In defense of weird building pop-ups This five-story pop-up rowhouse at 11th and V, NW has gotten a lot of negative press. DCist and Popville had nothing kind to say about it. And while it's undeniably a silly-looking thing, it's not actually bad. In fact, from an urbanist perspective, it's good for the city. (Dan Malouff - BeyondDC) First, a bigger building will allow more people to live in a core city neighborhood. That will help the neighborhood support more stores and services, and reduce car traffic everywhere. Density in the core of the city is a good thing, and a five-story building is a very reasonable amount of density. Second, this preserves the narrow lot pattern of its block, versus having one developer buy up multiple row houses and then put in a much wider building. Continue reading Dan Malouff's post at BeyondDC.