Building With Style: Reviving the Porch

You’ve probably noticed that the revival of Victorian architecture is alive and well. Your local shopping center, this year’s housing development, even downtown office buildings sport towers, deep overhangs, foursquare hip roofs, and the all-important feature of late-Victorian house design, the porch. Most of us have fond memories about porches. Mine are of sitting on our screened porch in Omaha on sweltering nights, talking, rocking, saluting the occasional passing neighbor, and waiting for the inevitable evening thunderstorm to cool things off. This was a time before mercury vapor lights, and before TV and central air conditioning kept people inside. One could sit on the porch in the dark, in the quiet, feeling private and protected but completely in touch with the community