The building in the picture is actually two houses with the interior one set back from the street in keeping with the context of the neighborhood. While I will agree that this is not an ideal choice for an urban street and would prefer all the homes built to the sidewalk, that is not the case in East Kensington. The street line is broken by occasional setbacks and at the time it seemed important to match the neighborhood in scale and shape even while experimenting in facade design. So, in short, it is properly connected to the adjacent home.

The location of utility meters are not the choice of the developer in Philadelphia, or if they are it requires more bribe money than we have budgeted. We tried as hard as we could to place meters elsewhere but the utilities put them where they like. Perhaps it would have been kinder to ask before assuming that was a design choice.

The new house is probably about the same size if not a bit smaller than most of the existing homes. It does have higher ceilings and a higher parapet wall which makes it slightly higher than the average two-story.

The whole urban argument is very confusing as we are currently in a period of regeneration in our cities. For the first time ever more people live in cities than live outside of them. Philadelphia’s population is finally growing again after the “flight” of last century. All indications show that the majority of people moving into the housing market over the next decade will want denser homes in walkable neighborhoods because those neighborhoods are more vibrant, more sustainable and more convenient.

These homes are not charity cases. These are real urban solutions. We have built 8 so far and sold them all well before we have finished building them. Our buyers are teachers, small business owners, IT guys, students and landscapers. These are real people who can’t find a home that fits them in the sprawl of cookie cutter houses, multi-acre parking lots, divided highways and shopping centers that define most of our suburban landscape, and there are a lot more like them.

Homes like this should be one of the new models for a changing world. Small, dense, super-efficient, urban houses need to be a significant part of our ongoing development if we hope to lessen the amount of energy and carbon we use. Granted, they won’t all look like these homes, but not everyone wants a colonial knock-off either.

I would be happy to go on, but feel this comment has already gotten a bit lengthy. Thanks for taking the time to comment Lazyreader. I wish it hadn’t seemed so aggressively anti-us, but I appreciate the opportunity to clarify.