The Courtyard Building, Part I

I think it's probably time to move on to the largest of the typical apartment types in Chicago. Yes, it is definitely time to move on to the courtyard building.

From the name of the building, it's quite clear that there is a courtyard of some kind, however, this isn't an enclosed courtyard (see the Rebori Cooperative for an example of a semi-enclosed court) but a U-shaped, normally front facing courtyard. A few scattered examples actually go all the way through the block, but by this fact, aren't true courtyards.

Our first example lives in Lake View, on a side street. It mainly contains smaller apartments, almost all variously sized one-bedrooms. The plans shows only half of the building, which typically sits on a triple or quadruple lot of normal depth.

Plans; note north is to the right in the unit plans and to the bottom in the overall plan.

Very often, usually, in fact, the largest units are at the front of the building, with the best exposure, that is, towards the street, and are often two bedroom units (although not in this case). The rear units can also be quite large, but there are many, many variations of this, based on the size of the building, age of the building, etc.

Overall Elevation
Detail Elevation

The details of the elevation are fairly standard, similar to what would be found on many other buildings, from bungalows to three-flats. In this case, dark brick with stone trim.

Reference:

The Architectural Forum, Vol. XXXI, Number 5, November 1919, p. 152.