Architect Jeffrey L. Day, FAIA, will give a gallery talk during BFF Omaha’s First Friday art walk on the OurStory exhibition.

The “OurStory: Creating Aging-Ready Housing” exhibition by the University of Nebraska College of Architecture’s FACT Studio, takes aim at the housing crisis and aging population with a new concept for infill housing and accessory dwellings in the Omaha metro and beyond.

The exhibition focuses on a new housing product, also called OurStory, that was designed during a Fall 2024 semester-long process by 13 graduate-level architecture students who are members of FACT (Fabrication And Construction Team) a collaborative student designbuild studio at the University of Nebraska College of Architecture. The project is under the mentorship of Jeffrey L. Day, Professor of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and founding partner of Actual Architecture Company. The OurStory exhibit explores project design goals and the process used to create the broadly applicable housing system.

“Affordable housing occurs at the intersection of policy, finance, and design,” Jeffrey Day said. “The focus of this exhibition is on design, informed by the other two realms. OurStory argues for a repair of the single-family house to address housing needs in existing neighborhoods, vacant odd-lots, new dense developments, to accommodate aging in place, and to uncover new opportunities for the home.”

“We are designing for the needs of an aging population because it benefits every person and every neighborhood to consider older adults an asset, and to keep seniors close to the communities and people they love for as long as possible,” said Jessica Scheuerman, founder and executive director of Livable Omaha. “Everyone wins if we have more options for aging-ready ADUs and infill housing.”

Jeffrey L. Day (Jeff) is a Professor of Architecture at the University of Nebraska and founding partner of Actual Architecture C. In the College of Architecture, Jeff teaches design studios, seminars, and workshops that explore the intersection of design conceptualization and physical construction. Jeff directs FACT (www.factlab.org, Fabrication And Construction Team) an interdisciplinary, designbuild studio that engages nonprofits and communities in collaborations that span design and construction. FACT engages with creative nonprofits and communities in collaborations that span design and construction. At the core of FACT are projects engaging places of intersection between the production and consumption of culture – where the creators and audiences meet.

Jeff has a background in art & architectural history, critical theory, and theatre from a concentration in Visual & Environmental Studies at Harvard. Jeff’s work has been exhibited at the Nebraska History Museum, Museum of Design Atlanta, Sheldon Art Museum, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (4 shows), Kaneko (2 shows), little gallery (Omaha) Luggage Store (San Francisco), Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum (East Lansing), Ide@s Gallery (Shanghai), AIA San Francisco Gallery, Smart Museum (Chicago), Center For Architecture (New York), Harvard University Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, and numerous other university galleries. Day is President Elect of the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB).