Ordinary Homes of the United States

Time period: 1890s-1920s, 1960s-1980s, 2020s to present day Location: Suburbs nationwide The classic US fourplex is a 2-story building with four apartments: two upstairs, two downstairs. First becoming popular when streetcars (also known as trolleys or trams) made suburbs possible, the fourplex offers choice for households who want to get out of the crowded city but can't afford or don't need a standalone house. Cross section of a fourplex . Before streetcars, city dwellers lived within walking distance of the city center. Few people could afford horses, so walking speed limited the physical size of cities. Adults walk at 2-3 miles per hour, which meant the largest ancient and medieval cities were just a couple miles wide. When population grew, cities would grow upwards, replacing houses with townhouses and tenements, 3-7 stories tall, built right next to each other with walls touching. Streetcars were invented in 1887 and could go much faster. Even with time waiting at traffi...

  Time period: 1960s to present Location: Florida, as well as other coastal cities and resort towns Up until the industrial era, beachfront property was not desirable. Unless someone's work required them to live near the ocean, people avoided beaches. There were good reasons: storms, pirates, and other invasions. Most large cities in Europe - even some major ports - are located inland.  This changed with the Industrial Revolution. In England, the rich started going to the beach to get away from pollution in the city, and the beach gained a new image as a healthy place to exercise or recover from disease. By the 1800s beachgoing had spread to the upper class in the US as well, with cities such as Cape May in New Jersey attracting tourists, many of who arrived by boat - Cape May is the closest spot on the shore to Philadelphia by boat. A growing middle class and the construction of railroads led to further development of East Coast beach towns. Most of these beach towns remained...

Time period: Late 19th and early 20th century, revived in 21st century. Location: Used to be everywhere.  Today: Seattle and New York City. A mid-rise building with a couple apartments on each floor.   In most cities, you'll find two types of mid-rise apartment buildings in the 4-7 story range. First, there'll be some small historic buildings downtown, side by side like books on a shelf. These are the original point access blocks. Then, there are the big modern buildings taking up a whole block and with long, windowless hallways inside. These are double loaded corridor buildings. Floorplan of a point access block.   Note that apartments have windows facing the front and back of the building.     In contrast, except for the corner units, apartments in a double loaded corridor only have windows facing one direction. Both the point access block and the double loaded corridor were designed to be the most efficient floorplan given the building codes of th...

  Time period: Late 20th century to present Location: Suburban downtowns and car-centered cities across the country How to provide lots of apartments, while hiding the parking. Key features - Mid-rise apartment building wrapped around a multi-story parking garage. - Requires large piece of land. - Higher density than garden apartments, less dense than a podium building. Everything's bigger in Texas - including the apartment buildings. After World War II, advances in air conditioning technology made urban living in hot and humid climates more desirable. Texas was also going through an oil boom. While oil fields tapped out and production peaked in the 1970s, the state's early lead in oil production locked in its position as a headquarters for oil companies, as well as banks and suppliers that supported oil drilling elsewhere in the world.  Since the 2010s, the fracking boom has brought a new wave of oil related jobs to Texas. While its main Sunbelt rival - California - went down...