New interpretation of courtyard housing in Chicago says F.U. to the street

Courtyard housing is a home-y type where instead of houses on either side of a block facing the street, there is sidewalk and somewhat communal public space, open to the neighborhood in which it's embedded.  Apartments use the type too, organized as a horseshoe around communal space.  

Ross Chapin's Pocket Neighborhoods is about the type, and it's beautifully written.

It would be considered "missing middle housing," but I think that's somewhat of a mis-classification.  Or at least, I think the communal/non-street elements are more important to focus on.

It's more of group oriented housing development rather than a focus on single occupant dwellings as 

Design-wise, except for it being apartments and a locked entry way, the set up of the apartment building on the tv show Melrose Place is similar, except the pool functions the common space.  This building reintroduced us to courtyard housing.

Pre-war apartment buildings often used this physical design without a focus on developing communal elements of the space.

Salt Lake has a bunch of good SFH examples, including Boulevard Gardens.  I just saw "a new to me" one on 800 East.

Crain's Chicago Business has a story,"Architects' redesign of a Chicago classic becoming reality in the West Side," about how two architectural firms have created a modern version.  The exterior, butt ugly, has no charm, and it's perpendicular to the street so that the courtyard is disconnected and focused only on the residents within.  There isn't much charm.  I can't imagine there's much communal activity in the space.  They miss the point on what community and connectedness mean.