ONE OF THE most common types of multifamily structures found in the United States is what the fire service refers to as the garden apartment or garden-style apartment building, which, technically, are two different things. Our use of this term is ambiguous and can cause a bit of confusion at times due to how loosely we apply it to a variety of types of buildings or individual apartment units. It can mean different things in different parts of the country, specifically when comparing urban and suburban definitions. A firefighter from Queens, New York, is going to picture something that will look much different than what a firefighter from a suburban metro area will picture.
This article will define the terms more clearly and explore the most common types of structures that you’ll find in what we generically refer to as garden apartments. You should learn these types and size them up accordingly instead of just using the term garden apartment for the whole lot. With that in mind, it’s important to gain some historical perspective and learn where the term came from and how it has been adapted from its original meaning to now include entire categories of buildings in most parts of the country.
Historical Perspective
Historians agree that the term “garden apartment” began in the Jackson Heights area of Queens, New York, in 1914 when the Queensboro Corporation used it to advertise its greystone complexes, which featured shared-courtyard garden areas or green spaces. The premise was that this provided a healthier and better quality of life in the urban setting and was a welcome shift from the old tenement-style housing model. The term quickly extended from not only complexes like that but also specifically to the individual units that had access to private garden spaces that you mightfind in brownstones or similar buildings found in other areas.
These individual garden apartments were on the first level and typically half below grade. They had private entrances with direct access to the outside or garden space, unlike the rest of the units, where you were required to walk through hallways and common stairwells to enter or exit the structure. These lower units had less natural light and could be a bit damp and musty, making them a little less desirable for most people than the upper units within the building. It seems the housing industry extended the term to include these individual units, advertising them as garden apartments and highlighting the benefits of direct access to the outdoors or “garden” space, sometimes even a private area connected to only that unit.
A term that began as an advertising campaign for greystones in Queens took hold, and its meaning continued to evolve over the decades that followed. Contemporary use of the term “garden apartment” in a more suburban environment extends to include any type of apartment building or complex clustered in and around green space or garden areas. This is generally restricted to buildings that are low-rise “walk-ups”—up to three stories, without standpipes and elevators, and with accessible parking lots in and around them. While some might disagree, I believe anything four stories or more enters into the mid-rise category, including elevators and standpipes, which really no longer fall into the category of a garden apartment building even though many of them might have similarities.
You’ll also hear people refer to the half below grade “basement” level as the garden level, which makes perfect sense once you realize how this term evolved. Many apartment buildings were purposely constructed with a garden level to avoid requirements for standpipes due to the garden level being counted as a basement for code purposes.
It’s important to understand these differences in regional vernacular and why an urban firefighter might be thinking of something a little different than a suburban firefighter. For this article, I’m going to explore buildings that fall under the contemporary definition. These types of buildings and complexes are found throughout the country in most all suburban and even somewhat rural small-town areas, and they have many common and predictable features after you learn how to recognize them and properly identify them. Getting to know them and being able to quickly recognize patterns will help you apply tactics much more effectively and avoid costly mistakes.
It’s also important to recognize the difference in construction between the early greystones, brownstones, and similar types of buildings that made up the “original” garden apartments and these newer, contemporary interpretations of them. All the old greystones and similar types of structures are of Type III, or ordinary constructed buildings. These are true masonry constructed cut stone block or brick walls with wood framing for interior walls, fire cut joists, and originally lath and plaster walls. The roofs will mostly be low sloping flat roofs over wood joists and tongue-and-groove sheathing. This type ofordinary construction extends to many of the apartment buildings constructed into the 1940s. Mid-century buildings began to change with the introduction of precast, prestressed concrete “flexicore” panels used for roofs and floors and extensive use of concrete block walls and more steel. This type of construction was very common in some areas for all types of apartment buildings from the late 1940s through the 1970s.
The newer types of buildings, generally constructed from the mid-1960s until present, are what I’m calling contemporary garden apartments and will generally all fall into Type V, or wood frame. Exteriors range from brick veneer frequently mixed with wood siding in the window bays to aluminum, vinyl, or other siding materials.
Depending on the era of construction, you’ll find anything from traditional wood joist and wall framing with rafters and inch board or plywood sheathing to newer buildings with extensive use of truss systems and oriented strand board roof and wall sheathing. In the newest buildings, anticipate more and more use of engineered building materials and systems such as glulam beams, parallel chord trusses, and I-joists for floor and roof framing, light gauge steel framing, and so on.
Many of the oldest Type III structures will still retain most of the conventional building materials used throughout them, but be cognizant of all the renovations done on many of these structures today. Many of these older urban neighborhoods have undergone gentrification or have been revitalized and the buildings have been fully gutted and modernized with new framing, joists, stairwells, and glulam girders and beams to increase span ratings and open up floor plans. These extensive rehabilitations frequently use engineered products like the ones in all types of new construction, so be mindful of that as you look at them and consider building type classifications, fire behavior, and tactics.
