The Single-Stair Point Access Block

The Thesis

The building type is the first lever

Most underwriting treats the building as fixed and reaches for subsidy to close the gap. The district starts a step earlier. By abandoning the expensive concrete podium and adopting a single-stair Point Access Block, the project recovers hallway area into leasable homes, shifts construction to slab-on-grade, and delivers dual-aspect units with light and cross-ventilation on multiple sides. The result is more rentable area in the same envelope, at a lower cost per foot, that commands a quality premium. In the Upside Explorer this single move carries the base case from well underwater to near breakeven before a dollar of subsidy is applied.

93%

leasable-to-gross efficiency, versus ~82% for a double-loaded corridor

~$245

hard cost per SF on slab-on-grade, versus ~$325 for a concrete podium

+15%

more homes in the same building envelope, from recovered circulation

10-15%

rent premium dual-aspect through-units command in the Pacific Northwest

This brief summarizes Now City's internal design research and its application to the district Phase One. Figures are planning estimates for discussion, to be confirmed by the design and cost teams in due diligence.

Double-Loaded vs Point Access Block

Where the square footage goes

A double-loaded corridor runs a hallway down the middle with apartments on both sides and two exit stairs, losing 15-20% of the floor plate to circulation. A Point Access Block clusters a small number of units around one central core, so nearly every square foot is leasable, and units open to more than one face.

Comparison of a double-loaded corridor floor plate at 87% efficiency versus a Point Access Block at 93% efficiency, with massing diagrams showing dual-aspect units

Floor-plate and massing comparison. The Point Access Block recovers corridor area into homes and gives most units daylight and cross-ventilation on multiple sides. Source: Now City design research.

Metric	Traditional double-loaded	PAB courtyard model	Value impact
Efficiency ratio	82% leasable/gross	93% leasable/gross	+11 points of revenue area
Circulation area	~32,000 SF	~4,500 SF	~27,000 SF recovered to homes
Estimated hard cost	~$325/SF (podium)	~$245/SF (slab-on-grade)	~25% cost reduction

How The Savings Add Up

Why slab-on-grade costs so much less

The savings are not a single line item. Eliminating the concrete podium and building an at-grade courtyard cascades through three major cost centers at once, and the courtyard itself does double duty as the site's stormwater system.

Structural & foundations
Post-tensioned concrete podium becomes slab-on-grade with wood-frame tuck-under parking: standard spread footings and stick-built labor.

$1.2M - $2.0M

Civil & stormwater
A natural-soil courtyard handles 100% of detention through bioswales and rain gardens, eliminating underground concrete detention vaults.

$250k - $400k

MEP & plumbing
Standardizing identical vertical wet stacks behind each core shortens lateral pipe runs and removes specialized manifolding.

$150k - $225k

Elevator fleet, offset
More cores mean more elevators, but a master equipment lease for identical machine-room-less units is more than offset by the eliminated transfer slab and corridor finishes.

net positive

In the model this shows up as a lower underwritten hard cost ($/SF) on the cost lever, while the efficiency gain shows up as more leasable homes in the same envelope. The two stack: in the Upside Explorer, the P · Point Access Block scenario applies both and a modest dual-aspect quality premium.

A better home at a lower cost

Dual-aspect living

Because units wrap a core rather than line a corridor, most open to two or three faces. That means cross-ventilation, daylight from multiple sides, quiet courtyard-facing bedrooms, and only a handful of neighbors per floor. This is the European courtyard model, and it is a genuine market differentiator that supports the rent premium, not a discount product.

Unit type	Share	What the layout makes possible
1 Bedroom	45%	Quiet zone: bedroom faces the courtyard, living faces the street.
2 Bedroom	30%	Dual-master: bedrooms at opposite ends, no shared walls between them.
3 Bedroom	10%	Family flats: corner units with windows on three sides.
Studio	15%	Boutique feel with only a few neighbors per floor.

Regulatory Feasibility · Salem, Oregon

The code path is open

Oregon has deliberately made room for this building type in code, so no variance is required. The 2025 Oregon Structural Specialty Code, mandatory for new permits as of April 2026, permits single-exit stairways in Group R-2 multifamily within clear limits, and Oregon HB 3395 (2023) directs the Building Codes Division to remove barriers for small-footprint buildings, explicitly to lower construction costs by 10-15%.

Story limit

Single-stair allowance applies up to 4 stories; reaching ~70 ft uses Type III-A wood frame over a Type I-A slab-on-grade base.

Floor plate per core

Each floor plate served by a single core is limited to 4,000 net SF.

Units per core

No more than 4 dwelling units per story on an individual single-stair core.

Travel distance

Maximum 125 ft from any unit door to the stairwell.

Life safety

NFPA 13 sprinklers throughout, pressurized stairwells, and a 2-hour fire rating on all shafts and stair enclosures.

Zoning fit

70-ft height is permitted in Salem MU-III and RM zones; the at-grade courtyard (20-30% of site) exceeds the 15% landscape standard and satisfies stormwater.

Review path

Clear-and-objective standards qualify the project for administrative review, avoiding public-hearing delay and cost.

State support

HB 3395 (2023) explicitly directs removal of barriers for small-footprint multifamily, the exact typology proposed here.

What It Means for the district

The move that makes the rest possible

The district's honest base case loses money, because a conventional podium at attainable Salem rents does not pencil. The Point Access Block changes the inputs the project actually controls: it adds roughly 15% more homes in the same approved envelope, cuts the hard-cost basis by about a quarter, and improves the product. Everything else the project does, public partnership, tax-credit equity, placemaking, sits on top of that stronger foundation. It is also the right move for the mission: more attainable homes per acre, lower embodied carbon from less concrete, healthier daylit and naturally-ventilated units, and a courtyard that manages its own water.

A step change

in the district Phase One levered returns, base case versus the same deal built as a PAB, before any subsidy. The numbers live in the Upside Explorer.

+65 homes

additional attainable homes in the same Phase One envelope, from recovered circulation area

Less concrete

slab-on-grade and wood frame in place of a post-tensioned podium, cutting embodied carbon

Try it yourself: open the Upside Explorer, find the Layout typology control in the site envelope, and switch between Double-loaded and Point Access Block with hold-FAR on. Watch the home count and returns move.

The Field

Who is building this on the West Coast

The single-stair movement has a growing bench of practitioners and advocates across the Pacific Northwest and California, several of whom Now City can engage for the district's design.

Larch Lab · Seattle (Michael Eliason) Westerbeck Architecture · Bothell Hybrid Architecture · Seattle Scott Edwards Architecture · Portland Jackson Main Architecture · Seattle / Eugene VIA · Perkins Eastman · Seattle / Bay Area SAR+ Architects · OR / WA / CO b9 architects · Seattle

Vertical circulation: machine-room-less traction elevators (KONE MonoSpace, Otis Gen3, Schindler 5000) are the mid-rise standard, with regenerative drives cutting elevator energy demand by up to 40% versus hydraulic systems. Washington's SB 5156 and Oregon's HB 3395 are the enabling legislation.

Sources: Now City internal design and cost research; Oregon Structural Specialty Code 2025; Oregon HB 3395 (2023); Washington SB 5156. This page is a planning brief for stakeholder discussion, not a code determination; the design team will confirm all metrics at permit.