A Year in the Life at Opticos: 2021 in Review

For one last time in 2021, the Opticos team gathered at the office to pause and reflect upon all that we had accomplished this past year. It was a wonderful reminder of the project milestones, professional development, team building exercises, and overall fun we had in the last twelve months as we resumed meetings in the office and travelled nationwide to project sites, community engagement workshops, and speaking events.

The ENU Place Summit: Breaking Down Barriers to Advance and Connect Emerging Professionals within CNU

The Emerging New Urbanists Task Force held their first annual ENU Place Summit in San Francisco/Berkeley (hosted by Opticos), Chicago, New Haven/NYC, and via virtual platforms concurrently in October 2021. This inaugural event celebrated the creation of the Emerging New Urbanist (ENU) Task Force – a team of rising leaders dedicated to their mission of advancing the goals of the Charter of the New Urbanism with a focus on empowering emerging professionals to shape the future of the CNU.

Memphis 3.0 Community Anchors: Reinvesting in Local Neighborhoods to Positively Impact Memphians

The Daniel Burnham Award-winning Memphis 3.0 Comprehensive Plan charted a bold new vision for how the City of Memphis, Tennessee would “grow up, not out” as it embarks on its third century. Opticos Design was thrilled to assist the City of Memphis as they lead the innovative 3.0 Comprehensive Plan on behalf of a multidisciplinary team of national and local consultants. It was a pleasure to be invited back to help the city implement the plan through a series of small area planning projects.

Bringing Missing Middle Back to Greenville, South Carolina

If you’ve ever been to Greenville, South Carolina, you can understand why so many people want to live there. It’s got a small-town feel, is only a short walk or bike ride into nature and has beautiful tree-lined streets with great physical character. But along with that appeal comes housing-related growing pains: higher housing costs with few choices, aside from detached houses and apartment developments. Recently, Greenville found themselves looking for an innovative approach to address their wide range of housing needs and interests. 

Houselessness: Not “Someone Else’s” Problem

Shelter is an integral part of the human condition and an aspect of our lives that can be easily taken for granted. Many consider housing and shelter to be a fundamental human right. But this thinking feels jarringly disconnected with the unpleasant reality that on any given night, approximately half a million Americans are left unsheltered. Of those people, 19% are chronically homeless and 6% are veterans. Disturbingly, the fastest growing segment is families with children.