible switch to owner-occupied single-family houses.

- The Spanish state still plans street networks like European and American municipalities in the nineteenth century, and Spanish landowners normally pool their land in land readjustment schemes to create a unified landowner.

Spain never really had a conscious plan to diverge from international urban norms – the divergence happened partly by accident. But it shows that multiple ways of building cities remain possible in affluent societies.

Today, hundreds of Asian cities are near the densities and GDPs of Spain in the 1960s, when the Spanish Divergence began. If they want, they can choose the Spanish path, and grow like modern Madrid (left) rather than modern Alburquerque (right).

[Street Design @Street_Design]

@Tesho13 @JeffSpeckFAICP @mnolangray @DonaldShoup Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk says, “This book should be required reading in schools of urban design, architecture, and landscape architecture, and an understanding of it should be part of the licensing requirements for civil, traffic, and transportation engineers.”

[Ollier Smurthwaite @OS_Architects]

We are developing some proposals for a modern mansion block with taller ceilings, more windows, better communal areas and a private garden. We’ve been researching Albert Hall Mansions and Richard Norman Shaw who is credited with making flats desirable to the aspiring Victorian middle classes @archi_tradition @Aesthetic_City @createstreets

[Ollier Smurthwaite @OS_Architects]

We have some new visuals to share for our Charter House scheme on Churchgate in Stockport for 27 dual aspect homes. Work will start on site later this year. @archi_tradition @Aesthetic_City @stopinstockport

[Robert Sharp @sharp_architect]

@shawngorham @RandallHouseRE

[Midwest Antiquarian @Eric_Erins]

We used to have these. They were called Apartment Hotels. They’d consist of a single room with a bathroom, housecleaning, a cafeteria and lounges. Imagine being able to rent month to month and not need to furnish an apartment. It was ideal. Nuts we got rid of these.

[Hamilton 🇺🇸 @Watchman_motto]

One thing you’ll notice on old homes is, the roof lines are always reasonable and exist due to the structure of the house requiring it.

In this case, a gabled roof with the ends perpendicular to the front of the house, gabled dormer on the second floor looking out. They chose to make the entry gabled over the stairs, but that was a style decision, and it makes sense.

Modern homes have the most ridiculous roof lines that don’t correspond to anything inside the house.

[Fortress - Zac & Michelle Burton @TheFortressInc]

This will spark some controversy 😂🙄

We pour all our driveways on every single house or townhome we build PRIOR to framing. 95% of our projects are specs. We’ve been doing it this way for 15+ years…

PROS:
-Keeps the jobsite immaculately clean.
-Very few calls from the stormwater guy.
-Materials stay out of the mud.
-Concrete guys never have to come back which saves $$$$ on every bid we get.

CONS:
-Driveway gets dirty (power wash it).
-Framers have to keep lift off driveway.

We were called crazy & stupid so many times when we started doing this by subcontractors, realtors & our competitors. In 15+ years we’ve never lost a house sale or townhome sale because of it, and it’s saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars when you multiply the savings over hundreds of homes & townhomes.

We poured this driveway yesterday at our Nicklaus Circle spec 👊🏽 Framing will start next week.

[Robert Sharp @sharp_architect]

@nealjclark1 Highly likely to have a good outcome there.

[Robert Sharp @sharp_architect]

@CharlestonArchi I feel that we need a program where useful neighborhood businesses like hardware and office supply stores are eligible for philanthropy, just like opera houses and museums.

[Robert Sharp @sharp_architect]

@kylej2444 @RandallHouseRE HPRs are uncommon here. The previous owner understood the value of the unit as a rental and probably had some serious owner fatigue.

[Robert Sharp @sharp_architect]

Some of us were just put on this earth to draw townhouses.

[Robert Kwolek @RobertKwolek]

The homes in Lonsdale Square, Islington, are like few other buildings in London. Finished in 1845 in a Gothic Revival style, they take you entirely by surprise, emerging unexpectedly from the surrounding Georgian terraces.

[Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist @UrbanCourtyard]

Family friendly density

[Robert Sharp @sharp_architect]

@AustinTunnell @bobbyfijan And, of course, creating more places where people want to live.

[Erik Bootsma🌸🇳🇱 @ErikBootsma]

I believe that instead of building apartments for NPCs, we should be building great buildings that enhance the character and personality of our cities, instead of erasing them.

Our proposal for mixed-use development of 30 apartments and 6 townhouses for Richmond on Main Street.