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Nice to meet you!

For twenty years, I've been an architect and urbanist working on a wide range of residential projects, from starter homes to high end custom homes, from affordable housing to mixed use master plans.  Thirteen years ago, I also became a housing advocate after realizing that the housing types my clients were asking for - ADUs, multi-generational triplexes, quadplexes - were "illegal".  After eight years working on affordable (below market rate) mid-rise rental housing, I'm putting my entrepreneur hat back on to mobilize for more middle housing in the Bay Area.

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Why middle housing?  Why now?

In the last 10 years, California has shown that changing rules and processes to make ADUs easier to build leads to more ADU supply.  Middle housing is the next frontier.

 

Historically, middle housing types such as duplexes, quadplexes, townhomes, and small apartments, were how individual land owners gradually expanded housing stock in their communities to accommodate people of all life stages.  I've personally benefitted from this type of housing my whole life - the 2 & 3 bedroom San Francisco flats I rented with friends after college, the Palo Alto studio my husband lived when we first started dating, the Mountain View triplex we shared later. 20 years ago, we were lucky enough to purchase a starter home in a walkable middle housing neighborhood. Today,  I LOVE how my home has enabled a wonderful, walkable, bikeable, convenient lifestyle for me, my husband and my two kids.

 

Now, I want to pay that luck forward. To give more people access to middle housing, I want to develop middle housing infill projects in walkable neighborhoods.  Homes like townhomes for empty nesters to downsize to, co-housing for young families to raise kids together, or multigenerational compounds. These middle housing types are great ways to add incremental density in already excellent neighborhoods. Middle housing already exists in our communities, and middle housing is the most cost effective type of housing we can build.  We just need to make middle housing legal and easy to build again!

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Why am I qualified to develop middle housing?

After 20 years of being deep in the trenches of housing architecture, from single family and large mid-rise multifamily projects,  I've developed a wide range of sausage making skills required to design, permit and construct many scales of housing:

  • Orchestrating clients, local jurisdictions, utility companies, consultant teams, and builders

  • Dissecting zoning, building, energy fire, mechanical, electrical, plumbing codes to develop design drawings 

  • Coordinating & reviewing drawings; connecting drawings to budgets and schedules.   

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I also enjoy organizing presentations and events to demystify housing policy, design and implementation.  Helping more people understand why it's tough to build housing in California is key to reducing the barriers.  If making more middle housing aligns with your values and goals, let's chat! 

Work Experience

2026-

Mobilizing for Middle Housing

  • Currently identifying sites, developing designs and sourcing funding for 2-10 unit infill middle housing projects in the Bay Area. 

  • Geographic focus: San Jose, San Francisco, downtown neighborhoods on historic rail lines , such as downtowns along the Caltrain corridor. Open to East Bay opportunities. 

  • Incremental Developer Alliance Bootcamp 

2018-2026

Architect/Associate, Van Meter Williams Pollack

2013-2018

Principal, Architarian Design​

  • Executed many residential projects on the peninsula and San Francisco, including ground up new construction, multi-phase renovations, historic renovations and townhome development.  Collaborated closely with clients, contractors, consultants and local jurisdictions. 

  • Primary projects: Post Post Office, Modern Townhome, Midtown Modern, Creekside Conversion

2009-2013

Project Manager/Designer, Feldman Architecture

  • ​Managed and designed several projects including custom new construction residential,  custom residential additions, full townhouse renovations, and conversion of a historic structure to residential/commercial use.

  • Primary projects: Butterfly House, Telegraphy Hill Townhome

Boards

2020-Present

Housing Leadership Council San Mateo County (HLCSMC), Board Member

2015-2025

Palo Alto Forward (PAF), Co-Founder & Board Member

Education

Masters of Architecture, University of Virginia

B.A. Human Biology, Stanford University

Events & Presentations

 I especially enjoy organizing educational events on housing topics. Over the years, I have developed presentations, panels and walking tours on housing policy, design, and implementation, many of which are highly relevant or adjacent to middle housing development.  If you would like to partner on a panel or presentation together, please reach out!  I'd love to help organize something!  

* Links to sample presentations are below.  Please provide credit or attribution to Elaine Uang and do not distribute without permission. 

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