The house next door is for sale. Now's the chance to start your own neighborhood association.

It's next door to ours, and the description here is absolutely correct: Lots of work is needed, and that's why the price is so good.

"Why are we so reliant on air conditioning?"

Our house is 115 years old, and used to have some of the design features explained herein, especially the windows. At some point the vinyl went on, and cornices and shutters disappeared.

The author's conclusion is not radical. He acknowledges the inevitability of AC in a time of overall warming, notes a few modern design trends that can help, and advocates a "balance between the old and the new."

It's sensible. However, you have to admire the acumen of the builders and designers of old.

Why are we so reliant on air conditioning? (It's not just climate change, it's bad design), by Lloyd Alter (Mother Nature Network)

A hundred years ago, a house in Florida looked different than a house in New England. The northern house might be boxy, have relatively small windows, almost always two stories with low ceilings, and a big fireplace in the middle.

In Florida, the house might have high ceilings, tall double-hung windows, and deep porches. Trees would be planted around the house to block the sun.

Today, houses pretty much look the same wherever you go in North America, and one thing made this possible: central air conditioning. Now, the United States uses more energy for air conditioning than 1 billion people in Africa use for everything.

We have reaped huge benefits from air conditioning, made vast areas of the United States habitable and comfortable. But as professor Cameron Tonkinwise of Carnegie Mellon School of Design has noted, “The air conditioner allows architects to be lazy. We don't have to think about making a building work, because you can just buy a box.” And we have forgotten how to make a building work.

Jeff Speck's house in DC.

Speck found an odd-shaped lot. We have an entirely off city. Surely there is a place here for something similar.

The Speck House, at Better Cities and Towns

One of the most urbanistically interesting houses built in Washington, DC, in recent years belongs to Jeff Speck, design director of the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 to 2007 and, before that, director of town planning at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. In 2004, Speck decided to find and purchase one of the many lots in the District that, because of their odd shapes, had remained undeveloped throughout two centuries of Washington development.