Patrick Kennedy, the owner of San Francisco-based development firm Panoramic Interests—which in June 2015 completed the first high-rise micro-unit building in the U.S. with The Panoramic in San Francisco—has an unusual take on housing.

“We had a revelation about six years ago that we should approach development the way In-N-Out Burger approaches hamburgers,” Kennedy said. “That is—simplify the menu, focus intensely on quality and lower the price. That’s what we want to do for housing.”

Kennedy can be more philosophical than practical on the topic when he wants to be; he has a quote from Leonardo da Vinci on a wall in his office: “Small rooms or dwellings set the mind on the right path, large ones cause it to go astray.”