Category Archives: building types

Mid-Century Townhouses

Posted on November 13, 2012 by

Rowhouses were the basic building block of many East Coast cities, but (as I’ve mentioned before) the classic rowhouse never really caught on big in Chicago. Here on the open prairie, with the abundant timber of northern Wisconsin in easy … Continue reading →

Posted in building types, Midcentury Modernism | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Alvin Hoffberg’s Courtyard Townhouses

Posted on October 11, 2010 by

“Every visitor says these are Chicago’s most beautiful and unusual town homes.” – August 7, 1957 Chicago Tribune classified ad Midcentury builder Alvin M. Hoffberg brought a unique twist on the townhouse to Chicagoland in the 1950s. The Midcentury townhouse … Continue reading →

Posted in building types, Midcentury Modernism | 3 Comments

No master plan, no guiding hand

Posted on April 5, 2010 by

After long study and research, I have reached a conclusion: there was no single guiding force that created the Chicago Midcentury style. It was simply an amazing confluence of factors. When I first noticed how prevalent this style was, the … Continue reading →

Posted in building types, Midcentury Modernism, O'Hare neighborhood | 4 Comments

MidCentury Suburbs Part 6: A catalog of housing types

Posted on June 10, 2009 by

The city of Chicago exploded into the 1950s and 1960s. Thousands and thousands of houses and apartments rose up on the ever-expanding urban frontier, in a remarkably unified ensemble of styles. There’s endless variation in the architectural details, but a … Continue reading →

Posted in building types, Midcentury Modernism | 10 Comments

Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations

Posted on June 9, 2009 by

Last week, while traveling about, I decided to take a detour south of Touhy near O’Hare. It was one of the smartest things I’ve ever done. Sandwiched between Bryn Mawr, Cumberland, Lawrence, and East River Road is the largest concentration … Continue reading →

Posted in building types, Midcentury Modernism, O'Hare neighborhood, The Infinite City | 1 Comment

Wild Western Midcentury

Posted on June 6, 2009 by

In architecture, the dominant image from the 1950s and 1960s is Modernism. Clean lines. Forward thinking. Leaving the past behind. The embrace of technology. Machine purity. The march of progress. The future! The middle decades of the Twentieth Century are … Continue reading →

Posted in building types, Midcentury Modernism | 4 Comments

The Courtyard Apartment

Posted on August 25, 2008 by

Some of architecture’s most basic building designs are a series of letter shapes: there’s the L-shaped building, perfect for building out an urban corner. There’s the T-shape, a front facade with a trailing hallway. And there’s a Chicago classic, the … Continue reading →

Posted in building types | 10 Comments