Contemporary Garden Apartments
The term “garden apartment” as we’ve been using it in the fire service doesn’t specifically reference any single type of apartment building in terms of its architectural design. Rather, it’s more about the setting or the arrangement of the groups of buildings in and around the green spaces making up the complex. Due to how loosely we apply this term to buildings, I think it warrants a closer look at specifically what types of buildings are frequently constructed in these garden apartment complexes. Learning these building types and quickly identifying them will give you a tremendous advantage during your size-up and tactical decision making.
The buildings found in contemporary garden apartment complexes can vary somewhat but usually tend to be one of three types: the balcony type, center hall, and sidewall entry structures. Among the sidewall entry and balcony buildings, you’ll find buildings that are a single apartment unit deep while others are in a back-to-back configuration. Stairwells and roof types will vary largely, depending on the era of construction and the type of building. Standard and stacked townhouses may also be found in these garden-type complexes.
Stairwells
Stairwells are always a critical area of any building to understand and protect from a tactical point of view. The two most common types found in these garden complexes are return stairs and straight run stairs. Return stair systems make up the vast majority, as they are a very efficient use of space in terms of construction design and getting people in and out of living areas. They make a full 180° return with half landings. Generally, you would access a unit to your right and left at each floor. Alternatively, a straight run staircase will go straight up a full flight and then require you to turn back down some type of hallway space to get to the base of the next flight located directly overhead and repeat. In this case, you will typically have access to two units at the bottom of the stairs and two at the top.
When you approach a building and the first floor is half below grade or garden level, you can bet on a return stairwell since you will be entering the structure on the half landing. If you enter a building directly onto the first floor at grade level, you may not know what stairwell type you have until you get into the building. This information might be critical enough to announce on the radio, especially if youneed to put two engine companies together to cover all four of the line positions (nozzle, backup, door, and control).
You will have a much longer line lead out on a straight run stair vs. a return stair. The line positions will become more spread out and you won’t be able to communicate as effectively since you won’t be able to see each other at times, much less hear each other, even without considering smoke conditions. If you’re only advancing to the second floor, a straight run isn’t that big of a challenge. If you need to go to the third floor, it will involve a 180° turn at the top, some type of hallway stretch on the second floor, and another 180° turn to advance up and into the next flight. That’s where things start getting more difficult and something so simple as a stairwell configuration begins to run the entire operation off the rails. Firefighters frequently underestimate this and stretch short, don’t put enough firefighters on the hose stretch, or don’t appreciate how much more difficult this will be. This usually results in the backup person having to scramble up and down stairs to get more line into the building and around all the corners.
If you’re in the habit of trying to force preconnected lines for this type of situation, you’re really setting yourself up for disaster. There are very limited circumstances where a preconnected line will work. You’d need to be able to clearly see it was a scenario where you had very little setback and access to the unit right inside an entry door. This would be more of a convenient fluke. Otherwise, these types of buildings have far too many variables such as long setbacks, the stairwell or hallway stretch, and then finally enough line to cover the apartment unit itself. The standard approach should be to manufacture the line after deliberately estimating your stretch on the size-up and then dry stretch and use bundle drop points as much as the conditions andbuilding features allow as you build the line. Remember, it must be tenable to dry stretch. This takes practice and you’ll have to commit to investing the time to develop and refine your technique.
Most fire departments will use some type of 1¾-inch pack for the attack section and then make up the back stretch with 2½- or three-inch lines. Whether you advance the lead attack section from a 2½-inch with a breakaway nozzle or a three-inch with a wye, pick a method for how you and your crew will handle these situations. There are many ways to make these hose stretches. It’s important to commit to a well-rehearsed method and load it into your “playbook.”
It is critical to ventilate the stairwell. Most often, you’ll have some windows available in the landings of a return stairwell or at each floor in a straight run. Be sure to open them up before you commit to the fire attack by opening doors into a common hallway or into the unit itself. Give the smoke and heat somewhere to go. This is part of protecting the stairwell and making it tenable for egress for yourself as well as occupants trying to exit the building.
I nearly killed some occupants at a three-story center hall apartment fire by not getting the stairwell windows vented before we opened the fire door on a first- floor hallway to advance the attack line. By not permitting a vent, I filled up the stairwell, making it untenable for occupants still attempting to flee. Until people were jumping over us and frantically trying to get out of the stairwell as we advanced the attack line inside, I didn’t realize how bad I had just made the conditions for them by not making sure that smoke had somewhere to go prior to opening that hallway door. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, and I never made that mistake again.
