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Editor’s note: This segment was rebroadcast on Aug. 5, 2025. Click here for that audio.

If you walk through any large American city, you’ll see a lot of new construction. And it’s hard not to notice that most new apartment buildings look pretty much the same.

They’re usually four to 10 stories tall and boxy with splashes of color or balconies here and there. Often, they have retail shops, gyms or coffee shops on the ground floor.

“Two summers ago, I went across the nation actually looking at these apartment buildings,” Liz Falletta, professor of architecture and urban design at University of Southern California, said. “I’m not ready to say that they’re exactly the same — I didn’t see any that were carbon copies of one another, but they are a specific building typology.”

6 questions with Liz Falletta

What do you see in these design elements?

“It’s typically called the podium apartment building. And it’s a one- or two-story base of parking with apartment units on top for a seven- or eight-story building.”

What is driving this architectural trend?

“I think it’s for sure about building codes. I think the code really allows this kind of structure to be built and makes it [so] you can basically build a denser building more economically than you might otherwise with other typologies.

“I also think capital is a big driver. There’s a lot of money that has been invested into apartment buildings through various funds. And I think that’s also a driver of homogeneity.”

Are these apartment buildings a response to calls nationwide for more affordable housing?

“Yes, I think they’re absolutely a response to the housing affordability crisis and just the need for housing in general. Because they combine two structural types, you can actually build a taller, denser building than you could otherwise fill with either of those structural types alone. So, it’s a way to build a mid-rise apartment building very cost-effectively.”

Is there a benefit to high-density, mixed-use housing like this?

“Oh, absolutely. Number one, we need housing and we need to be building a lot of housing. Number two, I think our built environment needs to respond to climate change. So, we need to be building more densely in transit-rich, infill urban locations. And that’s really where we find these buildings. So, I think they’re absolutely needed across the nation.

“I think we can have a conversation about whether they should look the way that they do. But nobody’s come up with an alternative.”

Do you have a hypothetical alternative?

“No. I don’t have a good alternative either. I guess I really come down on the side of housing production. We need to build housing. And the thing I really think about these buildings is [that] they’re not resistant to good design. When I was looking at these buildings across the nation, there are absolutely beautifully designed examples of this typology. They are really poorly designed examples also. But I don’t think the poor design and the monotony is necessarily inherent to the typology.”

Every era has had its own version of cookie-cutter housing. What do you think people will say about today’s version 50 years from now?

“My thinking is that I don’t think they’re going to become beloved the way some other housing types have been, for example, bungalow courts in Los Angeles. But I do think people will think of them less harshly. Primarily because people’s lives will have been lived in them. And I think that’s important.

“I also think they will have had 50 years to evolve and change. And if we look at some of the past housing types that we’ve built in large numbers, one of the reasons we’ve liked them is they can change with the times and accommodate different lifestyles and do different things. And I think we’re going to see podiums and wrap apartments do the same thing.”

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Will Walkey produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Micaela Rodriguez. Walkey also adapted it for the web.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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