In 2010, architect and urban designer Daniel Parolek coined the term Missing Middle to define smaller, multi-family or clustered housing types. Missing Middle types were common within most single family neighborhoods in the pre-war era, but for the last seventy years they have been missing from most city’s neighborhood patterns as development focused on single family housing and larger multifamily types. The missing middle includes duplex, triplex, cottage, courtyard, rowhouse, and other smaller multi-unit attached and detached housing.
Reintroducing these housing types back into the neighborhood mix makes sense in Eugene where we have a goal to create more 20-minute neighborhoods, where residents can find most daily needs within a 20-minute walk from home.