The Whitefish nonprofit Shelter WF is hosting an Oct. 2 event focused on imagining solutions for housing affordability issues in Whitefish, including those proposed by the architects, designers and other participants in its AARP-funded “Design Our Future” competition.
The “Design Our Future” competition launched over the summer offers thousands of dollars in prize money for the best submissions in categories focused on designing individual plots and neighborhoods with an emphasis on “missing middle” housing, such as duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhouses and cottages.
AARP, a nonprofit which advocates for Americans over the age of 50, defines missing middle housing as “a set of residential building types that exist in the middle of the continuum from detached single-family houses to large apartment buildings.” On an informational web page about missing middle housing, AARP argues that a number of things, like zoning constraints, car-centric development patterns and the challenges of financing multi-unit dwellings, have curtailed missing middle development since the 1940s.
The Shelter WF competition envisions those types of housing as potentially providing accessible and affordable options for Whitefish residents, including those who might otherwise be forced to move as they grow older, and contestants have been encouraged to be creative in their vision.
In addition to providing attendees a chance to view design submissions, vote on proposals, and talk about the future of housing in Whitefish, the upcoming event will include a panel discussion with Antonia Malchik, a Whitefish writer and author of the 2019 book, “A Walking Life: Reclaiming Our Health and Our Freedom One Step at a Time.”
The book is a wide-ranging examination of the role of walking in our lives and how cultural emphasis on car-centric living, productivity and efficiency has increasingly phased out walking as a part of daily life.
Chris La Tray, Montana’s current poet laureate, wrote in a 2019 review for the Missoulian that in her book Malchik “takes us by the shoulders to remind us of this gift, and then reveals all the ways we are ceding this physical freedom in ways detrimental not only to our physical and mental health, but to how we relate to each other and the world around us.”
The Oct. 2 event at the Whitefish Community Center will include food and drinks. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. Attendees are asked to RSVP at www.shelterwf.org/designourfuture.
An awards ceremony for the “Design Our Future” competition is planned for Oct. 22 at 6:30 p.m. at the Whitefish Community Center, which will also include the unveiling of a magazine Shelter WF has created to highlight the designs and provide more information about missing middle housing.