It was my luck that I was just speaking with local city leadership about potential redevelopments in our downtown, where I advocated for hugging the edge of the street and creating inner courtyards, to look you up to reference and find out you had launched a Substack. Though our plans involve retail, so not quite the residential courtyard blocks you write about. Excited for your future works and advancing family-friendly density in our cities!
My courtyard plans involve retail, too! I drive real estate agents crazy by constantly talking about “mixed-use buildings” (because commercial real estate in storefronts does so poorly in urban areas right now).
You can’t have walkability without commercial integration. Cities like Berlin and Paris create walkable neighborhoods by subsidizing neighborhood retail, and by restricting auto-oriented box retail from building in city limits. They are great examples that should be imitated wide and far …
At a time where boomers are entering their older ages, and urban parents seek more family-friendly, it's important to showcase other options. Courtyard buildings are clearly a solution and I wish that we would embrace them here too.
Plus they are other ways to reuse the principles on larger block to create a real sense of community.
Love this. So glad you’ve started to dive more into this via Substack. There’s plenty of top-down thinking in urbanism circles — “We need to make this whole city more walkable!” — which I agree with. But it’s refreshing to take a bottoms-up approach of “Here’s a simple design; works the world over; let’s try this.”
Excited to see this come to substack form! How to make cities livable for families while increasing affordability is the key question of our time. My question for the courtyard movement stems from the thing I hear often from millennial friends: “I want a home with a yard for my dog.” Would be curious to read about how we accommodate pets into the courtyard model. Is there too strong a desire for private ownership of yards or will shared yards work?
That’s a great question, and I think it could work differently across different courtyard blocks.
I have never seen euro courtyards that were used as dog runs. I saw dog owners walk their dogs and take them to designated areas, but no one let their dogs run around the courtyard.
I have a much beloved dog and live in a neighborhood where people clean up after their dogs and are responsible dog owners. I cannot imagine, though, trying to share a common yard with dozens of other dog owners. That sounds extremely challenging. And if the courtyard were used for dog toileting it would seriously decrease its value for residential use …
I love dogs, but dogs in the city are tough. What are your thoughts?
You’ve likely heard of At Home in the Loop by Lois Wille, but on the off chance you haven’t, it’s about the development of the Dearborn Park neighborhood in the 1970s located between State and the South Branch of the Chicago River that stretches about three blocks both north and south of Roosevelt, written by a famous journalist who’d been reporting on the whole process in real time. The typology is different (it’s a whole neighborhood) but the goal is basically the same as yours. Dearborn Park takes the general idea of a “courtyard apartment” but expands it to the level of a sleepy pocket neighborhood right in the loop that offers “seclusion within proximity.” Dearborn Park was also specifically designed to lure families from the suburbs back into the city’s tax base and if you walk around in there on weekdays ~5pm you’ll see lots of kids riding around on bikes etc. I wrote an essay about it a couple years ago, here’s the drive link if you’re interested https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_izTPRLsICvpyUS2eCOTxn1NfzJeBqcX/view?usp=sharing
Hi! Found you through X and couldn’t agree more with all of this. Moving from NYC to Chicago this month and my interest for urban design and development has flourished living in NYC and traveling to international mega cities. Would love to see some progressive change to development in Chicago! Can’t wait to read more, thanks for sharing!!
Amazing!! Welcome to Chicago! It’s an exciting time to be here. We’ve had a lot of great regulatory reforms this year, and I’m hopeful that single stair reform in next year will usher in a legit golden age of multifamily building
When I saw your top photo, I said to myself, "that looks like Copenhagen." When I came to the last photo, I had to laugh. Yes, it's Copenhagen, and if the person taking the picture were to turn 180 degrees, he'd be looking at no. 13 on that street. I spent the first four years of my life with my mother in a tiny flat on the fourth floor of no. 13, which does not have a courtyard in the back.
A close friend of mine lived for a number of years with his family in a large apartment in the biggest enclosed courtyard complex in Copenhagen.
(If you know the city, it's the square formed by Fiolstræde-Rosengården-Peder Hvidtfeldts Stræde-Krystalgade).
Interesting article But completely bypasses the reasons families left cities. Of course you must mention the apparently lack of social diversity in the suburbs (not true generally) but ignore that the social diversity is why families left cities. Some sociallly diverse groups refused to adhere to middle class bourgeoisie norms, thereby reducing the attractiveness of cities. Suburbs are a direct result of the failure of urban politics to tackle crime, public disorder and social decay.
if you lie. Urban living, that’s great but stop insulting suburban living. I like the freedom of the car and the space of a single family house where my kids can play freely and safely.
My one experience staying in a courtyard apartment with a child was great.
love to hear it
It was my luck that I was just speaking with local city leadership about potential redevelopments in our downtown, where I advocated for hugging the edge of the street and creating inner courtyards, to look you up to reference and find out you had launched a Substack. Though our plans involve retail, so not quite the residential courtyard blocks you write about. Excited for your future works and advancing family-friendly density in our cities!
