Pattern Book Homes for 21st Century Michigan

The Michigan Municipal League recently published a two-volume set of guides and copyright-free construction plans to give communities the tools to create new homes right where residents want to live. The Pattern Book Homes for 21st Century Michigan takes cues from historic precedents, cuts down on the cost of design, and offers zoning reform tools to streamline review.

Please find the entire resource at this LINK.

The City of Holland encourages the use of the MML Pattern Book Homes when planning for residential construction in all central city neighborhoods, including those subject to Infill Design Review. Please contact Steve Peterson or Anna Minnebo at the City of Holland Community & Neighborhood Services with any questions, or to discuss potential projects.

Image with house renderings, a sketch of multiple houses and a photo of 2 story brick building

Image Courtesy of the Michigan Municipal League

This Use to Be Normal


Volume I: This Used to Be Normal outlines the role historic pattern book homes have played in our neighborhoods, and how a new generation can continue being built today. 

From the Michigan Municipal League (MML) Website:

“Traditional neighborhoods around the state are full of homes from catalogs designed by companies like Sears Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, and Michigan-based Aladdin Homes. These housing solutions from the early twentieth century both addressed the housing needs of a booming economy and established a Great Lakes vernacular residential architecture. Built by individual homeowners and small developers working from common plan sets, they brought high-quality design into reach for the middle class. Many of these homes included more than one dwelling, providing flexibility for multi-generational families or rental income.”

“These plans [presented in Volume 1: This Used to Be Normal] offer recognizable Michigan architectural traditions with current building codes and accessibility considerations and are designed to fit on a 50 × 100-foot lot in an existing neighborhood context. Additionally, the guide outlines zoning and regulatory updates that communities can make to streamline the use of these plans as part of their local housing and community stability strategies.”

Learn more about Volume I, access the publication, and explore related topics on the MML website HERE.

This Used to be Normal Pattern Book Homes for 21st Century Michigan

Image courtesy of the Michigan Municipal League

The Missing Middle Mixtape


Volume II: The Missing Middle Mixtape draws on concepts from Volume I to address missing middle housing in communities across the state. Missing middle housing is a range of house-scale buildings with multiple units – compatible in scale and form with detached single-family homes – located in a walkable neighborhood (missingmiddlehousing.com). This type of construction largely disappeared after WWII and is regarded as one possible solution to ease the housing shortage facing communities today.

From the Michigan Municipal League (MML) Website:

“This guide uses an underground music scene–inspired theme to discuss how these smaller-scale housing forms can be recombined in varying ways as a “modular mixtape” for construction on city lots or arranged in various forms on larger tracts of land. Like Volume I, these buildable plans are 95 percent complete and are scaled for smaller urban lots. They are available free of charge, with appropriate cautionary recommendations for users’ due diligence.”

Learn more about Volume 2, access the publication, and explore related topics on the MML website HERE.

Cassette tape on orange box with house sketches behind it

Image Courtesy of the Michigan Municipal League