What if Churchill was right? What if our physical environments affect us far more than we realize? 

Imagine something for a second…

A neighborhood in Normalville, USA. You turn into the neighborhood from a busy multi-lane road and drive about 50 yards before turning onto a street that looks all too familiar. There are about 4 configurations of the same house, but they’re all about the same color, and the most prominent feature is the garage doors adorning their fronts.

They’re nice homes. They’re nice garages. They’re doing what they were designed to do. Keeping cars safely stored away. Or perhaps storing other things needed for a modern American life in the suburbs.

But what about all you don’t see? You don’t see many kids playing in the front yard – too much traffic. You don’t see many people out – it’s hard to get to know your neighbor when you pull straight into the garage.

This isn’t all bad. There are certain advantages to the typical suburban life of the past 50-60 years. But what if there was another way?

What if our cities and our homes were designed with different basic values? What if we believed Churchill and asked how we wanted our physical environments to shape us, and then designed for that outcome?

That’s the question The Wintz Company hope to answer with their Woodbury development at the north end of Moscow, Idaho.

The Wintz family has been in design and construction business for decades. The President and founder Mark Wintz spent decades in Southern California as a contractor and developer where he built a couple hundred homes between Malibu and Santa Barbara.

Their family eventually wanted bit slower pace of life and settled in Moscow in 2000.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Levi Wintz, Mark’s son. Levi is one of six kids, and all of them have some sort of connection to real estate. 

By the time Levi graduated from college he already had a desire to work with his dad in some capacity. Around the same time, his dad began to dream about what Levi called a “20-year project” that he could pursue with the years that most people would spend on retirement.

That’s where they started to dream together about a new kind of housing development in Moscow – one that fought against the suburban sprawl of the last 75 years and returned to older principles of building and design. They had a vision to bring the “New Urbanism” movement to the Palouse.

New Urbanism takes the best of human-centered design from the past to create a better present.

Before Woodbury could be, they had the opportunity to test their designs on the Palouse and develop Hiddenview and Kamiak Cottages in Pullman.

Hiddenview is what they call a pocket neighborhood. The homes and cottages are all arranged around shared green space, feature prominent front porches, and keep garages hidden away in the back.

The neighborhood is specifically designed to foster a sense of peace and connection with neighbors. Here’s how they describe what they call Human Scale design:

“When we speak of “human scale” we refer to a principle that places the human experience and prioritizes the comfort, convenience, and well-being of people, rather than vehicles or large-scale infrastructure.

Our world has been developed by civil engineers and generic blueprint plans that are slapped down onto one-size-fits-all lots. High-speed roads sprawl and cut through neighborhoods, idolizing the car above all else. We believe that this way of development is anti-human. As a society, we develop and build with standards and specifications that are not conducive to how humans move, live, and thrive. As the great Christopher Alexander poignantly noted,

“Placed and built anonymously, [suburban] houses express isolation, lack of relationship, and fail altogether to help create human bonds in which people feel themselves part of the fabric which connects them to their fellow men.”

Levi noted that one of the people who moved into the neighborhood in their pullman development was worried that the peace of the neighborhood might be disturbed by others moving in. 

He said she approached him, concerned. “Levi,” she said, “you have to let me interview the person who is going to move in next to me. We have a great community here, and I don’t want anyone to ruin it. You know – my old neighbor – we didn’t even talk.”

Levi said that perfectly captured why they build these developments the way they do.

“People don’t know how to be neighbors,” he said. “If we don’t talk, and we don’t know one another, how could we possibly like one another? Our environments should help us connect rather than isolate.”

Now, their latest development, called Woodbury, is an 80-acre community designed with humanity and community at the heart.

It takes five minutes to walk from the edge of the 80 acres to the middle. Their vision is to build a fully functional neighborhood, complete with a town center where you can get all your daily necessities. 

Imagine being able to walk to the local market for eggs and milk in the morning, grab lunch with a friend, then go out for dessert after dinner with the family – all within walking distance.

It’s so different, it almost seems strange or wrong. But, just think about it. This is a neighborhood designed to foster the kind of childhood we all want our kids to have. I currently live on a busy street. Cars fly down our street so fast that my four-year-old has taken notice and frequently yells, “slow down!” Not sure where he learned that. I would love a neighborhood where I know it’s at least safe enough to let my kids play in the front yard.

Woodbury is built for people – with trails, sidewalks, and parks woven throughout to create a walkable, connected environment.

Garages are placed in the rear and front porches open to shared green spaces, encouraging everyday interactions and a natural sense of community. 

As Levi put it, “people should feel welcome, cars should feel unwelcome or out of place.”

In many ways, Woodbury is the culminating work of Mark’s career as a developer and designer. Ever lesson in design and construction can now be poured onto this canvas.

I can’t wait to see more developments built with New Urbanism principles. A human-first approach is what we need. Isolation is killing our society, and after my interview with Levi, I’m convinced a large part of that isolation is the physical environments we inhabit.

To learn more about Woodbury, you can visit their website HERE.

For more on the Wintz Company and their other development projects go HERE.

September 18 – September 25, 2025

That’s it for this week! Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this, send it to some friends who might enjoy it, too. Let’s build our community together.

Until next Thursday,

Keep the Faith