Roadside Attraction: The American Alley

Alleys have always had some kind of appeal to city planners and architects…to this architect, anyway. They not only permit delivery of goods and supplies (especially construction supplies) and removal of refuse and recyclable stuff, but they provide a less-traveled path for cyclists and pedestrians.  To understand the importance of alleys, you need only visit a city that lacks them, say San Francisco or New York, and witness the daily crises of delivery, removal and parking that result.

At another level entirely, alleys provide a glimpse into the inner workings, and the inner lives, of our cities.  In Everett Shinn's "Alley Cat" from 1938, a needy feline experiences the human touch...

When Charles Sheeler painted "MacDougal Alley" in 1924, his focus was not on the inhabitants, but on the way light revealed form, color and space...

John Register's paintings of American alleys give attention to light and form, but also manage to convey a sense of loneliness and abandonment that he also captured in cross-country surveys of empty diners and forgotten motels*.

Register's "Inner City" from 1994 is one of those almost hidden, corner-of-the-eye cityscapes that urban dwellers miss in the daily rush of activity on city streets.  Register takes out the streaming traffic and human figures, and leaves us the stillness revealed when the first light hits the alleyways...

In the Seventies, not long after John Register started painting alleys, architects and urban planners started taking an interest in alleyways. Printers Alley in Nashville was an early example of reconfiguring an alley that once warehoused an industry into a pedestrian space lined with restaurants, bars and music venues.

Similar efforts are under way across the country.  The example below shows what can be done with more emphasis on greenery, and a bit more restraint in the signage department.

Cady's Alley, in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., has been renovated into a lively area of shops and restaurants, with a glazed pedestrian bridge adding spatial and structural intrigue. Plantings and patterned pavers add human scale.  Places like these may experience a boom when crowds return after the pandemic, if small businesses can hold on that long...

In towns like Boulder, there's been a growing interest in residential spaces on alleys as well. As real estate prices escalate, there will be pressure on cities to allow more density, and on architects and builders to create energy-efficient, small scale dwellings along our streets and alleys. Unlike most alleys in town, Turner Alley now has a street sign and a couple of modernist alley houses. The one shown here has a south-facing greenhouse space.

Under a standing-seam metal roof, it also features bands of clerestory windows bordering a "light shelf" surrounding an open, sunny interior.

In my own neighborhood, about a mile north of downtown, I found this cleverly articulated cube. A studio perches above concrete walls, with full-height glazing facing south for solar gain, and west for the mountain views. 

A wood rain screen wall encloses the space from the middle of the west-facing garage, and around the north side of the structure, with its small windows, clearly intended as the "utility and storage" side of the living space...

Part of the appeal of this alley house is the privacy and quiet it provides by facing an alley that has less than one-tenth the traffic of the streets that border the block.  It's hidden in plain sight, like those fleeting, light-filled glimpses of alleys sketched by artists like Charles Sheeler and John Register.  And alley houses like it offer the possibility of providing our towns and cities with more pedestrian and bicycle-friendly streetscapes, as well as more affordable housing.

*Footnote:  For a visual essay on John Register's paintings, see our post for February 24, 2018, entitled "Roadside Attraction: John Register's Abandoned Diners and Sleepy Motels". 

Photo Credits:  

Top & 2nd from top (alley near Union Station, Denver 1980):  the author

3rd from top: Everett Shinn, posted at en.wahooart.com

4th:  Charles Sheeler

5th & 6th: The Estate of John Register

7th:  Wikimedia

8th:  mjarchitecture.com

9th:  From "The Hidden History of D.C's Alleyways", at dcist.com

All other photos: the author