My courtyard plans involve retail, too! I drive real estate agents crazy by constantly talking about “mixed-use buildings” (because commercial real estate in storefronts does so poorly in urban areas right now).
You can’t have walkability without commercial integration. Cities like Berlin and Paris create walkable neighborhoods by subsidizing neighborhood retail, and by restricting auto-oriented box retail from building in city limits. They are great examples that should be imitated wide and far …
Thanks for commenting.
At a time where boomers are entering their older ages, and urban parents seek more family-friendly, it's important to showcase other options. Courtyard buildings are clearly a solution and I wish that we would embrace them here too.
Plus they are other ways to reuse the principles on larger block to create a real sense of community.
Yes! Well said, completely agree. Everyone is craving community--we just need to develop more density and community spaces to support this
Love this. So glad you’ve started to dive more into this via Substack. There’s plenty of top-down thinking in urbanism circles — “We need to make this whole city more walkable!” — which I agree with. But it’s refreshing to take a bottoms-up approach of “Here’s a simple design; works the world over; let’s try this.”
thank you! I have never thought of it as bottom-up approach, but that is an interesting and accurate way of thinking about it!
Excited to see this come to substack form! How to make cities livable for families while increasing affordability is the key question of our time. My question for the courtyard movement stems from the thing I hear often from millennial friends: “I want a home with a yard for my dog.” Would be curious to read about how we accommodate pets into the courtyard model. Is there too strong a desire for private ownership of yards or will shared yards work?
That’s a great question, and I think it could work differently across different courtyard blocks.
I have never seen euro courtyards that were used as dog runs. I saw dog owners walk their dogs and take them to designated areas, but no one let their dogs run around the courtyard.
I have a much beloved dog and live in a neighborhood where people clean up after their dogs and are responsible dog owners. I cannot imagine, though, trying to share a common yard with dozens of other dog owners. That sounds extremely challenging. And if the courtyard were used for dog toileting it would seriously decrease its value for residential use …
I love dogs, but dogs in the city are tough. What are your thoughts?
You’ve likely heard of At Home in the Loop by Lois Wille, but on the off chance you haven’t, it’s about the development of the Dearborn Park neighborhood in the 1970s located between State and the South Branch of the Chicago River that stretches about three blocks both north and south of Roosevelt, written by a famous journalist who’d been reporting on the whole process in real time. The typology is different (it’s a whole neighborhood) but the goal is basically the same as yours. Dearborn Park takes the general idea of a “courtyard apartment” but expands it to the level of a sleepy pocket neighborhood right in the loop that offers “seclusion within proximity.” Dearborn Park was also specifically designed to lure families from the suburbs back into the city’s tax base and if you walk around in there on weekdays ~5pm you’ll see lots of kids riding around on bikes etc. I wrote an essay about it a couple years ago, here’s the drive link if you’re interested https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_izTPRLsICvpyUS2eCOTxn1NfzJeBqcX/view?usp=sharing
I am aware of it but only vaguely. I’ve looked at aerials and pictures—it looks beautiful. I will look out for the account by Lois Willie. Thank you!
She died a couple years ago 1931-2018 one of the greats of the 20th century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Wille
Hi! Found you through X and couldn’t agree more with all of this. Moving from NYC to Chicago this month and my interest for urban design and development has flourished living in NYC and traveling to international mega cities. Would love to see some progressive change to development in Chicago! Can’t wait to read more, thanks for sharing!!
Amazing!! Welcome to Chicago! It’s an exciting time to be here. We’ve had a lot of great regulatory reforms this year, and I’m hopeful that single stair reform in next year will usher in a legit golden age of multifamily building
Fine and thoughtful article.
When I saw your top photo, I said to myself, "that looks like Copenhagen." When I came to the last photo, I had to laugh. Yes, it's Copenhagen, and if the person taking the picture were to turn 180 degrees, he'd be looking at no. 13 on that street. I spent the first four years of my life with my mother in a tiny flat on the fourth floor of no. 13, which does not have a courtyard in the back.
A close friend of mine lived for a number of years with his family in a large apartment in the biggest enclosed courtyard complex in Copenhagen.
(If you know the city, it's the square formed by Fiolstræde-Rosengården-Peder Hvidtfeldts Stræde-Krystalgade).
This was fantastic, Alicia. Thank you for sharing!
I love a good courtyard!
Interesting article But completely bypasses the reasons families left cities. Of course you must mention the apparently lack of social diversity in the suburbs (not true generally) but ignore that the social diversity is why families left cities. Some sociallly diverse groups refused to adhere to middle class bourgeoisie norms, thereby reducing the attractiveness of cities. Suburbs are a direct result of the failure of urban politics to tackle crime, public disorder and social decay.
if you lie. Urban living, that’s great but stop insulting suburban living. I like the freedom of the car and the space of a single family house where my kids can play freely and safely.