Poll: Could You Live in 275 Square Feet?

• July 11, 2012
• 8 Comments

by UrbanTurf Staff

Layout of a micro-apartment. From the office of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The web has been atwitter in recent days regarding a contest announced by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Specifically, the mayor proposed a city-wide competition to design a rental building of primarily “micro-units” or apartments with 275-300 square feet of living space. Bloomberg hopes that the competition spurs a new wave of small yet affordable new housing options in the city.

The contest got the staff here at UrbanTurf thinking: Does DC need a similar contest given the ever-increasing rent in the city? Let us know what you think in the poll below:

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This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/poll_could_you_live_in_275_square_feet/5754

8 Comments

1. anon said at 7:48 pm on Wednesday July 11, 2012:
   while I vote yes above, I'd have to add the caveat - if I were single and childless. I do think there's market for such housing and it's good alternative for space contrained urban centers. So little of the existing small housing stock is well enough designed to make this little amount of sqft genuinely liveable.

1. Tom L said at 9:40 pm on Wednesday July 11, 2012:
   We had done a design to fit out 24 micro-lofts (275 sf avg) near the Verizon Center fairly recently, but the plug was pulled right before the buildout of the units was set to begin. If it had gone through, we would already have these in the market. UT:Send me a message if you're interested in some additional info.

1. Kent Fowler, Realtor said at 9:42 pm on Wednesday July 11, 2012:
   I think it's another way for Mayor Bloomberg in his attack against Obesity. 😉 But yes- I think it's a creative - somewhat since it's copying NY - exercise to see what can be done & then allow the marketplace to validate.

1. Lisa said at 9:53 pm on Wednesday July 11, 2012:
   There's no way that diagram above is only 275sf. I have 425sf and I don't even have that much room as shown above!

1. Barry said at 10:15 pm on Wednesday July 11, 2012:
   I agree with Lisa....I lived in Dupont Circle in a cute, but small studio (355sq ft) for almost 5yrs. My point, there is no possible way that mock-up is accurate.

1. Allison said at 10:37 pm on Wednesday July 11, 2012:
   Layout would be everything. 300 square feet could be plenty with the right floor plan.

1. David said at 6:24 pm on Thursday July 12, 2012:
   The mockup looks accurate to me. Bathtubs are about five feet long. Use that for scale and it comes out right. The furniture is pretty small, and there's no dedicated bed, which makes the layout look funny. I've lived in ~390 sq ft for the last two years and I could definitely go smaller for the right rental price and neighborhood. Then again, I'm moving into an 800 sq ft condo soon, so take my input with a grain of salt.

1. rico99 said at 10:03 pm on Thursday July 12, 2012:
   looks accurate...bathroom is about 5 x7 doors 30"..bet its 10' wide (outside dims) x 25 +/- good for single....not much closet /storage .but that can be added along entry wall....