Alley Gating & Greening Toolkit
Alley Gating & Greening Block Action Plan
Landlord Information
May 2007 CG Newsletter
Metropolis Magazine Article

Community Greens PowerPoint Presentation
Featured Articles
Legal issues related to developing community greens
Helpful Links for Creating Community Greens
Portfolio of Community Greens
Firms that Design Community Greens

Community Greens PowerPoint Presentation

Community Greens: An Overview* This PowerPoint presentation provides an overview of the Community Greens concept including the benefits of community greens, how to create community greens, and characteristics of successful community greens. (The best way to view this presentation in Acrobat Reader is by first changing the size to "Fit in Window" (this menu should be in the lower lefthand corner of your screen) and then choosing "Full Screen" from the "View" menu on the top of your screen).
*You need to have Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded at www.adobe.com.

Featured Articles

Parisian Green: A Hint for Us  Syndicated columnist Neal Peirce suggests ways to slow sprawl and make city living more attractive. Musing on the livability of Paris, he explains that Parisians have incorporated community greens into their urban blocks since the 15th century. Turning to the U.S., he highlights the Community Greens initiative.

Secret Gardens by William Drayton, founder and CEO of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
(Published in The Atlantic Monthly, June 2000).

Community Greens: A New Tool for Strengthening Urban Neighborhoods* by Robert Inerfeld, Director of Community Greens and Barbara Bratton Blom, Assistant Law Professor at the University of Maryland School of Law.(Published in the Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development Law, Winter 2002).

The Neighborhood Approach to Building Community: A Different Perspective on Smart Growth by Clare Cooper Marcus. The author is Professor Emerita at the Departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of California, Berkeley. This article was published in Western City Magazine in March 2001.

Legal issues related to developing community greens

These papers were written by two law students who took a class at the University of Maryland School of Law that focused on how to develop community greens in Baltimore neighborhoods:
Ryan Bautz’s paper explores how neighbors can transform a negative, dysfunctional alley into a community green.
Kristen Klick’s paper explores how neighbors who live on one side of any alley can share a row of seven backyards.

Helpful Links for Creating Community Greens

Low Impact Development Center By creating community greens in older neighborhoods and incorporating them in new developments, we can reduce the environmental impacts of growth. Community greens have a number of environmental benefits, including reducing stormwater runoff (due to a reduction of impervious surfaces) and reducing the urban heat island effect (by providing additional tree cover). To learn more about environmentally sensitive building practices, visit the Low Impact Development Center website, which performs research and trains individuals in land use planning that maintains land and water integrity during land development.

The Cohousing Network Community greens, by providing neighborhoods with beautiful, safe, communal areas, attract neighbors to enjoy the space together, work together and lead to stronger community bonds. This is also the goal of cohousing developments, which nearly always incorporate community greens. Cohousing communities combine individual home ownership with communal spaces, including a common courtyard and building (with kitchen, dinning area, lounge and meeting rooms). This site lists cohousing communities, lectures and conferences, resources, and architectural firms. Read about Retrofit Cohousing to learn how to create cohousing in an existing neighborhood.

National Wildlife Federation: Backyard Wildlife Habitat Community greens, by liberating more land to be used for gardens, in which shrubs, trees, flowers and grasses can be planted, also provide habitats for birds and animals. For more information about how to turn your backyard and community green into a certified wildlife habitat, check out the NWF's Backyard Wildlife Habitat site, which includes information on how to create a habitat, of how to become a habitat steward, tips and projects, and how to find and see photographs of wildlife habitat in your town or city.

Portfolio of Community Greens

Community greens come in many shapes and sizes, have been created during many periods of growth and have been included during the original design of developments and established years after the original developments were built. To learn the history of old and new community greens, see our Profiles of Existing Greens. In addition to our profiles, we have included information about other community greens that can be found throughout the country and world and some of the architectural firms that are incorporating community greens into their designs.

