By Design: Fitting the Garage on a Narrow Lot

One of the major design challenges faced by builders and architects today, in development and infill projects alike, is the building lot that’s too narrow to accept a house and garage side by side. The most common solution is a front-loaded garage design, in which the garage projects forward from the house, with a short driveway leading to the street. That has some definite practical advantages. It does provide for easy access by car, and it provides a large amount of interior square footage for the amount of exterior wall, reducing unit costs. But there are drawbacks as well. The garage-forward approach often leads to a monotonous wall of garage doors facing the street, with every house set back