History of US affordable housing

April 4, 2005 | Uncategorized

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to keep making billion dollar programmatic mistakes.” — developer George Santayana

 

If you live in or travel to Philadelphia, Seattle, Hartford, Atlanta, or Chicago, any time between now and next August, try to take in “Affordable Housing: Designing an American Asset,” an exhibition co-sponsored by the Fannie Mae Foundation, the National Association of Realtors, and the National Building Museum.

 

 NBM_exhibit_graphic

 

I happened to catch this when it was at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, and it’s well worth taking in, both for the current design awards and for the wonderful — dare I say unique? — chronicle of American affordable housing history (script version, 66 pages, .pdf) — of places such as Levittown — that it presents.

 

 Levittown_house_1948

Levittown, 1948: the post-war American Dream

 

The exhibition will travel as follows:

 

March 21-May 27: Philadelphia

July 1-August 27: Seattle

September 1-October 16: Hartford

January 21, 2006-March 19: Atlanta

August 4-20, 2006: Chicago

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