Good Neighbors: Affordable Family Housing offers an extensive survey of well-designed affordable housing, including many developments that contain shared interior gardens. Based on a book of the same title, the Good Neighbors site includes building designs, occupant profiles, and links to housing organizations, architects and developers who have included community greens in their work. Only ten of the 85 studies from the book are presented on this site; the others can be found on the Affordable Housing Design Advisor. View Good Neighbors' index of developments that include shared interior gardens: Good Neighbors Courtyard Index

Affordable Housing Design Advisor sponsored by HUD, lists tools and guides to affordable housing design. The site includes over 75 development profiles in its Gallery of High Quality Affordable Housing, 29 of which are built around interior courtyards. Each profile includes a comprehensive profile of the development, including detailed plans, and a project summary, with information about architects, contractors, funders, and development costs. Initial profiles were taken from the Good Neighbors: Affordable Family Housing website, but more have been added since. To view profiles of developments incorporating community greens, go to the Affordable Housing Design Advisor, choose the "Tools" tab, and select from the left tool bar: "Special Characteristics Index"; the second listing on the page "Courtyard housing" will link you to numerous developments incorporating community greens.

N Street Cohousing Community, CA begun in 1986 by joining the yards of two homes, this community now boasts 16 homes, 14 of which surround a common green. The community grew by purchasing homes that were for sale and tearing down backyard fences. In the green can be found benches, a play structure, and even a chicken coop, hot tub and sauna, for the enjoyment and use of all residents. As a classic cohousing development, it also includes a communal kitchen and dinning room (established by purchasing one of the homes), and it addresses the lack of affordable housing by proving rental apartments in the communal house as well as plans to build more affordable units into the development.

Ravenna Court, WA consisting of nine cottages, 850 square feet each, and designed around an interior courtyard, they provide an oasis for people who desire a sense of community. Their developer, Threshold Housing, a nonprofit based out of Seattle, hopes to encourage more cottage developments in the future.

Bigelow Homes has developed three communities outside of Chicago that incorporate community greens. Bigelow Homes’ neighborhoods are designed with an emphasis on safety and quality of life for children. Read about Bigelow Homes’ version of the community green – the Living Court: Designed for Children and In the tradition of Great American Neighborhoods.

Wonderland Hill Development Company is the leading cohousing developer in the United States. Click here to see some of the communities they have developed.

The Cottage Company is a development and construction company based in Seattle, Washington that focuses on the implementation of pocket neighborhoods of cottages and not-so-big homes. In most of their developments, the houses are oriented around community greens.

Firms that Design Community Greens

All of these architecture firms have significant experience designing residential communities that contain either shared interior green space or courtyards.

Thomas Dolan Architecture (TDA). This Oakland based architecture firm specializes in live-work and podium housing (housing units built over structured parking). Live-work developments are often oriented around common spaces that provide opportunities for neighborly interaction and help residents overcome the isolation of working at home. Podium developments provide opportunities to orient housing units around shared courtyards. TDA has created a nonprofit organization, the Live/Work Institute to promote the development of live-work housing.

Wolf Lyon Architects based in Boulder, CO. Projects that contain Community Greens include the Poplar Community and the Wellington Neighborhood.

Ross Chapin Architects

Cohousing Company

Moule & Polyzoides

Pyatok Architects Inc with multiple developments surrounding community greens, this firm has won over 50 design awards, works extensively on affordable housing, and is committed to the "idea that both client and community must work together in the process of designing and planning projects". The principle architect, Michael Pyatok, also co-wrote the book Good Neighbors: Affordable Family Housing. Click on the following links for portfolios of Pyatok designs surrounding interior courtyards: Bay Bridge, Bernal Gateway, Gateway Commons, Hismen Hin-Nu Terrace, James Lee Court, John Carney Building, North Richmond Senior Housing, Sunset Creek Apartments.

Seidel/Holzman This award-winning architecture, planning and design firm understands the importance of interior courtyards in the preservation of open space and their ability to strengthen communities. Click the links below to learn how they have incorporated community greens in their market rate, affordable and senior residences.Italian Gardens, The Hamptons, El Camino Village, Montage, Montelena, Metro Center/City Park, Pinmore Gardens, The Farm.

Additional Reading

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, Oxford University Press, New York, 1977.

Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities, Timothy Beatley, Island Press, Washington, DC, 2000.

Housing As If People Mattered: Site Design Guidelines for Medium-Density Family Housing, Clare Cooper Marcus and Wendy Sarkissian, University of California Press, Ltd., London, England, 1986.

Jackson Heights: A Garden in the City, The History of America's First Garden and Cooperative Apartment Community, Daniel Karatzas, 1990.

Toward New Towns for America, Clarence Stein, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1966.