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Do IT this week: Layering
Chatting with neighbors to get easier as builders say demand for front porches rising
By Mary Beth Breckenridge
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 12:14 p.m. EDT, May 22, 2009
A front porch is more than a shelter from the elements. It's a friendly face on a home, a comfortable bridge between our private lives and our public selves.
And almost by its very presence, it conveys neighborliness.
Is it any wonder, then, that in a country where families are often scattered and relocations common, we'd crave a return to the community-building powers of the porch?
That's a big part of the reason housing experts believe the front porch is regaining its importance in home construction.
Increasing demand for front porches in new homes was projected by most of the 60 builders, architects, designers and other specialists who were surveyed for the National Association of Home Builders' Home of the Future study in 2007. Among the panelists, 70 percent predicted front porches would become popular in new homes of about 2,400 square feet, while 79 percent expected it to be a desired feature in upscale homes of 3,000 feet or more.
The experts aren't talking about porches intended primarily for decoration, noted Steve Melman, the association's director of economic services. ''This is something where you could actually sit out,'' a covered space big enough to accommodate a swing or a table and chairs.
Melman thinks the movement has several roots. Front porches fit with the trend toward traditional home design, and they meet homeowners' desire for a more casual lifestyle, he said.
What's more, Melman said, porches feed people's desire to belong. A front porch is an icon of the American neighborhood, and its presence helps create a sense of community almost instantly, he said.
That's part of the reason developers Todd Ederer and Tony Troppe incorporated front porches into all the single-family home styles they offer at Hickory, the neighborhood their Canal Town Builders collaboration is creating at Hickory Street and Memorial Parkway, near Cascade Locks Park.
Hickory's two model homes — the only houses constructed in the development so far — both have 8-foot-deep porches situated close to the sidewalk but elevated a few feet above street level.
Ederer said the proportions were intentional, both to make the porches comfortable and to provide just the right amount of separation between their occupants and passers-by. The orientation of porch to sidewalk encourages interaction without setting up the expectation of a long encounter, unless that's what you want, he explained.
A porch's ability to promote that sort of casual exchange is the reason the architectural feature is often used in new urbanist developments like Hickory, which strive to give new neighborhoods the feel and livability of older small towns. New urbanism — also called new traditional development — de-emphasizes cars and encourages people to walk places, spend time outdoors and interact with their neighbors, fostering a sense of belonging.
''You get a feel that, OK, I'm in a neighborhood,'' Troppe said.
That neighborliness also promotes a sense of security, an important reason why porches are prominent in another new development, Cascade Village just north of downtown Akron.
The neighborhood replaced the Elizabeth Park public-housing project, and an important goal was enhancing safety by encouraging ''more eyes on the street,'' said Joel Testa of Testa Cos., which built homes in Cascade Village for the nonprofit development company Community Builders Inc.
The porch wasn't strictly a safety element. The development took its design cues from the nearby neighborhood, which is mainly populated with pre-World War II homes on which front porches are typical, Testa said. Even the color palette was inspired by the homes in the vicinity.
But porches were also a logical way to draw people outside. ''The more people that are out front, the more people are keeping an eye on the community,'' he said.
Testa sees evidence that the strategy is working. ''People didn't even want to go down there before. . . . Now people tour it [the neighborhood] all the time,'' he said.
The front porch may be an American icon, but it's hardly an American invention. Its origins lie in the protected walkways that edged ancient Greek temples, the porticos of ancient Rome, the covered outdoor living areas of equatorial Africa and the Indian huts called barandas, Michael Dolan writes in The American Porch: An Informal History of an Informal Place.
Dolan said the porch was common in 19th century America but started falling out of fashion early in the 20th century as indoor plumbing came into use. Porches, like outhouses, became symbols of houses that were outdated, he said.
The demise of the front porch accelerated after World War II as ranch houses sprang up to accommodate the returning GIs and their burgeoning families. The houses' simple construction meant they could be built quickly and affordably, and ''those little houses . . . didn't lend themselves to any complicated carpentry,'' he said.
