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.

Reflecting on the New York Times Article “What Happened to the Starter Home”

This excellent article, which features Opticos’ Mews Homes in Daybreak and a quote from Founding Principal Dan Parolek, reinforces that it is not just generally a lack of housing that is causing today’s housing crisis, but more specifically the lack of smaller, attainably-priced starter homes.

Top Five Missing Middle Housing Mistakes to Avoid: Mistake #2

This is part two in our five part series on the top five mistakes cities and states make with regards to regulating Missing Middle Housing.

Top Five Mistakes to Avoid When Enabling Missing Middle Housing in your City or State: Don’t Get This Wrong

The Top 5 Missing Middle Housing Mistakes Series Part 1

Creating Space for Emerging Professionals at CNU

The Emerging New Urbanists (ENU) made their first appearance at CNU this past March with the primary goal of creating a space for these emerging professionals to share with and learn from each other. They prioritized welcoming all new voices and encouraged the sharing of new ideas. Opticos Design’s very own Singeh Saliki, Cal Kurtz (ENU Co-Chair), and Beth Cichon (ENU Team Lead) have been participants since ENU’s founding, helping grow membership to nearly 100 active members.