The Three-Flat

I was going to start with the two flat, but a dearth of images, and more especially plans, stymied that plan. They will be covered ad nauseum in later posts.

Many three-flats follow the same basic plan of the two-flat, living room, dining room on one side with the bathroom and kitchen directly behind, off a corridor, and the bedrooms and stairs on the other side. Three-flats begin to vary this, with what I term the zig-zag layout, with the living room in front and the dining room behind the stairs - in this variation an actual entrance hall or foyer is also often provided. Then the kitchen can be directly behind the dining room of, completing the zig-zag in the other corner of the apartment, with a bedroom directly behind the dining room.



The plan above is a good example of this with the public rooms in opposite corners from each other (I include the kitchen in this). The bedrooms and bathrooms are fitted into this plan, and a nice touch, not accessed directly off of any of the public rooms, but from the foyer or back hallway.

The image to the right indicates this type well enough; this was typical in the teens more than any other era, and into the twenties, before the plan was refined into what many have called the golden age or era of apartment design (not just in Chicago, but nationally). A nice deep brick color and sparse limestone trim with heavy, solid porch columns make this a nice, discreetly elegant addition to any block. It also shows the waning craftsman influence which then flowered into a typically Chicago style of decoration, particularly on the bungalow, but also on multi-family dwelling as well. This one was not shorn of it's cornice like many, but has a minimal limestone coping above the third floor windows. Many of this type had a massive square projecting, protrusion like tin cornice, which I suspect was a stand, readily available product, cheap enough for developers of the era to be able to install and dress up an otherwise plain building. Unfortunately many of these have not been kept up and removed over the years - this was also done for aesthetic reasons in the middle of the last century when fussy ornament was out of style and older buildings were modernized (not the least for ease of maintenance).

Typologies

There are a large number of different basic types of apartment buildings in Chicago. As most everyone knows, the basic unit of Chicago housing is the bungalow (in it's long, varied history and forms). However, once one moves into multi-family housing, there are more complicated forms.

Chicago has never really been a row house city to the extent that other large 19th and early 20th century cities are (Baltimore, Philadelphia and San Francisco come to mind). The basic building blocks of apartment buildings start out with the humble two flat and move on from there.

The Two Flat
The Three Flat
The Four Flat
The Six Flat
The Courtyard Building

Of course, there are a huge number of variants in all of these, though they typically follow a few set patterns and aesthetic treatments.

Illustrated is a fairly ordinary limestone two-flat in a winter scene.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog about one of my biggest interests, no, passions, well, obsession, which is the traditional or vernacular Chicago apartment building. The focus of this blog is going to be on pre-war buildings, however I will try to feature some from newer vintages and other locations for fun as well.

There are a lot of things that make Chicago a great city, but our housing stock is one of the unsung heroes in that greatness. I had originally wanted to name this blog "Beyond the Bungalow", but unfortunately, that name has already been taken as the title of a book about Bungalows and the Craftsman movement. However, fear not, this blog will not dwell on 4+1's in the least (though, at some point, they may be illustrated as an example), but was suggested by a friend (Thanks Geaux!). And sorry Herr Van der Rohe, but neither your luxus palazzo residence or luxurious steel and glass towers is home to the average Chicagoan (wonderful as both types are) who lives beyond the lakefront.

One of my first tasks will be to categories or create a typology of the basic types of apartment buildings found in Chicago.