If you read the history of why Boston went with Triple-Decker's over continuing row Homes 1880s to 1920s as Philly stuck to row-housing well into the 20th century? It was in the Triple-Decker for its masses to make it more affordable to buy. By having two rentals while the owner lived in the third.
Boston's Triple-Decker's also could be attached as some are or single. Porches fronts, sides backs even were common and some green-space. Just not necessarily in setbacks front streets. They did maintain density as ALL were multi-residential structures.
The irony is : In the 1940s ... building a Triple-Decker in Boston was virtually banned as a "fire hazard" Recently, a new wave of triple decker apartment houses has been built in areas of Boston as an alternative to the townhouse style condominium or apartment buildings more typically associated with suburban areas. Boston's zoning regulations allow new three-family houses to be constructed in areas with existing triple-deckers. However, building codes for the new buildings are far more stringent today, with requirements for fire sprinkler systems and handicap access.
https://everipedia.org/wiki/Triple-decker/
- Three-deckers were most commonly built in the emerging industrial cities of the central New England region of the United States between 1870 and 1920.
- Often, three-deckers feature two apartments per floor, with the units sharing a common wall. Each apartment typically has a front and/or back porch for each apartment, and because the buildings are usually freestanding, there are windows on all four sides. Some three-deckers feature a single front door which accesses all three units; others feature two entrances
- The economics of the triple-decker are simple: the cost of the land, basement and roof are spread among three or six apartments, which typically have identical floor plans. The triple-decker apartment house was seen as an alternative to the row-housing built in other Northeastern cities of United States during this period, such as in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
- They were primarily housing for the working-class and middle-class families, often in multiple rows on narrow lots in the areas surrounding the factories. They were regarded as more livable than their brick and stone tenement and row house counterparts in other Northeastern cities, as they allowed for airflow and light on all four sides of each building.
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Philly chose the row-home to stay with well into the 20th century.... for the masses.
The idea was ALL could a afford a common Philly row-home and it did become a city of the highest home ownership in the Nation then. But lower numbers of multi-resident and apartment buildings too then other cities.
Row Houses | Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia
- From Philadelphia’s founding, the row house has served as an easy solution to housing the city’s residents. As ambitious colonists began to break up the big city blocks of William Penn’s “greene country towne” with secondary streets, alleys, and courts, speculative developers and builders constructed rows of houses that matched varied budgets and taste.
- Constructing houses in a row was cost-effective and efficient for builders. It allowed them to replicate a design from only a few plans, consolidate crews and resources at one site, and buy materials in bulk. The shared party walls of row houses also meant less stone or masonry work compared to a free-standing house. For piping sewer, plumbing, and gas lines, such specialized and expensive work could be done for the entire row at one time, saving labor costs. Little changed between the houses as builders completed them down the street for eventual sale.
https://www.planning.org/pas/reports/report164.htm
^Disadvantages of Row Housing
- Most of the unfavorable comment regarding row housing arises from experience with the type of unit built in the past. Many of these objections have been overcome by modern design and architectural treatment; others are primarily a matter of individual taste as to the kind of living accommodation preferred.
- The typical OLDER row house is admittedly too narrow to allow good interior planning. Living space is consequently restricted and furnishing difficult. Without adequate fencing there is little privacy in the yard. Thin party walls transmit sounds from adjacent units. Lack of proper ventilating equipment causes the house to be hot in the summer. In the very oldest examples of big city row housing, dwellings were commonly deep and dark, a fault aggravated by the inadequate artificial lighting of the era.
- Endless facades of brick and wood caused one dwelling and indeed one street to be indistinguishable from another, except in those instances where owners went in for fancy colors on doors and trim. Exterior uniformity in a neighborhood of row houses is generally thought to be aesthetically more depressing than it is in a tract of detached single-family dwellings, although this is a fairly debatable point.
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But in housing for our masses today and desirability nationally ..... I'd prefer a detached Triple-Decker over simple row. But not over Old Boston's Terrence rows with high craftsmanship or some quaint Colonial rows of Philly.
Overall NOT in the Topic's choice. A third contender ...... could be the Craftsman Bungalow w/basements that was Chicago's choice - 1910-1940 and Los Angeles - choice 1910-1930 early 20th century ...... over Triple-Decker's and common Row-housing built for the masses. Though Chicago-bungalows were brick. LA's choice to developed its Bungalow styles were wood-frame with sweeping roofs and porches that were common till the Ranch home took over.
I'd say overall..... Americans would chose a detached common Bungalow over a attached basic row-home or even attached or detached Triple-Decker? Merely my opinion. Living in small city central PA. Old-stock row-housing by pricing, value and added equity attained. Row-housing is the least valued and desired outside of Philly basically.
I'd choose a LA or Chicago Bungalow if a third choice for common big city housing for its masses..... was in this option. But the Ranch home BEAT THEM ALL eventually.
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