There are occasions where there aren’t windows or it’s difficult to vent due to plexiglass or glass block, so be mindful of how your actions affect the integrity of the stairwell. Check for occupants attempting to flee and get them out first if possible. It’s the same type of problem that we’ve encountered with high-rise fires and filling the stairwell that has resulted in most departments clearing a certain number of floors in the stairwell above before opening the door to the fire floor.
Determine whether the apartment building has a back-to-back configuration or is just one unit deep. It’s very common to have units feeding into entry points on both the front and the back of the same building in these complexes. There will usually be a noticeable, symmetrical pattern repeat of windows on the sidewall, suggesting a back-to-back arrangement. If the units are full depth, you’ll usually see an asymmetrical window pattern. Look for this on your initial size-up. If that’s how the building is configured, determine if it is fully separated by a party wall back- to-back or if there are internal passages or doors connecting the two halves. You will find this in the stairwell and it’s essential that you know and share this information.
If you enter the structure into a return stairwell and you see nothing but a wall in front of you in the stairwell landing, then you immediately know it’s fully divided. Make note of that and announce it on the radio. However, if you walk into the stairwell and you can see a door or passage at each level that connects to the back half stairwell, this will change your tactics. Make note of that too and understand that this information is critical for others to know.
I’ve been on fires where this was the case and not made clear over the radio, and we realized later that half the firefighters at the scene didn’t realize the building was completely split in half (or not) and that they would have changed tactics such as where they threw ladders or which areas they searched first had they known. Command officers at the scene need to know if a back-to-back type building is fully separated or if it has interior passageways. For example, if you have a three-story back-to-back sidewall entry apartment building with a fire in a third- floor unit and it’s completely split in half by a party wall, you’re basically looking at two different buildings. In this case, all laddering, ventilation, and search have to take place on the same side as the stairwell entrance. Attack lines, egress, search, and rapid intervention teams (RIT) will be coming and going from the same stairwell. If you intend to throw ladders to the third floor for egress, it must be on this half of the building only, which limits you to the fire apartment and the next unit across the return stair landing entrance.
If you throw ladders to the back of the building on the third floor, they won’t be accessible to anyone inside the fire building unless members breach walls to get to them. The same goes for ventilation or search. All your efforts will be limited to that half unless the fire spreads to the other half through a plumbing wall, roof, or soffit.
If you’ve determined that the building has passages that connect the two halves of the interior, that changes everything. Now the entire structure is in play, and ladders thrown to the third-floor windows in the back half would be useful and could be accessed from the interior of the building for egress. This changes how the fire and smoke spread, how you prioritize which areas get searched first, RIT access, egress, etc.
Center Hall
These types of buildings will generally be long, rectangular structures and up to three stories. L- and U-shaped buildings can also be found with additional stairwells. Some will have the first floor half below grade, especially the older buildings. Newer ones tend to be built at grade on a slab or over a crawl space. The staircases are located at each end of the building on what will be the short walls of its rectangular footprint. Sometimes the stairwell will protrude from the footprint of the structure on each end and sometimes it will be found within it.
Return stairs are the most common but occasionally you’ll find a straight run stairwell. Most stairwells will have at least one window, and often there will be one in each landing directly above the entrance to the stairwell. These windows will be critical to ventilate once you choose which stairwell to use for attack. Rated fire doors will separate the stairwells from the common hallway, but don’t expect them to always be closed, as occupants frequently chock them open in the summer.
This central hall stretches between the two stairwells. Rooms will be located to your right and left, like a typical hotel. If you have a mix of different size units, anticipate the smallest units to be in the middle and the largest ones on the ends.
Sidewall Entry Buildings
These are probably the most common type of structure in garden apartment complexes. They are very similar to the historic four or six flats except that multiple sets are connected, creating longer buildings, and they can also be fed back-to-back. They can vary greatly in size and are most commonly rectangular in shape but can be found in L- and U-shaped structures. Some are very long structures with repeated sets of entrances along the sidewalls. These entrances lead to the common stairwell area.
Return stairs are most frequently used. You will typically have access to two units per floor: A three-story building will have a return stair system entry area that provides access to six units. Then the pattern will repeat for the next stairwell entrance as you look farther down the length of the building in those structures that have multiple sets.
Pay attention to whether it’s back- to-back with another set. If so, determine if the stairwells interconnect inside the structure via doors or passageways. Frequently, you’ll encounter a garden level or a first floor half below grade as you are entering the landing level when you come into the stairwell entrance. This is especially common in older buildings. Some of these types of buildings will have exterior staircases instead of stairs enclosed within the structure, but the concept and pattern will be the same.