The neighborhoods where those houses were built also emphasized the automobile over walking, and the orientation of homes moved to the more private space in the backyard.
Nevertheless, Dolan said movies and TV shows continued to portray the front porch as a symbol of hearth and home, and the kids who grew up seeing those images now want to make those idyllic settings their own.
He noticed the popularity of the porch starting to revive about 15 years ago. Coincidentally, that was around the time he and his wife bought a house in Washington, D.C., with a ratty front porch they eventually replaced.
Testa thinks it was back in the 1980s when his company started including front porches in many of its stock plans for single-family homes. Now, he said, ''almost every single home [plan] we have has a front porch.''
A front porch feels good, Dolan said, and to him, it just looks like it belongs — sort of like eyebrows on a depiction of a face.
''It's detail that the eye wants,'' he said.
Mary Beth Breckenridge can be reached at 330-996-3756 or mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com.
Comfort, aesthetics
What makes a good front porch?
Size, for one thing, porch aficionados agree. A porch needs to be at least 8 feet deep to be comfortable, inviting and usable. Otherwise ‘‘it's like a really handsome pair of shoes that don't fit,’’ says Michael Dolan, author of The American Porch and the owner of a rebuilt porch in Washington, D.C.
A porch should also be proportionate to the house, for aesthetics' sake, Dolan said.
Pay attention to the height of the railing, he suggested. He put a 36-inch railing on his porch because he wanted to be able to lean his 6-foot-1 frame on it, but it turns out the railing is tall enough that it hides him from view. Maybe you like that, but maybe you'd rather your neighbors can see you.
Materials are important, too, developer Tony Troppe said. Natural materials like wood and stone, or those that have a more natural feel, are more pleasing to be near than their artificial counterparts.
Still, he thinks the low maintenance of some materials makes them worth using. He likes concrete or Trex for the decking on his porches and Hardie Plank fiber cement siding, but he used beaded board on the underside of the porch roof, where it won't be exposed to the weather.
A front porch is more than a shelter from the elements. It's a friendly face on a home, a comfortable bridge between our private lives and our public selves.
And almost by its very presence, it conveys neighborliness.
Is it any wonder, then, that in a country where families are often scattered and relocations common, we'd crave a return to the community-building powers of the porch?
That's a big part of the reason housing experts believe the front porch is regaining its importance in home construction.
Increasing demand for front porches in new homes was projected by most of the 60 builders, architects, designers and other specialists who were surveyed for the National Association of Home Builders' Home of the Future study in 2007. Among the panelists, 70 percent predicted front porches would become popular in new homes of about 2,400 square feet, while 79 percent expected it to be a desired feature in upscale homes of 3,000 feet or more.
The experts aren't talking about porches intended primarily for decoration, noted Steve Melman, the association's director of economic services. ''This is something where you could actually sit out,'' a covered space big enough to accommodate a swing or a table and chairs.
Melman thinks the movement has several roots. Front porches fit with the trend toward traditional home design, and they meet homeowners' desire for a more casual lifestyle, he said.
What's more, Melman said, porches feed people's desire to belong. A front porch is an icon of the American neighborhood, and its presence helps create a sense of community almost instantly, he said.
That's part of the reason developers Todd Ederer and Tony Troppe incorporated front porches into all the single-family home styles they offer at Hickory, the neighborhood their Canal Town Builders collaboration is creating at Hickory Street and Memorial Parkway, near Cascade Locks Park.
Hickory's two model homes — the only houses constructed in the development so far — both have 8-foot-deep porches situated close to the sidewalk but elevated a few feet above street level.
Ederer said the proportions were intentional, both to make the porches comfortable and to provide just the right amount of separation between their occupants and passers-by. The orientation of porch to sidewalk encourages interaction without setting up the expectation of a long encounter, unless that's what you want, he explained.
A porch's ability to promote that sort of casual exchange is the reason the architectural feature is often used in new urbanist developments like Hickory, which strive to give new neighborhoods the feel and livability of older small towns. New urbanism — also called new traditional development — de-emphasizes cars and encourages people to walk places, spend time outdoors and interact with their neighbors, fostering a sense of belonging.
