Multifamily Development Suggests Possibilities for Urban Senior Housing

John Dutton, author of the 2001 book New American Urbanism: Re-Forming the Suburban Metropolis, believes that retrofitting suburbs is one of the great issues facing American planners today. While current housing in these "naturally occurring retirement communities" leave much to be desired architecturally, he says, "if you don’t look at the dresses these buildings are wearing and instead look at the fact that they’re dense, that they’re mixed-use and create great streets, and that they offer different housing types—all of that is really radical. Senior housing has to be that radical."