by Abby Newsham
This month, I slept in two garages.
Before you start drafting a GoFundMe or texting my mom, I should clarify: these were very nice garages.
I’ve been traveling to Northwest Arkansas for work for the past month, and decided to stay at two different places during my trip. Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) Built inside a former detached garage. Both were holed up behind the house and entered from an alley. They were the size of a hotel room, comfortable, private, and truly magical.
What surprised me most about the units I stayed in was how private they felt. You pull into an alley, walk through a backyard, open a small door and suddenly you’re in your own little world.
I’m already sold on the idea of ADUs, but after sleeping in two garages this month, I find myself unusually excited about garages and all their possibilities.
What is a garage, really?
I grew up in a suburb of St. Louis, and we had a large three-car garage that served the noble purpose of storing cars, lawn equipment, Christmas decorations, etc. A pretty common experience for people living in the US
The garages I’ve been in still function partially as garages. One had multiple bays, and only one portion was converted into a residence. These units have not undertaken some large redevelopment projects; A corner of the existing building.
As a traveler, I like it, but there are many other reasons one might want a garage apartment.
Maybe your adult child lives at home and everyone involved would appreciate a little more personal space. Maybe you are one A lot of baby boomers are sitting on home equity Wondering if you want to move into a small, accessible space you designed yourself while your kids (and maybe their kids) take over the main house and relive the ’90s.
Maybe you need a guest house. Maybe it’s an office. Maybe it’s for a caregiver. Maybe you’re rich enough to have an au pair, in which case congratulations on what you do.
My point is that garages are seriously misunderstood.
For decades, we thought of garages as just a parking structure. Anyone who’s actually looked inside a garage knows that’s rarely the whole story.
The garage is the workshop. They are art studios. They are home gyms. They place band practice. They are wood shops. They are startup headquarters. These are places where hobbies turn into side hustles, and side hustles sometimes turn into businesses.
And increasingly, they are home.
Many garages initially stopped bringing cars long ago… these are some of the most adaptable buildings we have. They are where people experiment, create, build, and solve problems. They should evolve as our needs evolve.
Kansas City residents are slowly embracing the potential of garage conversions
I’m starting to notice more garage conversions around Kansas City, Missouri (where I live) and I hope we see a lot more.
Kansas City recently legalized ADUs citywideCreates a huge opportunity for homeowners to build a second small housing unit on their property They even have pre-approved building plans that you can use. I don’t think we’ve fully wrapped our heads around its meaning yet.
Technically, ADUs aren’t really new. They are already scattered throughout many of Kansas City’s older neighborhoods. They represent the way humanity built neighborhoods before the 1940s. Some were built decades ago as carriage houses, garage apartments or backyard cottages. Others existed in a legal gray area for years and were grandfathered in as nonconforming uses.
What’s new is that we’re finally making it easier to create them intentionally.
A recent housing development near Beacon Hill incorporated ADUs into the project from the start, which is exactly the kind of experimentation I’d like to see more of.
Even closer to home, my neighbor behind me is building a garage/ADU right now (no pictures…I’d prefer not to accidentally dox myself on the internet). It has been fun to see the project come together.
One of my favorite local examples (above) is a garage conversion in North Hyde Park. What makes this project particularly interesting is that the converted garage was split into its own parcel and sold separately at a relatively affordable price point for the neighborhood.
What if the garage conversion could become the new generation starter home?
We spend a lot of time talking about how difficult it is to create affordable housing for middle-income families. Yet here was a small house built from an existing structure, in an established neighborhood, selling at a price that opened the door to home ownership for anyone.
That is the beauty of incremental development. It doesn’t require billion-dollar investments or massive redevelopment plans. Sometimes it is necessary to see only an old garage and see something else. An ADU can be a place for a visiting friend. A young adult saves money. An elderly parent who wants independence. A graduate student. A supervisor. Long term tenant. A recently divorced neighbor is getting back on their feet. A small building can serve many purposes during its lifetime.
In many ways, garages embody the spirit of incremental development. They are practical, flexible, and kind of adorable. They allow neighborhoods to grow a little at a time without dramatically changing their character.
Most importantly, they create opportunities. It’s time to stop thinking of garages as places to store stuff and start thinking of them as places where life happens.
This article was originally published, in a slightly different form, on Substack by Abby Newsham. Shared here with permission.
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Previously published Also at strongtowns.org Creative Commons License
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