Pocket Neighborhoods grew out of the work of Ross Chapin and his colleagues, but the idea is beyond any one person or style. It is pattern of housing that fosters a strong sense of community among nearby neighbors, while preserving their need for privacy. Examples can be found across the spectrum, from small towns, to suburbs to urban areas.

Join us in person or via Zoom for a discussion of the history of pocket neighborhoods, their applicability to today's housing crisis, and the intersection of pocket neighborhoods and 15-minute neighborhoods.

About the Author

Ross Chapin, FAIA, is an architect, neighborhood planner, and author based on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle, Washington.

In the mid-1990s, Ross responded to pressures for larger and more expensive homes by helping write a “cottage housing” zoning ordinance that incentivized smaller homes around a shared commons area.

Ross Chapin

He teamed up with Jim Soules, a developer known in Petaluma for Keller Court Commons, to demonstrate their viability. Their success seeded a nation-wide movement. Ross has been a development partner in seven “pocket neighborhood” projects in the Seattle region and has designed more than 150 communities across North America, many of which received international media coverage, professional peer review and national design awards. Ross wrote a book about this development type, Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small Scale Community in a Large Scale World, which continues to influence policy makers, developers, architects, community housing advocates, and homeowners.

With the dire affordable housing crisis, Ross is leaning into the issue, bringing his expertise to work with nonprofit groups to help create resilient communities. He is a founding member of Home On Whidbey, a Community Land Trust.