''You get a feel that, OK, I'm in a neighborhood,'' Troppe said.
That neighborliness also promotes a sense of security, an important reason why porches are prominent in another new development, Cascade Village just north of downtown Akron.
The neighborhood replaced the Elizabeth Park public-housing project, and an important goal was enhancing safety by encouraging ''more eyes on the street,'' said Joel Testa of Testa Cos., which built homes in Cascade Village for the nonprofit development company Community Builders Inc.
The porch wasn't strictly a safety element. The development took its design cues from the nearby neighborhood, which is mainly populated with pre-World War II homes on which front porches are typical, Testa said. Even the color palette was inspired by the homes in the vicinity.
But porches were also a logical way to draw people outside. ''The more people that are out front, the more people are keeping an eye on the community,'' he said.
Testa sees evidence that the strategy is working. ''People didn't even want to go down there before. . . . Now people tour it [the neighborhood] all the time,'' he said.
The front porch may be an American icon, but it's hardly an American invention. Its origins lie in the protected walkways that edged ancient Greek temples, the porticos of ancient Rome, the covered outdoor living areas of equatorial Africa and the Indian huts called barandas, Michael Dolan writes in The American Porch: An Informal History of an Informal Place.
Dolan said the porch was common in 19th century America but started falling out of fashion early in the 20th century as indoor plumbing came into use. Porches, like outhouses, became symbols of houses that were outdated, he said.
The demise of the front porch accelerated after World War II as ranch houses sprang up to accommodate the returning GIs and their burgeoning families. The houses' simple construction meant they could be built quickly and affordably, and ''those little houses . . . didn't lend themselves to any complicated carpentry,'' he said.
The neighborhoods where those houses were built also emphasized the automobile over walking, and the orientation of homes moved to the more private space in the backyard.
Nevertheless, Dolan said movies and TV shows continued to portray the front porch as a symbol of hearth and home, and the kids who grew up seeing those images now want to make those idyllic settings their own.
He noticed the popularity of the porch starting to revive about 15 years ago. Coincidentally, that was around the time he and his wife bought a house in Washington, D.C., with a ratty front porch they eventually replaced.
Testa thinks it was back in the 1980s when his company started including front porches in many of its stock plans for single-family homes. Now, he said, ''almost every single home [plan] we have has a front porch.''
A front porch feels good, Dolan said, and to him, it just looks like it belongs — sort of like eyebrows on a depiction of a face.
''It's detail that the eye wants,'' he said.
Mary Beth Breckenridge can be reached at 330-996-3756 or mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com.
Comfort, aesthetics
What makes a good front porch?
Size, for one thing, porch aficionados agree. A porch needs to be at least 8 feet deep to be comfortable, inviting and usable. Otherwise ‘‘it's like a really handsome pair of shoes that don't fit,’’ says Michael Dolan, author of The American Porch and the owner of a rebuilt porch in Washington, D.C.
A porch should also be proportionate to the house, for aesthetics' sake, Dolan said.
Pay attention to the height of the railing, he suggested. He put a 36-inch railing on his porch because he wanted to be able to lean his 6-foot-1 frame on it, but it turns out the railing is tall enough that it hides him from view. Maybe you like that, but maybe you'd rather your neighbors can see you.
Materials are important, too, developer Tony Troppe said. Natural materials like wood and stone, or those that have a more natural feel, are more pleasing to be near than their artificial counterparts.
Still, he thinks the low maintenance of some materials makes them worth using. He likes concrete or Trex for the decking on his porches and Hardie Plank fiber cement siding, but he used beaded board on the underside of the porch roof, where it won't be exposed to the weather.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
Akron, OH
Posted 01:49 PM, 05/22/2009
Is this just a covert ad for the non-existent development at Hickory?
Posted 10:04 AM, 05/26/2009
I don't know of anyone that has AC that sits outside anymore. Even if they have a cookout they come inside to eat.
