Charming new ‘pocket’ communities make sense
On two small patches outside Indianapolis, Casey Land is bringing a bit of West Coast living to Midwestern fields.
Working with Washington state architect Ross Chapin, Land has completed the Inglenook of Carmel housing development and is working on a sequel, Inglenook of Zionsville.
These are small projects — the Carmel site has 27 homes and Zionsville is platted for 48 — but they could offer a big option for the future.
The Inglenook developments are “pocket neighborhoods,” which means the front of the homes face a shared middle while the street is in the back. The middle could be occupied by water or a garden, but in most pocket neighborhoods, including Inglenook, the homes front a common lawn.
At the Inglenook projects, between four and eight homes cluster around each lawn.
In many of Chapin’s designs, the quaint, vintage appeal is heightened by the cottage architecture of the homes. They look like dollhouses you can live in, right down to the white picket fences.
“When you’re sitting on your front porch, you’re looking at a nice streetscape of houses with front porches, not automobiles,” said Land, owner of Land Development & Building.
Pocket neighborhoods aren’t new. One of my favorites, in Harbor Springs, Michigan, has probably been around for close to a century.
But they have become especially popular on the West Coast in recent years, led by Chapin, whose firm is north of Seattle.
Chapin, in fact, has literally written the book on the designs, “Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small-Scale Community in a Large-Scale World.”
Critics can take shots at pocket neighborhoods as being dainty Victorian artifices in a modern world. And the cottage homes come at a premium price. Inglenook homes start around $320,000, a premium for homes that range from 1,226 to 1,915 square feet.
But the developments are undeniably charming. And it’s easy to understand their allure.
For empty- nesters, the
modest size may be appealing, but the neighborhood design is an even larger draw. One of the biggest concerns of aging homeowners is isolation. A front porch and a shared lawn go a long way toward remedying that concern.
“It really gets into quality of life,” Land said. “We sell the neighborhood first, the lifestyle second, and then we sell the house.”
For young families, the appeal is likewise easy to understand. Parents can let their kids lose on the common lawn while relaxing
on the porch.
Although pocket neighborhoods seem designed for empty-nesters, Land said buyers range from their 30s into their 80s.
“Response has been great,” he told me. “It’s a niche market — somebody who has thought about a condo but doesn’t want to live in one, someone who is social or on the artistic side, ... someone looking for a neighborhood and for walkability.”