Replacing Alleys

Abstract

Since back-alleys were essentially eliminated from American residential planning in the 1930s, some designers have attempted to restore a measure of the back-alley’s social connectivity by creating some type of backyard-accessible commons, having recognized the limitations of public streetscapes as safe, defensible neighborhood social space in contemporary life. Although “closed-back” (no back-side commons) subdivision design predominates within the built landscape of postwar American suburbia, there is nevertheless an interesting variety of site-planning experimentation of the “open-back” sort, each example of which contains a particular set of assumptions about the appropriate role and configuration for a back-side commons within a neighborhood context. In this study the author evaluates the success of particular design strategies in each of three case study examples, and suggests that recreating the environmental complexity of the archaic back-alley may lead to the design of more satisfactory contemporary neighborhoods.