The secret to infill development might be found in old Sears catalogs

This is an installation of The Upzone’s ongoing series, Where Did the Missing Middle Go? We’ll go back in time to look at historical examples of housing that was simple, affordable, and modifiable, in cities all across the United States.

There was a time, about a century ago, when you could order a house in a box from Sears. It would come in pieces, and you could assemble it yourself in fewer than three months. A delivery-order house includes a lot of components, obviously — an estimated 30,000 pieces including lumber, moldings, windows, doors, appliances, fixtures, and everything else except the plaster and masonry. As advertised, the average homebuyer could construct one in fewer than three months, armed with only a 75-page instruction manual, and pay the equivalent of about $32,000 for the materials alone. Or, if you wanted to pay for help, $64,000.

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Sears, which started offering mail-order homes in 1908, was just one of several companies selling DIY house kits. With the exception of the short-lived Homart kits, which were pre-made pieces that the buyer could bolt together, these weren’t prefabricated. They were high-quality, lasting materials that could be assembled to one of 470 plans, which the buyer could pick out of a catalog. Those plans covered an expansive variety of styles and sizes, from modest bungalows to elegant Craftsmans to stately pre-colonials.

By the time Sears homes were discontinued at the end of the 1940s, Americans had built 75,000 of them. And most of them are still standing — there is an entire thriving blog ecosystem devoted to the hunting and cataloging of surviving Sears homes. Many of them even have historical designations.

One strength of these catalog homes hasn’t been reproduced since, even by modular builders: They were roughly 30-40 percent cheaper than conventionally built homes. They relied on typical, simple methods of construction, and all the materials were pre-measured and cut. Because the houses were so popular, their prices could benefit from economies of scale.

There are other lessons that catalog homes are bringing to housing policy today. The process of getting city approval and the correct permits for an architectural plan is one well-acknowledged headache in the process of housing construction. The Sears model suggests an interesting solution: a kit of pre-approved designs that can be built on any lot of the right dimensions.

That’s the inspiration for an innovative city planning tool called “pattern zoning.” It provides a catalog of templates for new homes that have pre-approval with the city’s planning department. Those templates are drafted with a couple of goals in mind: to complement the aesthetic of existing neighborhoods, and to fit any prevailing zoning requirements like building height and setbacks. Builders can choose a plan and know that they can easily get permits for it, eliminating an expensive and stressful step of the construction process.

A few cities across the country have started implementing this tool:

• South Bend, Indiana: For Strong Towns, Daniel Herriges reports that the town of South Bend, Indiana has a mission to spur infill development on vacant lots, and the city has put together an inventory of pre-approved plans that are free to builders. Herriges writes: “The plans, developed with the help of incremental developers and design experts, are specifically crafted for South Bend’s existing neighborhoods, where they fit the current zoning rules, lot sizes and shapes, and market conditions, and nod to the city’s historic architectural vernacular.”
• Bryan, Texas: The city — which neighbors College Station, the home of Texas A&M University — turned one of its central neighborhoods into the Midtown Pattern Zone. In collaboration with architects, the city developed customizable plans for four different types of homes that could be pre-approved as infill housing on certain blocks within the neighborhood. The Congress for New Urbanism recognized Bryan’s efforts “raise the level of design for economical infill” in its 2020 CNU Charter Awards.
• Norfolk, Virginia: In 2021, Norfolk’s Department of Planning developed and published a Missing Middle Pattern Book to provide designs for a variety of multi-family homes, from duplexes to bungalow courtyards. The city worked with architectural firms to develop plans based on existing historical homes around Norfolk from the early 1900s. The templates they came up with are “fully modular and can fit on narrow-width lots.”
• Sacramento, California: As Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) become more and more popular across the state, the city of Sacramento offers three “permit-ready plans” — for a studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom, respectively — for ADUs that can be freely used by any homeowner or builder.

Some of the best solutions to roadblocks in the housing construction process are really simple — and easily replicated. Almost like you could pick them out of a catalog.