The Salt Lake Bungalow.

Salt Lake City, for being a western city, has an awful lot of bungalows in its central core. Back at the turn of the century, architectural styles changed from the Victorian to smaller homes and the bungalows were the obvious choice. Since a bulk of Salt Lake's growth happened from 1900-1960, bungalows are one of the most prominent housing stocks in Salt Lake, especially around the Liberty Wells and SugarHouse neighborhoods.

Bungalows are not a style, rather a type. There are different styles of bungalows, mostly relating to the regional area of the city. Most famously, there's the Chicago bungalow, which is rather compact and boxy. Typically these structures lack a porch and are dominated by the front of the house with the entrance being tucked away off to the side. These bungalows are non-existent in Salt Lake City.

The other most known bungalow is the California bungalow, which of course is related to the region of California. These are more common in the western US than most any other style of bungalow, especially in the southwest and, of course, California cities. California bungalows are characterized by their dominate porches, sloping roofs, stucco exteriors and have 1 to 1 1/2 stories. Though there aren't many in Salt Lake City, typically they can be found in the western part of the area, especially around 900 South in the Glendale and Rose Park neighborhoods.

The style in Salt Lake wasn't widely popular throughout the west and the brick style is in stark contrast to that of the stucco style of California bungalows. Typically, like the California bungalow, Salt Lake bungalows have a dominate porch, sloping roofs and have 1 to 1 1/2 stories. The Salt Lake bungalow is referred to as an Prairie-style bungalow. This style was actually developed to reflect the early work of Frank Lloyd Wright and also shares some influence with Japanese prints. This style isn't widely used throughout the west and can be found mostly in the midwestern area of the United States.

Another bungalow style in Salt Lake, though not nearly as much as the Praire-style, is the Foursquare Bungalow. This is often noted as the transition style between Victorians and bungalows, which explains their bulky, boxy shape. Foursquare bungalows have mostly 2 to 2 1/2 floors, wide porches and have low-pitched hipped roofs. The Avenues neighborhood, as well as the South Temple Historical District, offer the best example of this style of bungalow.

The best area to spot bungalows in Salt Lake is south of downtown throughout the Liberty Park neighborhoods of East Central South, Liberty Wells, East Liberty and West Liberty.
Here's an aerial view of a typical "bungalow" hood in Salt Lake City. This area is located just off of State Street and about 1100 South:

And here's some photos of some of Salt Lake's bungalow neighborhoods.

California Bungalows:

Salt Lake City Council looks to stop McMansion growth.

The Salt Lake City Council has approved a height limit for housing in historical neighborhoods at 23 feet high. I want to applaud the Salt Lake Council for taking a progressive, historically preserving action when it comes to retaining many of Salt Lake's historical neighborhoods. The rules also state that secondary structures cannot be larger than 480 square feet or 50% of the house size.

The Avenues Community Council however is proposing the secondary structure limit be raised to 600 square feet, telling the Salt Lake Tribune that they [Avenues Community Council] don't want people building 1,200 square-foot homes just to get the 600 square-foot garage. I agree with the community council, as this could create larger structures instead of curbing that type of development.

The Salt Lake City Council obviously feels that this is a pressing need and they are right. But we need to make sure there aren't many loopholes that actually deters the ordinance’s significance in the first place. Salt Lake has too many historical neighborhoods to allow McMansion development within them, especially when not many western cities can boast about the architectural housing stock throughout the city.

The Salt Lake Tribune article can be read here: SLC's new limits on rebuilding older homes taking shape.