Now Collecting ADU Stories from Across America

Calling ADU Owners, Dwellers, Designers, Builders, and City Officials from across America to share ADU stories for an exciting new project with AARP!

Read on for information about how you can get involved!

Snapshots from the ADU Case Studies Project on AccessoryDwellings.org, commissioned by Oregon DEQ

Snapshots from the ADU Case Studies Project on AccessoryDwellings.org, commissioned by Oregon DEQ

In 2015 and 2016, I collaborated with over 60 ADU owners as well as dozens of ADU Designers and Builders to tell ADU stories through the ADU Case Studies Project. The many benefits of ADUs - especially for multigenerational families - have caught the attention of AARP. They've commissioned Orange Splot to create a publication about ADUs, which will feature half a dozen case studies of ADUs with various configurations and uses. So this month we're collecting ADU case studies and images to share ADU stories.

We're currently looking for the following:

  1. ADU Owners interested in sharing their ADU stories via a case study
    1. Participation by ADU Owners requires sharing information about the ADU to determine whether it might be a good fit for the project and, if so, a phone interview and high-quality photos of the ADU.
    2. Please note that we are particularly interested in collaborating with ADU owners outside Oregon since the ADU Case Studies Project, commissioned by Oregon DEQ highlighted Oregon's ADUs.
    3. We're looking to include a wide variety ADUs types and uses, including:
      1. ADUs providing multi-generational housing solutions (older generation living in ADU with younger generation in primary dwelling and visa-versa)
      2. ADUs providing caregiver accommodations for homeowners
      3. ADUs designed to allow residents to age-in-place
      4. ADUs as rentals providing supplemental income to enable a homeowner to remain in their home/neighborhood (living in the primary and renting out the ADU and visa-versa)
      5. ADUs as a pied-à-terre (home-base while owner is traveling or snowbirding)
      6. ADU allowing a homeowner to downsize on their own property by renting out the primary home
  2. High quality images of various types of ADUs from anywhere in the country, including:
    1. Backyard cottages
    2. Basement conversions
    3. Garage conversions
    4. Additions
    5. Carve-outs
    6. New construction
  3. High quality images of ADU owners and dwellers from anywhere in the country, including:
    1. Mug shots of ADU dwellers/owners
    2. Photos of ADU dwellers/owners inside their ADUs
    3. Photos of ADU dwellers/owners outside their ADUs
    4. Photos of ADU dwellers with primary house dwellers
  4. Municipalities interested in sharing the story of how they amended regulations to allow ADUs

If you're an ADU owner, dweller, designer, builder, or city planner, and you believe you can help with this project, we'd love to hear from you! Just send me an email at accessorydwellings@gmail.com by February 28th, letting us know which of the four items above you'd like to assist with and send along a photo!