He’s designing affordable housing with the actual needs of future residents in mind. It’s rarer than it sounds

When a neighborhood gets redeveloped, the focus is seldom on the people who lived there previously. But the Barry Farm project in Washington, D.C., is a rare kind of affordable housing development, with an uncommon focus on its residents. Set in the historically Black Barry Farm neighborhood, the project has been specifically designed to counter the spatial and social deterioration the community has faced for decades. That’s due to the insistence of Jimmie Drummond, the 35-year-old arch...