Balcony Type
These buildings have all units accessible from an open balcony with a stairwell on each end, similar to center hall buildings. Straight run stairs are common on two- story versions and return stairs are the most common on three-story. These can be exceptionally long structures with intermediate staircases if they exceed the maximum distance from the stairwells on the ends. Hose stretches can be extreme in some of the larger examples. These range from rectangular buildings to L- or U-shaped buildings. Most will be a single apartment deep with bedroom windows on the back wall. Occasionally, they’ll be in a back-to-back configuration, which will create a shallower and wider unit because any bedrooms will need to be on the front wall to provide the required window.
Fortunately, you can usually dry stretch virtually everything. If you choose to drop a line over a railing to eliminate some length and the stairwell, be sure to address the kink you’ll get at the top of the railing. Most people disregard this. It might not seem to be a problem when you initially bleed the line, but it can have a significant impact when you’re trying to sustain flow. Use webbing to support the line and adjust to remove the kink. If it’s not going over an exposed railing but rather a short wall, you’d have to punch a hole to be able to tie to, which presents extra challenges.
All apartment buildings and multifamily structures share plumbing walls back- to-back and stacked vertically as much as possible. Homes are built this way too, but it’s more pronounced in multifamily structures. This helps anticipate floor plans and extension paths.
Also remember that all bedrooms are required by code to have a window, which means they are always located on outside walls. Half to two-thirds of the windows you see on any apartment building belong to a bedroom.
Recognizing the party wall separations between units is essential. This is how you will determine how the building is divided up into units and which entry points lead to which windows or spaces. Once you understand the common types of buildings, you will begin to make sense of the pattern of windows and the repeat in that pattern.
Use the thermal imaging camera (TIC) to do a quick scan of each side of the building as you walk around it during size-up. Doing this regularly can help you locate specifically which unit you need to get to while scanning from the exterior.
For example, let’s say I was looking down the side of a long center hall building and have determined that every two windows I see represent an individual one-bedroom apartment. If I see the heat signature on thefourth window down the right or D sidewall, I know that I’m heading to the second apartment door on my right as I move down that hallway. This dramatically improves your situational awareness as you’re stretching down a hallway with limited visibility. You’re far less likely to move past a fire or enter the wrong unit.
Roofs
Roofs can be a variety of styles and types, such as gabled, hipped, and flat. Pay attention to gutters and downspouts. Even when you can’t see the entire roof due to darkness, trees, smoke conditions, or looking up from the ground, you’ll at least be able to see how it sheds water and anticipate what’s up there.
Another type of roof situation you need to be prepared for is a “rain roof.” This is a secondary roof structure built over the original. It is prevalent in older apartment buildings that were originally constructed with a flat roof. Flat roofs are expensive and a challenge to maintain. It’s very common to construct a hipped, gabled, or shallow-pitched “flat” roof over the original, thus solving water leakage and maintenance problems. There are frequently telltale indicators. Note whether the roof system seems to be of a much newer era than the original structure and if it looks like the two went together in the first place. Knowing what the building roof should look like helps you notice a rain roof or at least suspect one. A dead giveaway ischanges in downspouts and guttering. It’s not uncommon for some evidence to have been left behind indicating that water previously shed differently than how it does now. If you notice or suspect that there’s a rain roof, announce it on the radio. This basically rules out any meaningful vertical ventilation and you’re better off not wasting resources and time and settling for horizontal ventilation instead.
Command and company officers need to understand how these roof structures impact tactics and adjust as needed. Use the TIC to scan the building not just for anticipating a rain roof but for cutting the ventilation hole on a conventional roof. If you haven’t tried using a TIC to lay out your cuts, try it. You can often accurately mark the locations of rafters and trusses, locate fire walls, etc. Obviously, each rafter or truss will show up as a black line contrasted to the heat signature on the sheathing in between. The officer or firefighter using the TIC can mark the locations with a tool edge and the firefighter can come right behind and start making the cuts and open up the exact amount of truss spaces you need.
Go out into your response areas and take a closer look at your garden apartment complexes. Try to identify the specific types of buildings and run through some tactical scenarios with your crew. Pay attention to the stairwells, compartmen- talization by party walls, and how each impacts your decision making. Practice dry stretching lines whenever you can. Take a few pictures of the buildings in the complex and jot down a few notes. Over time, you’ll be able to build on the information and have a personal flipbook on many of these complexes.
JEFF LATTZ is a 30-plus-year member of the fire service who retired as a lieutenant from the Champaign (IL) Fire Department. He worked for the Illinois Fire Service Institute for 25 years, designing and constructing many burn structures, props, and training simulators as well as teaching programs including recruit academy, smoke divers, engine, truck, and tactics. He has also worked extensively in construction. His primary focus in the fire service has been building construction, and he regularly teaches his “Building Comprehension for the Fire Service” classes.
