Crisis Architecture

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To be fair though most places are pretty safe. The media makes it seem like you're luck to make it to the store and back without getting gunned down but the truth is our society is pretty safe. There are some incidents and a few places where crime is much worse than the norm but overall the rates of murder and other violent crime have dropped steadily over the decades since Roe V Wade. Probably 99.99% of people do see a movie, attend a concert or football game, etc without the event being attacked by a gunman/gunwoman. Mass shootings are still pretty rare so it's not completely unreasonable to think you can go to a basketball game without, say, body armor.

Before you go there, yeah- I do CCW. I've never filed a claim with my car insurance company nor used the fire extinguishers in my home but I still keep them around.;)

It would be dismal to envelop yourself inside a fear-wrapped existence. I faced a personal attack. I know that it happens. My biggest battle was to move forward afterwards and rid myself of the absolute terror whenever I left my house or car. I am okay now and not afraid but I am very aware of my surroundings and take nothing for granted. I am prepared that it could happen again.

I am careful when entering the garage but have to say that I feel less safe there than anywhere; despite precaution. We are alarmed and take arming it seriously. I am readily armed. I am schooled in self defense. Our house was built with my nerve-set in mind.

You never really get over someone trying to take you with them but if you work at it, you get pissed-off and make sure you are as ready as can be, inside and outside.

Meantime, life in the greatest country in the world is wonderful.
 
Sadly, many of the same constraints upon Public architecture will be found to impinge upon private, and, especially, residential architecture.

Distance requires space, and space costs. Sites have limited buildable areas (setbacks and easements). Projects have finite budgets per square foot.

Schools, in particular are enormously complicated to build. First a need has to be identified, and a price scope set to answer that need. Then the bonds have to approved, and let. All before the contractor can be selected, and the price change over the intervening two to five years. And those price limitations tend to make hallways as short as possible, entrances as few in number as possible (entry doors can be surprisingly expensive). On a limited site, you are virtually forced to go vertical, and vertical travel is incredibly expensive (a single elevator, just the cab and frame, can run to $150k each; a set of stairs runs to right at half that, per each).

Many of those same forces affect how multi-family (apartment) design 'works,' as well. Which is a different tale altogether.

None of this invalidates Jeff's larger point, that these things are worthy of consideration for those fortunate enough to be building a house, where several of these features can be more easily accommodated (unless the HOA's ARB objects; or the tract builder of the subdivision wants too much for the Change Order--c'est la vie en maison ).

All is not doom and gloom--you can often use vegetation to your advantage, you can install motion-sensing lighting and use video to eliminate blind spots. There are a number of things you can do to a extant house, too. But, those wander well off topic.
 
I am drawn to a fortress-like design. Few windows front and sides and those existing; placed high for light. Rear of house open to courtyard walled as high as permit allows. Colored-glass shards top surrounding walls. Gates for auto and front-door (mail drop). One floor. The architecture is nothing new but it existed for privacy and security then as does it now. Its stark beauty is lagniappe.
 
"Make it too tough for the enemy to get in, and you won’t be able to get out."
Bear in mind all this trick architecture is going to also make it difficult, for the team rooting out the maniac, after the process is underway.
 
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