We have all heard the “American Dream” of a white-picket-fenced yard surrounding our 1,600 sf brick 3 bedroom 2 bath home with a deck and big backyard. That sounds amazing in 1980 when that dream cost around $55,000. With the average income of that era you could easily qualify for a 30-year mortgage and still take a family vacation. As we move into 2026 that same home will cost around $500,000 if you can even find one for sale. With the median income in 2026 for a family the stretch mortgage is in the range of $350,000. As a result a townhouse has become the new “starter home” and even that can be a stretch as demand outpaces construction. With short supply and high demand for home ownership, we are seeing the average age of a first time home buyer go up from 1980 when it was 29 to today where the average is 40.
As we see the demand for townhouses to fill the void for first time home buyers, we are also seeing a growing demand for luxury townhouse solutions. Families are making these communities that now offer clubhouses, community pools, landscape maintenance, playgrounds, and dog parks their lifetime homes. In 2025 townhouse construction hit a record market share of over 18% of all single-family home starts.
Is there a better way?
Another approach that is emerging in many communities is multi-generational dream homes, accessory dwelling units, and tiny houses. Each of these bring flexibility to the dream. The ADU backyard movement provides diversity of housing in a community at a lower price point. It can be used as an ADA compliant unit or a secondary income to support a higher mortgage. The tiny home enables a lower price point for purchase of a home with the option to do an addition in the future if needed. We are working on multiple projects that fall into each of these categories.
The new American Dream builds a stronger future
The new American Dream often brings a higher level of design than the 1980 brick ranch adding style, durability, energy-efficiency, and indoor environmental quality as driving factors. The new dream brings families together, builds stronger communities, and deepens a focus on quality over quantity. I am excited to see the future we are shaping with these innovative project types.
In multi-family design, we are designing communities and creating homes for a wide range of people. There are many requirements that must be considered such as code-required fire and egress stipulations, accessibility and fair housing concerns, and individual jurisdiction zoning requirements. For a successful multi-family design project, the goal is to find the balance between minimizing costs and creating inviting communities that rise above your competition, staying occupied and profitable for years to come. Some of our many considerations with initial multi-family design are below.
Keep your target market in mind.
Optimizing the site plan for density of units, parking, and resident access is key.
The site should be comfortable for your residents.
Building design should be simple but attractive.
Create as few unit types as possible.
Building science is an important consideration through the design of the building details.
Moisture intrusion is a major consideration in all building types, but especially in multi-family construction where any issues could result in costly repairs and unoccupiable units.
When specifying materials in multi-family construction, the instinct is to use very inexpensive materials to save costs. However, using cost-competitive, durable materials will keep the building working properly longer with less maintenance cost.
The quality of the drawings and specifications is just as important as the quality of the design.
Lastly and most importantly, picking a small architecture firm with years of experience in multifamily design can make the process most tailored to you, your site, and your prospective residents.
Keep in mind that the development varies by area, site, budget, and aesthetic goals. If you are considering developing land for a multi-family project, please reach out and we will be happy to share our resource guide.
When designing custom residences, we have maximum flexibility in designing spaces that accommodate our particular clients. This, of course, takes into account a client’s family size and structure, routines, hobbies, and future considerations. This is also true for a particular client’s mobility issues or concerns for the future. We are able to create spaces around custom equipment, body size and capabilities, and other individual considerations. However, when designing apartments or commercial spaces, we are designing with the entire public in mind, which includes a very wide range of mobility issues and devices.
In the near future, Virginia will be adopting a new code cycle, which includes references to the revised 2017 version of ANSI A117.1, which is the accessibility standards referenced in the International Building Code. What is interesting about these revised standards is all of the research that went behind setting those standards. Most of these changes are based on the 2010 Anthropometry of Wheeled Mobility report, which studied body and device measurements in individuals with a wide range of custom mobility devices, including standard wheelchairs, motorized wheelchairs, and scooters. The original ANSI 117.1 standards were based on a study in the mid-1970s that studied 60 wheelchair-bound individuals. This new study looked at almost 500 individuals and included technology such as 3D scanning to get accurate measurements and comparisons. The findings were then compared against standards in different countries to get an idea of how to set the “building block” dimensions. The findings concluded that the latest standards from 2009 were accommodating roughly 80% of individuals, while the revised standard will accommodate closer to 95% of individuals. While it can be tricky to accommodate some special requirements in places where space is limited, it is exciting to know that the spaces we design will be accessible to a greater number of individuals. Navigating the built environment with a disability can be incredibly difficult, and we are in a unique position to make that easier on our friends and neighbors in our community.
Phase II of Meadow Branch Apartments, a multi-family Luxury Living Community in Winchester, is underway. We are excited to share a few unique features.
This project is our first to design a Canine Activity Center. The center includes an indoor playground and a dog spa where owners can wash their pups. Perfect for dog-lovers and their pets, and relaxing and fun is had by everyone involved.
From the beginning of this project, environmental considerations have been woven into the design, and the design choices can even be seen all the way from a drone (pictures provided below by KBS). We used permeable pavers for some of the parking which is visible in some of the pictures. This type of pavement is gaining interest in North America and acts as a stormwater management system, reducing heavy flow of run-off.
