We are urban designers and architects who believe in the transformative power of beautiful, sustainable, walkable communities for all.
Featured Projects
Culdesac Tempe: A Car-Free Neighborhood
Tempe, Arizona
Memphis 3.0 Comprehensive Plan
Memphis, TN
Bungalows On The Lake at Prairie Queen: A Missing Middle Neighborhood
Papillion, NE
Vallco Town Center Specific Plan
Cupertino, CA
Downtown Davis Specific Plan + Form-Based Code
Davis, CA
Mews Homes™
South Jordan, Utah
Seaside Town Square and Beachfront Master Plan
Seaside, Florida
Cincinnati Citywide Form-Based Code and Comprehensive Plan Land Use Framework
Cincinnati, Ohio
Memphis 3.0 Comprehensive Plan
Memphis, TN
Vallco Town Center Specific Plan
Cupertino, CA
Downtown Davis Specific Plan + Form-Based Code
Davis, CA
Cincinnati Citywide Form-Based Code and Comprehensive Plan Land Use Framework
Cincinnati, Ohio
Culdesac Tempe: A Car-Free Neighborhood
Tempe, Arizona
Bungalows On The Lake at Prairie Queen: A Missing Middle Neighborhood
Papillion, NE
Mews Homes™
South Jordan, Utah
Seaside Town Square and Beachfront Master Plan
Seaside, Florida
Missing Middle Housing
Walkable, attainable communities people love to call home
Opticos principal Daniel Parolek inspired a new movement for housing choice in 2010 when he introduced the concept of the “missing middle” in American housing. Today, Opticos creates innovative architectural designs to help build walkable communities with unique, diverse housing choices that are attainable for all.
Zoning codes for
people-centered places
Opticos is a world leader in zoning reform for walkable, sustainable communities. We didn’t create form-based coding, but we’ve been trailblazers in the field for more than 20 years. We are experts in understanding how the form of buildings will shape community spaces, and we can simplify the process of introducing form-based codes with a predictable build-out.
We Can Help By
Recent Awards
PCBC Gold Nugget Award of Merit
Best Multi-Family Housing Community - under 17 du/acre
Papillion, Nebraska
FBCI Form-Based Code Award
Multi-jurisdictional Objective Design + Development Standards
Marin County, California
Latest From Opticos
On the boardsWhat we're working on
ADU Guidance Policies & Prototype Test Fits
Yuba City, California
Objective Design Standards Administrative Draft Finalized
Citrus Heights, California
10 Acre Infill Master Plan and Architecture
Florence, Alabama
Objective Design & Development Standards, Six Site Visualizations
Sausalito, California
Design Thinking | Marin County Objective Design Standards Shared Zoning Toolkit
The Marin County Objective Design Standards Toolkit resulted from a multijurisdictional collaborative effort to address State law requirements and facilitate ministerial approvals for housing projects. This article was originally published in the American Planning Association, California Chapter – Northern Section newsletter authored by Stefan Pellegrini, AICP, Opticos Design Principal and Jillian Zeiger, AICP, Senior Planner at the County of Marin.
2023 Missing Middle Solutions and Car-Free Urbanism Road Tour
Opticos is hitting the road! Come join Daniel Parolek at one of his upcoming speaking events to discuss all things walkable urbanism-related, including the state of Missing Middle Housing applications around the world, including Opticos’ latest Missing Middle Scans and Deep Dives™, a County-wide Zoning Toolkit for Marin County intended to deliver much-needed housing options, and Housing Plans for various cities including Modesto and Sacramento, California, the latest updates on the implementation of Culdesac Tempe, the county’s first car-free community built from scratch and Prairie Queen, the country’s first 100% Missing Middle Neighborhood which utilizes the Missing Middle Neighborhood Kit™. There will be some frank discussions about existing barriers for implementing walkable urbanism, why we have not made more progress enabling it, and what organizations are leading the way in these conversations.
Five Years of Successful Projects and Partnership with the City of Memphis, Tennessee
The success of the partnership between Opticos and the City of Memphis demonstrates what is possible when City and community priorities align around a visionary comprehensive plan. For five years, they have worked together on building local capacity and rehabilitating relationships between the City and the community early in the planning process. This laid a strong foundation for later implementation efforts of planning, coding, and design projects, which are quickly showing what it means for Memphis to “build up, not out” in its third century.