Daniel Parolek has designed projects of all sizes. In New York, he worked with esteemed architect Robert A.M. Stern on homes for former Disney CEO Michael Eisner and rock star Jon Bon Jovi. He was part of the design team for the renovation of Anaheim's baseball stadium, and he helped create a sprawling entertainment complex at Tokyo Disney.

But the Berkeley, California, architect prefers and is best known for small-scale, multi-unit or clustered housing in livable, walkable, urban communities. Parolek has even coined a term to describe his compact concept: Missing Middle Housing.

Parolek and his wife, Karen, also a principal in their architectural and urban design firm Opticos Design, live in a 1930s Spanish Revival bungalow on a tiny lot located in a close-knit neighborhood a couple of blocks from a bagel shop, bakery, grocery store and public transportation. They bike everywhere, including to work.



Next door to their home, in a duplex, a couple with one child lives in one side of the house and the father's parents reside in the other. "They are missing middle in action!" says Parolek. He thinks nearly 20 percent of his neighborhood may, in fact, be missing middle rentals or owner-occupied, but you'd never know, he points out, because the houses are of the size and scale of a typical single family house except many contain multiple units.