The pandemic has disrupted the typical supply-and-demand dynamic in many industries. In the short term, this is especially true for Hospitality. Thus, the topic of converting “distressed properties” to other uses is receiving a great deal of attention lately. While speculation around opportunities for distressed hotels will likely diminish with economic recovery, there will continue […]

In recent years, SERA’s Housing studio added many new faces to our team, including a new Oakland studio to serve clients in The Bay Area. With new talent and expanded geography, the time felt right to revisit some of the goals our studio set a few years back. I saw a unique opportunity for a […]

In September of 2016, The Center for Public Interest Design reached out to their network of designers and activists to participate in the POD Initiative, to design and build a modestly sized home for someone without one. We previously wrote about that here. Since then, the POD Initiative and the City have been in talks […]

UPDATE: See photos of the completed project on our Facebook page. Fourteen locally-designed and built “sleeping pods” intended to address homelessness — including one by SERA staff — will be on exhibit in early December. SERA’s PAD, or Portable Adaptive Dwelling, is one of 14 submissions for the Partners on Dwelling (POD) Initiative, intended to ensure […]

If you’re like me and don’t know the difference between a fun hobby and just more hard work, then you might be interested in building yourself what is called an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU). An ADU is essentially a small home in your backyard that is just small enough to seem like a project any […]

A few months ago I read with great personal interest an article by Emily Badger for the Atlantic Cities in which she contemplates the notion of the end of the era of homeownership and the rise of the “middle class forever renter.” Behind this purported trend are an increasing number of potential homebuyers (at least […]