An Ode to the Townhouse

town house  1 a city residence, esp. as distinguished from a country residence of the same owner  2 a dwelling, typically two-story or three-story, that is one of a planned complex of such, often contiguous, dwellings: also town’house or town’home’  n.

While my usually-trusty Webster’s New World College Dictionary offers woefully inept definitions of the townhouse (#1 harks back to 17th century England; #2 reminds one of suburban Maryland), you get the picture. Or if you don't, here's an actual picture:

Townhouses in Old City Philadelphia. Photo: author

Townhouses are narrow, multi-story homes in urban neighborhoods, suburban areas or small towns, that are attached or very close to other townhouses. The term “single-family attached” is often used as a proxy, though many townhouses in San Francisco are actually detached (by mere inches), and many newer townhouses have condominium ownership arrangements. Some folks use the slightly derisive term, “rowhome.” But enough with the nomenclature.

I never thought much about townhouses until I moved to eastern Pennsylvania, arguably the townhouse capitol of the USA. And though I’ve never resided in a townhouse, I’ve grown a fondness for the dwelling type after years visiting friends and family who call them home, and while walking through chock-full-o’-townhouse neighborhoods in Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, DC, and my former hometowns of Bethlehem and Emmaus, PA. Done right, a townhouse is one of the most graceful statements of residential architecture.

My old neighborhood in Bethlehem, PA Photo: author

More of my old neighborhood in Bethlehem, PA. Photo: author

Other reasons why I’m a fan of the townhouse:

Noe Valley, San Fransicso. Photo: author

• Townhouses use urban land efficiently, both by stacking square footage vertically in two to four floors, and also by arranging themselves immediately adjacent to other townhouses. Efficient use of urban land helps reduce sprawl on the suburban fringes, saving agricultural and wild land.

• Along with cottage housing and perhaps mobile homes, townhouses are pretty much the smallest residential footprint you can have in the modern world while still maintaining your own unique x/y coordinates on the surface of the Earth. Nobody is above you or below you, just next to you.

• Townhouses are intrinsically energy efficient because shared walls serve as insulation for heating and cooling (though you still have two outside walls and a roof to deal with).

• Sound transmission between shared walls is a concern, but is usually no worse than living in a compact neighborhood of single-family detached homes. Sound issues can be nearly eliminated with modern construction technology (if you own your townhouse and have some cash laying around.) 

Jim Thorpe, PA. Photo: author

• If situated with other townhouses on both sides of a neighborhood street, townhouses can create an urbane, comfortable sense of enclosure for those traveling down the street. That is, as long as the townhouses are thoughtfully-designed with ample fenestration (windows and doors), pleasant proportions, and not set back too far from the street.

• Townhouses often have a happy medium of outdoor space - not a huge lawn to mow, but usually something more than a balcony. I am a fan of the Chicago set-up: a small backyard between the house and the alley garage.

• From a personal standpoint, I simply like how it feels to be on the upper floors of a townhouse - in a perch, vertically removed from the street and with a view out over the rooftops. I’m not sure if others share this feeling, but there’s something comfortable, safe, almost primal about it. My brother-in-law once had an awesome third-floor “man cave” in his old Bethlehem townhouse, where my wife and I stayed when visiting.

Many would agree that the best American townhouses are at least a century old, and located in east coast cities. The classic, ornate townhouses in neighborhoods like Boston’s Beacon Hill, Brooklyn’s Park Slope or DC’s DuPont Circle are hard to beat. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some great modern townhouses (in both the temporal and stylistic sense), or that the rest of the country is devoid of good examples.

Old, traditional, east coast townhouses, DuPont Circle, Washington, DC. Photo: author

New, modernist, west coast townhouses, South Waterfront, Portland, OR. Photo: author

Probably the biggest design challenge in developing contemporary townhouses is accommodating the American demand for automobile storage. In providing a garage or outdoor parking, townhouse developers risk compromising one or more of the qualities listed above, especially fenestration and outdoor space (think wall of uninterrupted garage doors and concrete driveways). Suburban townhouse developments are the worst offenders, often looking like glorified apartment complexes (no offense to residents of apartment complexes). But cars can be accommodated in townhouses with thoughtful design. In cities with alleys, like Chicago or Washington, DC, the garage or parking space can go in the back. In cities without alleys, like New York or San Francisco, garages can be set slightly back and/or tucked under a front porch. Developers with big budgets can build underground parking for an entire block of townhouses.

Where are the garages?

They're tucked in the back, facing an alley. Sellwood, Portland. Photos: author

San Franciscans have been adding garages to their townhouses for decades. Some more discreetly than others. Mission District, San Francisco. Photo: author

Understated, set back garages are good when "front-loading" is the only option. Northwest Portland. Photo: author 

Ick! The infamous "snout house" design has a protruding garage. Sellwood, Portland. Photo: author

Another design challenge with a new townhouse is creating a visually-pleasing urban form - the combination of a home’s dimensions, proportions, scale, facade features (including fenestration), and its relation to other buildings. Please note that this does not include its architectural style. This is often the starting point for many a heated argument between new urbanists and modernists, who then lob insults like “boxy Euro-trash” or “fake nostalgia.” But the truth is, the architectural style of a townhouse shouldn’t matter as long as the urban form is good. There are both great examples and horrible examples of both modern and neo-traditional townhouses. And plenty in between.

What do you think of townhouses, old and new, neo-traditional and modern, east coast, west coast, or wherever?

New urbanists like to carefully recreate old forms. What do you think? Kentlands, Gaithersburg, MD. Photo: author

Modernists would rather experiment with new forms. What do you think? Sellwood, Portland. Photo: author

Others are just lucky to own a classic. Washington Square, Philadelphia. Photo: author