We also intentionally preserved many trees on-site, including two massive oak trees in the middle of the site which are also visible from the sky. This community makes movement and connection to natural-greenery even more accessible by connecting to a great walking trail and providing extensive bike storage.
If there is one thing we know to be certain, it’s that Adrienne Stronge is no stranger to hard work and setting big goals. As a licensed architect with 16 years of experience under her belt, Adrienne is a respected professional in our industry who credits her entry into architecture to small seeds that were planted throughout her life beginning as early as middle school.
Originally from West Point, Virginia, Adrienne grew up loving to read and research. Her first engagement with the world of architecture came when she participated in a governor’s school program that focused on researching historical regional houses. This experience of researching and building a house model planted a seed as she moved into high school and started paying more attention to the built environment. Also during this time, her family began buying and renovating houses which gave Adrienne a front-row seat to the ways small changes could dramatically affect the way a residence functioned. It was also during Adrienne’s high school career someone told her architecture was a “male profession” and that architecture school would be “too challenging” to get into. To that point, Adrienne fully accepted the challenge and earned early acceptance to one of the top architecture schools, the University of Virginia. Like all new challenges, doubt crept in and Adrienne recalls driving to UVA for the first time second-guessing her decision and the path ahead of her. Once she arrived, Adrienne immediately recalls a feeling of reassurance and an understanding that she was exactly where she needed to be.
Fast forward to her senior year at UVA, Adrienne was busier than she could have ever imagined. While taking a full course load, working four part-time jobs (you read that correctly, four!); she was also in the ecoMOD studio where her team built a modular house in an aircraft hangar. The house was built to be transported to Mississippi to aid in Hurricane Katrina relief and Adrienne traveled to the Gulf Coast three separate times to do relief aid and prep work for the Habitat House. Finding time for interviews was challenging and after talking to a few firms in the area, nothing was feeling like a good fit. That changed when, quite out of the blue, Ray Gaines reached out and asked her to interview at the Gaines Group. As it turns out, a former Gaines Group client who interacted with Adrienne referred her to the firm knowing she would be a good fit. Adrienne recalls the funny experience of not being able to find an interview time amongst all of her commitments and Ray asking her to spontaneously stop by on her way to work on the Habitat House. Ray said he didn’t expect her in interview attire and he wouldn’t hold it against her if and when she showed up in jeans with holes and liquid nail stains, and an old t-shirt. Although Ray was not expecting formal attire, he hadn’t mentioned it to Charles and Paul who questioned why the firm would be interested in hiring someone who showed up in a questionable outfit.
Adrienne officially became a Licensed Architect in 2022
Sixteen years into working at the Gaines Group and Adrienne is a licensed architect with a great depth of experience and a specialization in multi-family design. Her favorite part of being an architect is having an impact on the way people interact with the built environment. She has a special passion for designing environments that ensure accessibility for people of all abilities. This passion stems from a close relationship she had with a family member whose progressive disease confined him to a wheelchair. Adrienne was a first-hand witness to the challenges he navigated interacting with his built environment and the frustrations that came when his opportunities were limited due to accessibility limitations. For this reason, she especially loves working on multifamily projects where she gets to create whole communities with access for everyone throughout the site. These projects create unique challenges when considering accessibility, but Adrienne finds it extra rewarding to solve these design dilemmas. One of her favorite elements to design is accessible pools for people with all abilities to be able to safely enjoy. Additionally, she enjoys focusing on multifamily design as she gets to create smaller, efficient spaces that comfortably fit into an overall design goal while meeting budget constraints.
Outside of being an architect, Adrienne is busy with her family and hobbies. She has been married to her husband Andrew since 2007. Andrew is an artist and an illustrator known for live-printing and local comic-cons and together they travel to many of these local events. In 2020, they welcomed their son Alister to their family and the trips to comic shows have slowed down since having a toddler in tow. Their 16-year-old pug-mix Spudnik is also a beloved family member and together they love traveling and exploring new places. Adrienne has no shortage of hobbies and likes to unwind by reading from her large book collection and doing jigsaw puzzles. She and Andrew have a vintage robot and space toy collection that they enjoy “hunting” for at flea markets, antique stores, and yard sales. Andrew runs their small business buying and selling vintage toys, games, and books, both online and in their booths at a store in Richmond, VA (Odd Balls Collectibles).
These photos are from our Meadow Branch project in Winchester, Virginia where “green design” meant focusing on tree-saving measures. At first glance, these aerial photos capture the beginning phases of construction, but the real story is these beautiful oak trees and the surrounding trees around the property boundary. Preserving these trees and incorporating the centuries-old landmarks into the center of the site was critical to this design.
The above photo shows the trees remaining at the center of the site.
These photos show Phase II of the Meadow Branch project progress and you can catch a glimpse of our design for Phase I completed in the background. If you look closely, you can see the orange fence line outside the boundaries of the drip line. This extra care to preserve the historic trees along with the technical expertise of the arborist involved will give the trees the best chance of survival. We always enjoy seeing aerial photos of our projects taking shape, thank you KBS Builders for these photographs!
Phase II of Meadow Branch Apartments with Phase I completed in the background.
As this project continues to take shape, we are looking forward to seeing these trees become a central part of the design!
