Frontages: Dooryard & light court; forecourt; stoop

New Urban News Technical Page by Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell

Of all the types of building frontages, the pattern known as dooryard and light court is the one demonstrating the greatest number of sophisticated variations. It was the model used in many neighborhoods, both elegant and modest, built during the flowering of American cities between the Civil War and WW I. It is an adaptable pattern, and so the neighborhoods and buildings using it have proven more resistant to decline than others, and have often led the way in urban revivals.

The dooryard frontage and the light court frontage are the up and down versions, respectively, of the tactic of changing the level of a front setback area from the level of the sidewalk. Different as they are on first appearance their common goal is to provide privacy by de-aligning the eye levels of pedestrians and building occupants. The level change also sharply discourages incursions from the sidewalk into the semiprivate space of the yard, even when there is a minimal setback or a very intense pedestrian stream. The level change also renders untenable the temptation, present in degraded neighborhoods, to park cars within the front setback zone. The dooryard/light court is thus a value-stabilizing element.